Citrus medley
Mixed berries
Strawberries
Lemons
Showing posts with label Nectar Desserts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nectar Desserts. Show all posts
October 21, 2009
CALYX Fine Art Sale
The bigger 2D wall pieces that I had at Calyx were in the fruit theme that showed at Nectar Desserts in the summer of 2008.
Citrus medley
Mixed berries
Strawberries
Lemons
Citrus medley
Mixed berries
Strawberries
Lemons
July 31, 2009
New show hanging at Nectar Desserts
Nancy Dormer and I spent Friday morning hanging our second show together at the funky little dessert bar Nectar in historical Inglewood just east of downtown Calgary. It looks great (of course!) and very colourful.
Called "Seemingly Simple" the description goes as so... "Does everything need to be complicated? Fruit is one of the basics of a healthy life. The design of a kimono appears uncomplicated and pleasing to the eye. Travelling to far off lands can be summed up in one memorable image. A complicated architectural design is compiled of many uncomplicated segments."
Nancy will be displaying her wonderful acrylic and mixed media artwork using techniques she has been experimenting with over the last year (and building on over the last few decades!) Using hand carved stamps, hand painted papers and original drawings her pieces are colourful and appealing. Her titles Caw, Sasha, Be, Soar, Fly, Play, the Mod Ladies, and Brown Crow look forward to your visit.
I have incorporated into my art pieces embroidery on paper, darning with yarns, hand dyed fabrics, embossed metal, and much more. With titles like Castles in the Rockies, The Cedar Remains, Buried Treasure, Standing Stones of Scotland, Stone Age Art of Sweden, and Silver Fern of New Zealand, they cover a large range of subjects and a huge variety of techniques.
Sunfest, Inglewood's annual street festival, will occur on Saturday August 1st, and will feature 3 full blocks of happenings - a good day to explore the area. Nectar is closed Sunday and Monday for the Heritage Day holiday but reopens Monday to Thursday from 3 to 11 pm, Friday and Saturdays from 10 am to midnight, and Sundays 10 am to 5 pm.
Nancy and I will also be hosting an artist reception on Wednesday, August 19th - more about that later.
August 13, 2008
How To... FRUIT DES BOIS
"Fruits of the Woods" or berries in the wild. I wanted to convey the juiciness of any and all red berries, whether strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, red currents, or what have you. I did this piece first and loved it so much that I continued the process and created the grapefruit and oranges piece.
I started with a piece of solid red velvet, and using my trusty colour wheel picked threads to enrich and enhance. But first I added more layers of colour to the fabric with the Deka Iron On Transfer Paints, darkening some areas and lightening others.
Then the stitching. This piece is much larger that the citrus one, over twice its size. Again, over 20 hours of stitching were involved in its completion.
Detail of stitching and colour blending...
The final piece mounted on a richly painted canvas and again wrapped around to the back so that the sides emphasize the softness, roundness, plumpness and berriness.
Again, I love these velvet pieces!! They are crying out for touch...
I started with a piece of solid red velvet, and using my trusty colour wheel picked threads to enrich and enhance. But first I added more layers of colour to the fabric with the Deka Iron On Transfer Paints, darkening some areas and lightening others.
Then the stitching. This piece is much larger that the citrus one, over twice its size. Again, over 20 hours of stitching were involved in its completion.
Detail of stitching and colour blending...
The final piece mounted on a richly painted canvas and again wrapped around to the back so that the sides emphasize the softness, roundness, plumpness and berriness.
Again, I love these velvet pieces!! They are crying out for touch...
August 12, 2008
How To... PAMPLEMOUSSE ET AMIS
"Grapefruit and friends" - the working title for this piece was originally "Citrus" as it includes oranges, lemons, blood oranges and grapefruit but I do love the French version of it above.
Starting with a multi-coloured piece of velvet in pale pinks and oranges, I added even more layers of depth by using DEKA Iron On Heat Transfer Paints over top. These are powders that you reconstitute and paint onto paper, then iron onto synthetic fabrics - one of the few ways of adding colour to synthetics.
I deepened the colour by adding yellows and reds. I then picked out a variety of machine embroidery threads with which I would add the stitched details.
I added the outlines of the fruit, adding layers of colours for the outer skins and for the pith interiors.
Then outlines of leaves were added between the fruits and the majority of the stitching started, filling in all of the exterior spaces with nine different shades of blues, all overstitched to blend the colours and build the richness...
