When I wrote the blog entry about how the art journal can serve folks involved with different genre, I was surprised at the really positive reaction to the idea (proposed for quilters) of turning fabric into paper by copying it.

 

Of course, a paper version of fabric lends itself to so many great ways of working with it.

I’ll fess up right here and tell you I am afraid of my sewing machine. I am also afraid of my scroll saw. I think with both of them, it’s a tension problem - not the amount I feel when plugging either of them in, but keeping the tension correct on the saw blade - or the thread.

I keep snapping both. Too tense? Why, yes, I guess so. And to make matters worse, I don’t understand bobbins - at all.

 

But this fear has not kept me from loving fabric. So, awhile ago, in one of my “live” retreats here in Santa Fe (yes, I may do that again, if I *ever* find the right place and time), I had my students making a “sheath” for a handmade book we created (see photo above). The reason we needed the sheath was that we had to hang the book as a link in a “creativity chain” that was the overall project of the retreat.

 

 

I brought in an HP color copier and some great fabric and some White Magic. It didn’t surprise me that the project went well, but it did surprise me that the students went crazy for the concept, and we were making all sorts of things from this vinyl “fabric”.

 

So, as a part of a workshop called “Pushing the Envelope” that I taught at Art Unraveled a few years back, I tried that same copier idea with Sheer Heaven to make envelopes.

 

The four mini-envelopes you see at the left are from four fat quarters I bought in one of those coordinated sets at the fabric store. Making envelopes is easy because you can see through the copy to trace a template on the back of the SH, which ends up inside anyway.

Four Sheer Heaven “fabric” envelopes.

I’m like a dog with a bone when I get an idea like this - just can’t stop chewing on it! Eventually, I came up with a whole new method of creating “paintings” on canvas using fabric as the “paint”.

This is one of the first pieces I did and I have to say, I was pretty excited about it. The canvas measures just 8”x10” and the piece involves four fabrics, The coffee cups are glossy and stand up from the canvas surface about 1/4”.

 

In the process of all this fun and discovery, I began to develop a workshop with Art Unraveled in mind, but since my busy online teaching schedule has kept me from live teaching for now, I need a new plan.

So 2009 will see some exciting new online workshops based around “works on canvas” and “Fabric Paintings” will be one of them - a brand new version of the collage/assemblage approach to canvas.

“Coffee Date”, 8”x10”, Fabric Papers on Canvas

Here’s a detail from “Coffee Date”.

 

Though we are working with papers, the weave and texture of the fabric remains an important element of the design.

 

The possibilities in the mixing of media are so vast and varied, if we just look beyond what has become the “norm” in the last view years.

 

There is so much to be explored that remains uncharted territory, and I really look forward to some exploratory “missions” with you all.

 

Until next time . . .