Travel Journals 2

Ready for Bird Watching

We completed our second Travel Journal session at the Bowness Library last week and had a large and energetic group who got right into the thick of things prepping blank, white journal pages ready for travel photos, vacation and holiday rubber stamps, ephemera and embellishments.

Strathmore Sketchbooks

The Calgary Public Library gave each participant a lovely Strathmore Sketchbooks  for their journal project and I think it’s safe to say that everyone had a great time – the hour and a half went by much too quickly.

Journaling cards ready to use.

Finished pages.

Refer to the February 3 blog post for Tips and Tricks for Travel Journaling.

Alberta Surface Design Association Exhibition

If you're out and about Calgary over the month of April 5 - 29, drop in to Atlantis Framing to see entries into the first Alberta Surface Design Association exhibition.

Twenty four SDA members  are showing new works in an exhibition entitled
"What's on the Surface?".

Six of the exhibitors are also members of

the Fibre Optics Group

Leslie Barnes

Siri Djuve

Diane Duncan

Meredith Helgeson

Jan Scruggs

Lynda Williamson

The opening reception at Atlantis

is Friday, April 11 from 6 - 9 PM.

FOG TUESDAY

This month’s collage exercise was based on the first of the Design Principles – FOCAL POINT.

A focal point in an art piece can be created in a number of ways:

Warm Up Collages - Design Principle - FOCAL POINT

• By the use of a textural contrast to the rest of the surrounding elements
• By creating open space in the midst of clutter
• By inserting a realistic element in the middle of abstract objects
• By providing a vertical element amidst horizontal lines
• By placing a large element in the midst of several small elements
• By using colour to draw the eye, for example complimentary colours, an area of red with lots of surrounding green, will create a focal point
• By changing the style of pattern

It’s interesting to note that most fine art, collage or mixed media pieces have a focal point, but many traditional and modern style quilts do not. Quilts (unless art or landscape quilts, or patterns such as Medallion and Lone Star) are based on a repeat of same style blocks in regular settings.

FOG Tuesday – The Thrill of the Thermofax™

“Well Maggie Muggins, you’ve had quite a day!”

You might have to be a Canuck (Canadian) and of a certain age to remember this line, but at FOG Tuesday I think that we all had “a Maggie Muggins Day!” Tra la …

Lynda and "The Machine"

The magic of this process is the machine itself – once a constant in every staff room, in every school in the country – the Thermofax™. Lynda generously brought her thermofax machine and the Riso™ screen required to burn the screens for screen-printing.

We all made at least 10 screens at a fraction of the cost of purchasing ready-made ones or sending away to have one custom made. The limit in size is the width of the screening, just under 12”, but you could make them as long as you want as it comes on a roll.

A "Lynda W. original"
Hand drawn

We learned a lot about “just the right” amount of carbon required from either a toner based laser printer or toner based copiers (ink jet prints do not work), the types of thickened dyes or screen printing inks to use and the best tools to get a great print. 

One neat thing that we all discovered is that newspaper text works quite well, especially the headlines.

I certainly learned a lot about my laser printer, my copier, Picasa™ and Photostudio™ while I was tweaking images to print. I was very pleased with the results of my photo below.

A "Meredith H. original"
Photo manipulation

Karen brought along her Gocco™, a similar process developed in the 1970’s.

Karen’s was the smaller version, and she made multi-screened cards back in the day.

"The Masterpiece"

Lynda brought a huge board covered in canvas and we each did test prints as soon as our screens were burned and were quite giddy when they turned out or made faces when they didn’t.

A Karen B. original in progress

Left to Right: 
Jan S,          Siri D,         Leslie B.
All hand drawn originals

A "Chris T" original
Hand drawn

All of these images were printed with thickened dyes.

Now we just need to get printing!

As with any images you use, be mindful of copyright, especially if you plan to sell your work.

Stitch Your Way Around the World: Turkish Embroidery

Yesterday was the second in the series of embroidery sessions being offered by Jan and me through the Calgary Public Library where we featured the basics of Turkish embroidery.

Stitching

We had a full house, including our first two men in the many sessions we have taught. In some cultures stitching by men is not unusual and one of our participants yesterday commented that in India boys as well as girls, are taught to sew when they are young.

Couched gold thread

Turkish embroidery is defined by a number of features: gold thread work, couching of threads onto the surface of the work, animal and floral motifs and the recurrence of reds and greens in the colour palette.

Sarma is a type of satin stitch that may be done over a bed of other stitches or over a piece of felt giving the embroidery a raised look.

Gozeme (outlining) stitch

As our time is limited in these sessions we opted to use just the felt and not complete the satin stitch, though some of the stitchers were going to do that at home.

Sarma may be completed with or without the use of the gozeme stitch, which is used for outlining. A common colour for this stitch is a rich dark brown.

Gozeme is a type of running stitch with one thread of the fabric between the stitches not evenly spaced as we are used to seeing a running stitch.

Ready to be frayed

Neatness counts!

The final step was to fuse a piece of iron on interfacing to the back and fray the edges.

Thanks to all of our stitchers and hand models!