One hour of sitting at a sewing machine without a break staring and concentrating on a surface 12" from your nose is very intense. This piece took over 20 hours of stitching and is just sooo wonderfully tactile - you just have to touch the softness of the velvet versus the stiffness of the dense layers of machine stitching.
I was at a quandry thinking of how to finish it. I wanted it to be touched to be appreciated. I was thinking that a cuff would be wonderful - worn against your skin and yet seen from different angles to see how the velvet puffs out from the dense stitches. Nancy Dormer and I were brainstorming and I happened to notice an empty canvas she had laying on the ground. When I picked it up it clicked - I could wrap the piece around it and still have all the benefits that a cuff would have. An edge to view it around; the softness and dimension of the velvet still available for the touch; and yet a vehicle that could be mounted on the wall or left freestanding on a shelf. It was the perfect solution!
I did two pieces using this same technique and absolutely love them both. They are the richest in colours and lushness; and are both so tactile that they scream out "touch me! touch me!"
Starting with a multi-coloured piece of velvet in pale pinks and oranges, I added even more layers of depth by using DEKA Iron On Heat Transfer Paints over top. These are powders that you reconstitute and paint onto paper, then iron onto synthetic fabrics - one of the few ways of adding colour to synthetics.
I deepened the colour by adding yellows and reds. I then picked out a variety of machine embroidery threads with which I would add the stitched details.
I added the outlines of the fruit, adding layers of colours for the outer skins and for the pith interiors.
Then outlines of leaves were added between the fruits and the majority of the stitching started, filling in all of the exterior spaces with nine different shades of blues, all overstitched to blend the colours and build the richness...
One hour of sitting at a sewing machine without a break staring and concentrating on a surface 12" from your nose is very intense. This piece took over 20 hours of stitching and is just sooo wonderfully tactile - you just have to touch the softness of the velvet versus the stiffness of the dense layers of machine stitching.
I was at a quandry thinking of how to finish it. I wanted it to be touched to be appreciated. I was thinking that a cuff would be wonderful - worn against your skin and yet seen from different angles to see how the velvet puffs out from the dense stitches. Nancy Dormer and I were brainstorming and I happened to notice an empty canvas she had laying on the ground. When I picked it up it clicked - I could wrap the piece around it and still have all the benefits that a cuff would have. An edge to view it around; the softness and dimension of the velvet still available for the touch; and yet a vehicle that could be mounted on the wall or left freestanding on a shelf. It was the perfect solution!
I did two pieces using this same technique and absolutely love them both. They are the richest in colours and lushness; and are both so tactile that they scream out "touch me! touch me!"
August 11, 2008
How To... MYRTILLE
Blueberries!
This piece was inspired by a photograph, blown up of blueberries - but for something different, I used metal to make them out of!
I started by making a background to mount the piece onto. Using a multi-layered base of Pelmet Vilene + upholstery fabric + painted Wonder Under + fused and melted chiffon scarves, I free machine embroidered across the entire surface in a controlled pattern.
I then fused on some Metallic Foils in two shades of blues and a purple, which came out really bright so I heated them with a craft heat gun to dampen their effect. Then, onto the metal.
Using ArtEmboss Colored Foil in green (a 3-mil aluminum sheet that is soft enough to emboss into) I traced the blueberries from the photograph and added textural details. I then heated the metal with a miniature blow torch to change the colour of it from green to blue. It was then painted with a black acrylic and when partially dried, rubbed to remove most of the colour but keeping enough to highlight the detailing. Working quickly while the paint was still damp, I sprinkled embossing powders to be embed into itself. Heating these with a heat gun added more layers to the colours.
The metal was then free machine stitched onto a piece of acrylic felt and cut out. Here is a detail:
Looking through my yarns to add a little more colour, I found this one that I wrapped around black pipe cleaners and then machine stitched as an outer border onto the background piece.
Then it was layout and adding 'interest' pieces.
Going through my various stashes, I found a piece of mesh that had been dipped into a paper slurry with the paper drying onto the crossbars. This brilliant magenta matched the border yarns so perfectly that I had to use it!
I made some fabric beads out of hand dyed cotton bits and stitched felt that had been zapped by a heat gun; and a small tile made out of Friendly Plastic.
When I stitched the metal down onto the background I formed it into a 3D shape by stuffing it with quilt batting - this gave some dimension to the piece.
Here is the final creation before it was framed in a simple black frame on a white matte board. I am pleased with the end product and how it all ties together.
This piece was inspired by a photograph, blown up of blueberries - but for something different, I used metal to make them out of!
