Doing vs. Done

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Category: In The Studio

Published on Monday, 06 August 2012 14:03

Written by Martha Hall

I'm doing a lot, but not getting a lot done . . . . . as in finished, completed. Dedicated studio time has been scarce lately, largely due to "The Wedding" which is less than a week away!

Last post I showed various ongoing projects. When I do catch some time in the studio, usually with my morning coffee, I've been working on the small Journal quilts. These involve mostly hand work, which I can do in small snippets of time. Although i sometimes get so engrossed that I spend long snippets of time. (Is there such a thing as a "long snippet"?)

The Journal quilts are samples for the upcoming workshop I am teaching, "Big Ideas In Small Art". I want to have them ready to show at my next guild meeting. One of the things we will experiment with is using unconventional or collected items in the small art pieces.

I collect various and random items. Buttons aren't so unconventional to sewing, but I do have a growing collection of all the extra buttons that come with the garments I buy. I don't have most of the clothing anymore, but I still have all the 'extra buttons'.

I emptied all the little packets they come in and, of course, I had to sort them.

I used various embroidery stitches to attach the buttons, mimicking the stitches used elsewhere.

After the buttons are attached I will do still more embroidery. These are developing as I go. I want the three pieces to relate to each other, but also be able to stand alone.

This week I will concentrate on the wedding projects - creating enough "petals" and patches for people to sign at the wedding, and also creating a dreamy swag of tulle and ribbons to decorate the wedding gazebo.

I'll also spend some time with my "extra buttons" and embroidery because the hand work helps to calm my senses. I am so very excited about the wedding, but also getting a case of nerves as it approaches!

Until next time -
MCH

Catching Up ..... as if!

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Category: In The Studio

Published on Sunday, 22 July 2012 14:02

Written by Martha Hall

It’s crazy time! There’s too much going on! Although I am happy and grateful to have a “full” life, it feels a little too full at the moment.

I have finally resumed work on the big quilt on my design wall – the one I wrote about here. I knew I could figure out a way to assemble this one. I’m constructing it in segments and sections, and then those get sewn together, and VOILA! It is working! And it is doing what I wanted it to do.

detail of quilt in progress

It really is like assembling a puzzle. As with most of my quilts, I started with a basic concept and design idea, then during assembly the surprises reveal themselves. And when it works it is oh-so-happy!

In the meantime I also started making some 8 ½” x 11” Journal Quilts. These are samples for a workshop I’m teaching in September. I’m doing hand embroidery, inspired perhaps by all the embroidery I saw at FiberPhiladelphia this Spring. The new Surface Design Journal arrived this month and it’s all about embroidery too.

 
details of hand embroidery samples

I used to do a lot of hand embroidery back in the day. I do so much machine work these days that it feels relaxing and contemplative to sit and stitch by hand. I have let it distract me from the large project, but at least I am making something!

The real kicker this summer is the upcoming marriage of #2 son. I knew that after we returned from vacation in early July that the wedding next month would be my primary focus of attention. The bride-to-be has asked me to make a quilt for them. Of course the answer is “Yes!” It will be a signature quilt, in lieu of a guest book. I’ve been working out some ideas that incorporate sunflowers, which she loves and which will be prominent at the wedding.

At least the quilt itself doesn’t have to be made until after the wedding! But I did need to have some components of it ready for the guests to sign at the bridal shower last weekend. Which meant that I had to make some design decisions right now. Which meant that I couldn’t procrastinate until August.

The idea involves having all the guests sign sunflower “petals” – made from fabric obviously. And right here and now I want to make it totally clear that the inspiration for this idea came from Cheryl Lynch. Cheryl created a beautiful chuppah for her son’s wedding – you can read about it here on her blog. In this post you can see the signed “leaves” that she used to create the tree forms. There are actually several entries where she tells about the construction of the chuppah, so check them out, too.

The biggest difference between me and Cheryl is that she had to get her project done before the wedding, and I have a reprieve until after the wedding! Whew! (Thank you for the inspiration, Cheryl!)

I will also be making squares of fabric in case some people want to write a longer personal message or words of inspiration for the newlyweds. I did manage to pull something together for the shower and I have some time to prepare more petals and patches for the wedding day.

The fabric is pressed onto sheets of freezer paper to give it some substance to write on. The petals are marked out on uncut sheets for now, to make writing on them easier, rather than making people try to write on little bitty petals. Of course, the freezer paper easily peels away later when it's time to construct the quilt.

I'll do my best to show the progress of the "Wedding Sunflowers" quilt as it progresses.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure I'll never 'catch up', but I'm OK with that. It just means that I always have something to look forward to!

Until next time -

MCH

A Portrait

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Category: Figure Drawing

Published on Wednesday, 27 June 2012 14:01

Written by Martha Hall

Tuesday Figure Drawing

Athina's Portrait    June 26, 2012
by Martha C. Hall

4B Pencil on Bristol board

25 minutes

Out On A Limb

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Category: Artwork

Published on Monday, 25 June 2012 13:59

Written by Martha Hall

Last week I went out on a limb. I spontaneously decided to hold an "Open Studio" sale of some of my smaller art at my home.

The idea of a sale came together from several aspects.

First, I have a couple of boxes of wrapped up art pieces – unsold pieces from various gallery and other shows. When a particular show ended I picked up any unsold art and brought it home. Several boxes have been sitting in a corner ever since.

MartArt Gallery view (before)

Go back a bit .....

When I sat with our tax accountant this year, as she gave me that pitying look because my “art business” has red ink dripping all over it, she asked me if I had any “inventory” to write off against said red ink. Hmmmm….. why, yes I do! You know, I never thought in terms of having inventory before. I’m so slow sometimes. My accountant would probably vouch for that.

So with all that inventory neatly packed away in boxes, I got to thinking that I needed to get it all out and visible so I could see what is actually there.

Go back again .....

After two years of living back at home, #1 son moved out to his own place earlier this year. The bedroom he was living in had previously been his brother’s. So now I have random belongings left over from both boys. Stuff they opted not to take with them and, frankly, if I don’t deal with it no one will. Not to mention the dust ..... lots of dust.

So, I want to get all the packed-up art out and visible to see what I have. I want to hang it all up on a wall.
But, I need to clear out and clean up the spare bedroom to make room to hang it and see it.
Then, I’m thinking “Why not have a sale of all this artwork?” I need to sell off my inventory to make way for new artwork.

Alyson Stanfield ran a post last week about fighting complacency in art making and art marketing. It made me think “how can I push myself?” The timing of her post and my clean-up and organizing coincided in a way that I thought “I can make this whole exercise into an art sale.” Why not?

Go back even further .....

I’ve been thinking for at least a year that I want to add an “Artwork For Sale” page to my website. So in addition to blasting my “art sale” out on Facebook, I went ahead and created a sale page on my website. It took me most of a day, but really was not very hard to do. The next step is to hook up my Paypal account to it and add the “Buy Here” buttons, but I’ve taken the first big step.

I ended up doing a lot of things that pushed me past complacency.

Here is an “after” picture of my “Open Studio” sale.

MartArt Gallery view (after)

Yeah… no one came. Like I said, it was a spontaneous decision, not a lot of advance notice or publicity. I could be upset and chagrined and consider it a total failure, but I’m not upset and I consider it a success.

I prefer to see the upside, which is .....

• I have a clear picture of my recent inventory
• I clarified my pricing
• I got the spare bedroom cleaned and organized. I now have even more space for artmaking and for maintaining a gallery wall.

Most importantly….

• I went out on a limb and suffered no serious damage. As a matter of fact, going out on a limb felt productive and pretty darn good!

Until next time -

MCH