Tracy McCabe Stewart - Contemporary Fiber

I am headed out for a 10 day trip to Japan this Wednesday.  My daughter has been finishing her last year of university in Kobe and staying with a host family there.  she has a minor in Asian studies. 

Big in Japan is a fun song from the 80’s by Alphaville.  It’s one of the worst music videos ever; complete with Robin Hood sort of outfits that don’t really have much to do with Japan, as far as I can see.  See it here.   We hum it around here because I am 6’2″ and going to the land of 5′ people.  I’m guessing I won’t exactly blend in. 

Right now, I am trying to get gifts together for Ashley’s host  family.  The Japanese have a somewhat complicated ritual of gift giving.  Here’s what I know:  gifts from/related to your geographical location are appreciated.  The presentation is really important, too.  I will wrap my presents in hand dyed fabric to try to make them extra special.  

I am from Chicago, so I am bringing them a book on Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.  I am also making a hand dyed scarf for my daughter’s host mother.   Apparently she wears very plain, dark clothing, so I am trying to do something pretty subdued.  I started by dyeing silk scarves blue grey and screened them with vat dye solution.  Here are the results form the vat dyeing.  They will probably get a layer of fabric paint before they are complete. 

Here’s a picture.  I am having a hard time getting the colors true because the silk is so reflective.  I barely got any haloing on these-too bad.  She wants plain, so I won’t add another design layer, but may screen some paint to make the effect more monochromatic.  

Hand Dyed Scarves by Tracy McCabe Stewart

Here’s the final piece of that reddish egret I’ve been working on:

Reddish Egret (C) 2010 by Tracy McCabe Stewart

“Reddish Egret”

(C)2010 by Tracy McCabe Stewart

Hand dyed silks and cottons, Shiva paintsticks, colored pencil.  Fused, machine quilted.

We are off to Cedarburg, WI for a weekend with our neighbors and to see the fabulous musician, Marcia Ball.  I already have another wading bird piece in the planning stages to begin when I return.

Have a great weekend!

Tracy

Progress on Reddish Egret Piece by Tracy McCabe Stewart

The feathers are all hand dyed fabric, the beak commercial cottons.  On to the body next!

I know I said I would post pictures of my last heron piece, but I don’t like the feet on one of them.  The scale is wrong.  Pictures will have to wait until I fix them.  In the meantime, I am starting a new piece of a preening red egret. 

I am concentrating on wading birds: herons, cranes and egrets for the whole of 2010.  Here’s the next one which is much smaller than the last one!

I decide on the basic positioning of the bird from a photo.  I used the picture as a reference to make sure I have proportions, general outline, and orientation of body parts correct, but pretty much wing it from there.  I usually don’t even make the same kind of bird.  I then freehand draw feather directions,  eye placement, etc.  Here’s my general drawing for this piece.  I think the head is a bit bulbous and the beak is too wide, but I can change the dimensions as I add the feathers:

(very) rough drawing for egret piece

Since I fuse my compositions, rather than piece, I make my general drawing of the bird directly on to batting.  From here I cut and iron on all of the hundreds of individual feathers directly on the batting. 

Here are the basic colors of the bird.  I hand dyed gradations of the colors and will further enhance colors with paintsticks or fabric paint later in the process.  Reddish egrets are a steel blue and rust color with a grey-black beak.  If I follow a triadic color scheme, my background will be a yellow-green or green or red.  None of those sound appealing to me.  I’ll audition fabrics when the bird is done.

hand dyed fabrics for egret piece

More to come as I progress the piece.

I am reducing prices on my work for the remainder of 2009-Read more here

I am featuring a piece of my work every day or so through the end of the year.  Here’s today’s piece:

"Crane Series I" 2008 by Tracy McCabe Stewart

“Crane Series I”

2008

By Tracy McCabe Stewart

20″x20″

Hand dyed and commercial cottons, digitally created fabric.  Machine quilted.

2010 price: $600

2009 price: $450

Rust Dyeing

Last week  my work group, the Free Motions went up to Nina’s to do some rust dyeing.  Participants included Shelley Brucar, Nina Edelman, Leah Rosenthal, Cathy Mendola and myself  They needed to cure for a week to give the rust time to transfer to the fabric.  Here’s the results:

Rust dyed fabric

Nina had some fabulous rusty shapes to play with.  I’ll probably over dye them.  too much white for me.

Here’s another:

More rust dyeing on cotton

the rust transfer is nudged along by adding salt or vinegar to the fabric and keeping it wet.  I used both on these.  Lots of direct transfer, but not much bleed to the rest of the fabric.

More cotton:

Rust dyed cotton

and finally, some cotton velvet:

Rust dye on cotton velvet

I have finished all of the feathers on my new herons and started shading and stitching.  Here’s how the head is going so far.  It will need more shading to make it look 3 dimensional and the eye needs some work, but in general, it’s good progress.  I’ve used some Shiva Paintsticks and colored pencils all over to get some dimension and iridescence.  I’ll post more as the stitching progresses.

"Herons II" (c) 2009 Tracy McCabe Stewart-In Progress

"Bark Series III" (c) 2008 by Tracy McCabe Stewart

"Bark Series IV" (c) 2008 by Tracy McCabe Stewart

Bark Series III and IV

(C) 2008 by Tracy McCabe Stewart

Hand dyed and commercial cottons, seed pods.  Machine quilted.

each 20″x20″

2010 price:  $600 each

2009 price:  $450 each

email me if you have questions or want higher resolution photos

I am reducing prices on my work for the remainder of 2009-Read more here

I am featuring a piece of my work every day or so through the end of the year.  Here’s today’s piece:

"Canyon" (c) 2006 by Tracy McCabe Stewart

“Canyon”

2006

By Tracy McCabe Stewart

12″x12″

2010 price: $220

2009 Price: $160

Hand dyed silks and cottons, painted tree bark, ammonite.

Machine quilted and stretched over canvas

Email me with any questions or higher resolution photos

I am reducing prices on my work for the remainder of 2009-Read more here

I am featuring a piece of my work every day or so through the end of the year.  Here’s today’s piece:

"Antlers II" (c) 2008 by Tracy McCabe Stewart

“Antlers II”

2008

By Tracy McCabe Stewart

33”lx24”w

Hand dyed, painted and commercial cottons. Machine quilted.

2010 price: $1200

2009 price: $890

I have also been working away at a new heron piece.  Here are some pictures of the process:

I start by having an outline of the shapes of the birds cut out in batting.  I then fuse on a base fabric, in this case black and start cutting and fusing on individual feathers.  I build them up in layers.  Here I am using a hand dyed fabric of mine.  Here are the larger tailfeathers.

larger feathers are fused on individually

From there I cut out individual stringier breeding plumage and add those individually:

individual feathers for breeding plumage

Here’s the whole bird.  I have yet to add legs, eyes and beak color.  I will be shading with colored pencils and paintsticks to add depth, as well.  I’ll post more as I go:

Topographical Series III (c) 2006 by Tracy McCabe Stewart

2006

31 1/2″w x 40″l

This piece was designed from an enlargement of a  photo I took of a fissure in a granite boulder.  The photo was taken during a hike up Cadillac Mountain in Maine.  

 Hand dyed and commercial cottons.  Machine quilted.

2010 price: $1890-

2009 price: $1525- 

This piece was included in

“Hand Woven, Hand Dyed: Fiber in the Spirit of the Silk Road ”

Email me for more information or higher resolution photos.