I started by making a background to mount the piece onto. Using a multi-layered base of Pelmet Vilene + upholstery fabric + painted Wonder Under + fused and melted chiffon scarves, I free machine embroidered across the entire surface in a controlled pattern.
I then fused on some Metallic Foils in two shades of blues and a purple, which came out really bright so I heated them with a craft heat gun to dampen their effect. Then, onto the metal.
Using ArtEmboss Colored Foil in green (a 3-mil aluminum sheet that is soft enough to emboss into) I traced the blueberries from the photograph and added textural details. I then heated the metal with a miniature blow torch to change the colour of it from green to blue. It was then painted with a black acrylic and when partially dried, rubbed to remove most of the colour but keeping enough to highlight the detailing. Working quickly while the paint was still damp, I sprinkled embossing powders to be embed into itself. Heating these with a heat gun added more layers to the colours.
The metal was then free machine stitched onto a piece of acrylic felt and cut out. Here is a detail:
Looking through my yarns to add a little more colour, I found this one that I wrapped around black pipe cleaners and then machine stitched as an outer border onto the background piece.
Then it was layout and adding 'interest' pieces.
Going through my various stashes, I found a piece of mesh that had been dipped into a paper slurry with the paper drying onto the crossbars. This brilliant magenta matched the border yarns so perfectly that I had to use it!
I made some fabric beads out of hand dyed cotton bits and stitched felt that had been zapped by a heat gun; and a small tile made out of Friendly Plastic.
When I stitched the metal down onto the background I formed it into a 3D shape by stuffing it with quilt batting - this gave some dimension to the piece.
Here is the final creation before it was framed in a simple black frame on a white matte board. I am pleased with the end product and how it all ties together.
August 10, 2008
How To... POMMES ET POMEGRANATES
First off - hello to Tracy, Linda and Suzanne for joining in subscribing - glad to have your company!
Secondly - I have been a little behind in posts as I am enjoying my first free time all summer and the fact that our cabin (that was flooded with 9 feet of water in the floods of 2005 and has slowly been repaired by my husband, working alone) is now ready for human occupation - hooray! The past two weekends have been spent out there golfing and continuing with the small repairs, like cleaning out the eaves which turns into removing and replacing them (you know, small stuff like that!)
And thirdly - I am going to be discussing the pieces I made for the Nectar exhibit now hanging in Inglewood in Calgary and should explain that all of their titles are in French in honour of executive chef and owner Rebekah Pearse's pastry training in France.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
So, onto piece #1. Entitled Pommes et Pomegranates (Apples and Pomegranates) this piece started as a white piece of cotton.
The first step was dyeing the background. As I don't have enough space in my studio (that is, basement rooms that I am ever expanding through) for wet work, Lesley Turner and I get together every summer in her garage. Throughout the year we gather white materials in cotton, silk, wools and synthetics and then, play. When we have a lot of natural fabrics, we like to follow Ann Johnston's book Color By Accident and work through her different techniques using Procion MX dyes and low immersion dyeing. We fill big buckets with a mix of fabric types and I especially love the 'colour parfait' method that gives a different colour for each level while in the end all levels correspond together. This piece ended up salmon colour on one end working through to a magenta on the other.
The next step was when I took a Discharge class at Alberta College of Art and Design this spring. With instructor Tara Griffiths, I learnt about Vat Dye Discharge for the very first time - it was like magic! You put an image on and the process removes the colour of the original cloth and dyes it a new colour at the same time - wow, how cool is that!?! So I designed and burnt a silk screen (again, for the very first time) and printed on a lot of different fabrics. Here is what this one turned out like - I spread dyed discharge paste ranging from deep purple through lemon yellow (that turned a green in the center where they touched) along the top of the screen and printed away. The piece was then processed by steaming (the white marks are where the water droplets dripped onto the cloth in the steam bath - could be considered an oops, but to me it is just another layer of interest!)
Then onto the sewing machine for some quilting (which in its pure meaning is simply stitching two or more layers of fabric together.) The method I choose for this piece is called Italian Quilting, whereby parallel rows of stitching are added, and then stuffed with wool to get a padded surface. This picture doesn't show how textural this piece is but gives an impression...
The next step was edging. I decided to use silk flower petals but as the colours weren't exactly correct, I spent a day dyeing them to match.
