OK--what about MY jellyfish??

Its been a busy day and I've been putting the final touches on my jellyfish. More quilted details including yet another color of Angelina fibers at the top of the jellyfish cap. This one is called "purple flash".


Here's the fluff of the purple flash prior to ironing. I need a long, skinny shape so I have pulled it out appropriately.






And here it is all ironed and hot-fixed.







The shape I had left over looked very like a mustache so I asked Fiona to model it for me. I think she is quite fetching in an iridescent blue mustache, don't you?



Its pretty small, but I think you can make out the purple flash at the top of the cap.





The flower organ (you remember that thing, right?) also cried out for some jazzing up. After some deliberation, I chose to quilt and embellish at the same time by going around the central watermelon pink embroidery with some hot pink metallic thread. Its jazzy all right (in a thready kind of way).




So here's the whole thing. Pretty much done (at least with all of the sewing).



Now its time for a careful ironing (can't let the bare, hot iron touch the Angelina fibers) to flatten everything into one plane. Then I trim the whole thing down to a regular rectangle. Its a persnickety job that involves a lot of measuring. If its not cut square now, it will hang funny and look off forever.





The raw edges have to be finished in some way or other--there are lots of options. For representational artquilts of this type, I usually use my machine's blanket stitch all the way around a couple of times. If there is some of the white batting still showing egregiously, I darken it with a black sharpie.

More of Ed's Art and... an Art Duel!

Ed has been sharing some of his smaller pen and ink pieces with me. Amazing, intricate, wry, amusing all come to mind as descriptions. This forest scene is my favorite.

Since he loves the small scale (which also intrigues me), I had an inspiration and challenged him to an "art duel". I had received some miniature canvases in my goody bag from Nude Nite (see the post from 3-16-09). We will both use these tiny canvases (they are 2"x3") to create some art in the medium of our choice. We will have a week to complete our works and then I will post them on this blog and let folks vote for their favorites by leaving comments. Everyone has to promise to be objective! And not leave multiple posts (surely not!). I'm very excited about the whole process!! Here's a pic of one of those canvasses--they're really small!

More Jellyfish art

The jellyfish are multiplying at our house. Here is my son, Ed's (14) rendition.

I am just blown away by how we all influence each other and how different all of our jellyfish are. So cool. I think it really illustrates the organic nature of individual creativity. None of us creates in a vacuum.

Quilting proceeds...

I have actually been getting a lot done in the quilting department but it is a slow process so I haven't posted in a couple of days. Here is what I have gotten done so far--all of the black background (ugh, quilting on black with black thread!) and quite a bit of the jellyfish cap. I'm posting large pics so the stitching shows up. Luckily, I have a macro setting on my digital camera that works pretty well!

I'm really on the home stretch as far as sewing is concerned. I still have some embellishment in mind (stay tuned for that!) and of course I have to finish the edges and sew on a sleeve for hanging.

We're all about jellyfish around here!

It seems that jellyfish are the art subject du jour at our house. My daughter, Fiona (10), recently created her own jellyfish with colored pencils. I think it turned out rather nicely!

And it starts to get glittery...

Hi all. I decided that I needed some more glitz so now that the small tentacles are done, I've turned to my favorite shiny stuff: Angelina fibers. Here it is in the little packets it comes in. Its loose, fluffy stuff.

Here is some of the loose Angelina in the gold color. It also has some flashes of iridescent blue in it too.

Now comes the magic! A quick hot iron application and--Voila! The fibers have all heat fixed to each other and formed a sheet that can be cut and sewn. I sandwich the fibers between 2 silicone sheets for the actual ironing process (you can use tissue paper, too.)


Here's a bunch of the other color I used: Calypso Blue. KInd of in the same color range as the blue flashes in the gold stuff.





And here is the sheet it made after ironing.







Using a tracing paper template (just can't do without that stuff!) I cut and placed some ridges on the jellyfish cap.




And here are the echoing ridges on the inside of the cap. These are pretty filmy pieces, I'll have to be pretty careful sewing/quilting them down.
That's all for today!