I then overlapped them along the edge and attached them to the woolen strands that overhung with my Embellisher machine. (Aside: I love my newest toy, a sewing machine with no needles to thread! Instead there are five barbed needles that mesh fabrics together to create a new surface. Its common name is an Embellisher, but that is actually the Babylock brand name. My machine is actually by Janome and called Xpression. Check link for details.)
After the two sides were completed I added a flange to the top and bottom in a complementary fabric and colour; painted a canvas to mount it on in a deeper shade of orange; and attached the two together.
I was really happy with how the colours blended and how the side edging added to the overall piece for design interest, and thought the entire piece was cohesive. If you're in town, check out Nectar to see it in person!
Secondly - I have been a little behind in posts as I am enjoying my first free time all summer and the fact that our cabin (that was flooded with 9 feet of water in the floods of 2005 and has slowly been repaired by my husband, working alone) is now ready for human occupation - hooray! The past two weekends have been spent out there golfing and continuing with the small repairs, like cleaning out the eaves which turns into removing and replacing them (you know, small stuff like that!)
And thirdly - I am going to be discussing the pieces I made for the Nectar exhibit now hanging in Inglewood in Calgary and should explain that all of their titles are in French in honour of executive chef and owner Rebekah Pearse's pastry training in France.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
So, onto piece #1. Entitled Pommes et Pomegranates (Apples and Pomegranates) this piece started as a white piece of cotton.
The first step was dyeing the background. As I don't have enough space in my studio (that is, basement rooms that I am ever expanding through) for wet work, Lesley Turner and I get together every summer in her garage. Throughout the year we gather white materials in cotton, silk, wools and synthetics and then, play. When we have a lot of natural fabrics, we like to follow Ann Johnston's book Color By Accident and work through her different techniques using Procion MX dyes and low immersion dyeing. We fill big buckets with a mix of fabric types and I especially love the 'colour parfait' method that gives a different colour for each level while in the end all levels correspond together. This piece ended up salmon colour on one end working through to a magenta on the other.
The next step was when I took a Discharge class at Alberta College of Art and Design this spring. With instructor Tara Griffiths, I learnt about Vat Dye Discharge for the very first time - it was like magic! You put an image on and the process removes the colour of the original cloth and dyes it a new colour at the same time - wow, how cool is that!?! So I designed and burnt a silk screen (again, for the very first time) and printed on a lot of different fabrics. Here is what this one turned out like - I spread dyed discharge paste ranging from deep purple through lemon yellow (that turned a green in the center where they touched) along the top of the screen and printed away. The piece was then processed by steaming (the white marks are where the water droplets dripped onto the cloth in the steam bath - could be considered an oops, but to me it is just another layer of interest!)
Then onto the sewing machine for some quilting (which in its pure meaning is simply stitching two or more layers of fabric together.) The method I choose for this piece is called Italian Quilting, whereby parallel rows of stitching are added, and then stuffed with wool to get a padded surface. This picture doesn't show how textural this piece is but gives an impression...
The next step was edging. I decided to use silk flower petals but as the colours weren't exactly correct, I spent a day dyeing them to match.
I then overlapped them along the edge and attached them to the woolen strands that overhung with my Embellisher machine. (Aside: I love my newest toy, a sewing machine with no needles to thread! Instead there are five barbed needles that mesh fabrics together to create a new surface. Its common name is an Embellisher, but that is actually the Babylock brand name. My machine is actually by Janome and called Xpression. Check link for details.)
After the two sides were completed I added a flange to the top and bottom in a complementary fabric and colour; painted a canvas to mount it on in a deeper shade of orange; and attached the two together.
I was really happy with how the colours blended and how the side edging added to the overall piece for design interest, and thought the entire piece was cohesive. If you're in town, check out Nectar to see it in person!
August 01, 2008
"The Fruits of Summer"
Whew! Another show comes into fruitation (ha ha, fruitation, get it?)
Nancy Dormer, Lesley Turner, her husband and I spent the morning yesterday in Nectar Desserts, hanging our show that will be open this summer over the next two long weekends (August and September). As usual it looks great - and especially with the addition of Nancy's paintings amoung our textile creations.
The title "fruits of summer" is wide enough to cover our theme of fruits and flowers that bloom and bear fruit over the summer. I will be posting photos and details of my pieces one by one over the next week. Here is a sneak peak into the loft gallery... (Check right hand panel for Nectar's location and hours.)
Nancy Dormer, Lesley Turner, her husband and I spent the morning yesterday in Nectar Desserts, hanging our show that will be open this summer over the next two long weekends (August and September). As usual it looks great - and especially with the addition of Nancy's paintings amoung our textile creations.
The title "fruits of summer" is wide enough to cover our theme of fruits and flowers that bloom and bear fruit over the summer. I will be posting photos and details of my pieces one by one over the next week. Here is a sneak peak into the loft gallery... (Check right hand panel for Nectar's location and hours.)
July 20, 2008
Berries, berries everywhere!
Here is another piece, one that I have been very happy with. I was trying to convey the richness and juiciness of a generic berry and by using a hand dyed velvet as the background, I have densely stitched with my sewing machine to make the shapes pop out of the velvet. I used over ten different colours and thickness of threads for the background and the colour blending was very successful. The piece is very textural and lush with its depth of colours.
This first photo is the starting point with the background showing the synthetic velvet which has been dyed using iron-on DEKA paints; the colour wheel which helped decide upon the range of analogous colours to be pulled out; and the selection of threads to be used in hand and machine stitching.
This first photo is the starting point with the background showing the synthetic velvet which has been dyed using iron-on DEKA paints; the colour wheel which helped decide upon the range of analogous colours to be pulled out; and the selection of threads to be used in hand and machine stitching.
July 16, 2008
Fruits...
So what have I been working on all summer?
Here are shots of some of my pieces (still in progress - I like to work on many pieces at once so that each gets a chance to hang and be looked at before deciding when enough is enough.)
First are the lemons that I showed you a picture of a couple of days ago. This is a shot of all the fabrics and threads I gather at the start of the process. If you look carefully, you can also see a blown up photograph of a lemon slice used for inspiration hiding under the threads.
Here are shots of some of my pieces (still in progress - I like to work on many pieces at once so that each gets a chance to hang and be looked at before deciding when enough is enough.)
First are the lemons that I showed you a picture of a couple of days ago. This is a shot of all the fabrics and threads I gather at the start of the process. If you look carefully, you can also see a blown up photograph of a lemon slice used for inspiration hiding under the threads.
Then blueberries... When finished I will have a couple of pieces based upon this particular fruit. This one is done in the same process as the lemon above, where I start with a hand dyed background; collage scraps of fabric bits in the shapes and colours to represent the fruit and its surroundings; then hand and machine stitch over it all to blend everything together. I have done the first two steps here and will now start the stitching.
Apples and pomegranates - this piece is totally different - as is more common among my art - usually each piece is done using a different technique. This is more of a 'whole cloth' piece in which the design was silk screened using a range of paints from yellow to purple onto the hand dyed fabric. A second layer of silk screening was done over top. The stitch done over that is Italian Cording where rows of stitches are laid down and then stuffed with wool (you can see the ends of the wool still hanging over one end.) This piece is one waiting for the final decision of how to hang it and finish the edges.
More to come...
July 09, 2008
The Fruits of Summer at Nectar Desserts
Executive chef Rebekah Pearse of NECTAR DESSERTS takes the freshest of whatever fruits are in season and creates culinary treasures served up for your pleasure. She has invited us back for another textile show for the month of August, 2008 which we have themed featuring the fruits and flowers she uses in her baking of tarts, cakes, desserts, and ice creams.
Lesley Turner and I will provide the fibre creations and we have asked our friend Nancy Dormer to join us this year with her acrylic paintings.
The space is described as an eclectic loft area - it is very comfortable with exposed brick walls and a mishmash of over sized armchairs mixed among modern tables and chairs. It is one of Calgary's few evening destinations for dates or group gatherings which doesn't involve alcohol as the main attraction - although she does offer dessert wines and offers to educate your palate upon pairings with her desserts.
My work, which has kept me tied to my studio for the dog days of summer, is based upon the closeups of five fruits: the strawberry, the lemon, blueberries, apples, and raspberries. I continue to work in only (so far) a slight panic with the hanging on July 31st!
Nectar Dessert - located upstairs at 1216 - 9 Avenue SE, Calgary
Hours:
Monday to Thursday, 10am - 11pm
Friday to Saturday, 10am – 1am
Sunday, closed
April 21, 2008
Nectar Desserts
April 9th marked the one year anniversary of Nectar Desserts in Inglewood and Rebekah Pearse invited us to the party!
http://www.nectardesserts.com/tarts.php
Along with nibbling her sumptuous goodies and drinking champagne cocktails (yum), we confirmed our August show dates and theme. Donna Clement, Lesley Turner and Nancy Dormer will be exhibiting fruits and flowers associated with Rebekah's French inspired desserts. More info on the show to follow.
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