Quilting has begun...

I'm excited to have started on the actual quilting today. Hopefully it will show up in the pictures. Of course, quilting always, but always looks better in person. No matter how many pictures I take or how good they are, something is always lost in a photo of the fine details of the textural stitching and the three dimensional aspect. This is the "quilt sandwich" the top is face down, the batting is the white stuff. The fishy fabric will be the backing--have to keep with the marine theme!

Here is the sandwich all safety pinned together.




The safety pins are "quilter's pins"--they have a curve in them to aid in getting them to pierce all three layers of the sandwich.





This is what the tentacles look like prior to the quilting. The yarn is tacked down to the top but I need to sew through all three layers now.




I have now sewn through all layers (=quilting) with a dark pink thread in a jagged zig-zag stitch. I thought it would look more stingy and tentacley and it does. (trust me, in person it looks very stingy and icky!)



And then my daughter snuck up on me and took my picture as I was sewing. Thanks, Fiona!

Minor progress

Not too much to report today. I had to work this morning and was caught up with many, many errands in the afternoon. Life beckoned. But I did get a little sewing done so here it is. The five skinny tentacles are sewn down and the last is pinned down. Love it! I thought it might be interesting to see the back as well so that it is. You can see all of the thread tails and where I have trimmed the excess fabric. Quilting is next so I'm really trying to come up with a quilting pattern plan. I'll likely just echo all of the shapes and structures that are already there. It always sounds boring but ends up looking sharp.

The jellyfish starts to come together

More progress to report. Doesn't look like a whole lot, but it actually took a fair amount of persnickety sewing. Here are the three back tentacles all sewn down--l love the way they look; exactly the effect that I was going for.

I've laid down the loose jellyfish to get the exact placement here. I'm excited by the effect.



All of the large tentacles have been added and after a lot of meticulous sewing, the jellyfish (including the flower-like organ at the terminus of the projecting tube) is all sewn down. Whew! I have three more of the thin tentacles to go and then after a bit of final neatening and detail sewing, its time for the quilting.

Tentacles!

Here is where I left off--a detached jellyfish. Hmmm, what are those little bobbles off to the side on the work surface (my stained ironing board, btw) ?? I'll not divulge their role just yet, but aren't they cute?

The central tube has a flower-like end organ so I sketched it out on tracing paper here.

I chose a very light, almost chartreuse, yellow for the organ. Here it is all cut out and laid down. Notice I traced the center details in pencil as a sewing guideline for myself.



And now I've embroidered that detail in some delicious watermelon pink thread. Don't worry about all of the loose threads--they'll be trimmed and tucked in the back out of sight.




Time for tentacles! I've traced out the larger ones on my original tracing paper template. I like their curves.




Here I've already made the tentacles with more of that transparent pattern fabric and laid them in place. Hey--they look pretty good! I can't sew them all down at once--some go on the jellyfish itself and some go on the background with the jellyfish on top of them. Careful planning is key!


Now its time for the long, thin tentacles. I'm using some pink yarn that is variable in thickness. I've got it laid out here in a possible configuration.


Here's my first tentacle pinned into place. I will couche it down (now there's a good word!) with some slightly sparkly/iridescent thread. You can see the chalk outline for the body of the jellyfish so that the placement is not lost.

Stay tuned!

Jellyfish cont...

So in case you were wondering, the jellyfish in the upper left corner of Haeckel's plate from my previous post was the one that caught my eye. So here is the progress I made yesterday with my fabric collage beast. Here is my description of my work yesterday. I apologize that the text runs down, but the images very obviously run from the bottom to the top. My apologies! This is the first time I have tried loading this many images. But I think you can figure it out. I'll try to allow for that phenomenon next time!
First, the pencil sketch on tracing paper. I looove tracing paper and couldn't function without it.
Next, the background piece in a hot pink blobby fabric and a purple spotted fabric for the pattern at the top.
I've chosen to use hand batiked fabrics because they look so natural and organic--really the best choice when I am rendering living organisms. Next, I cut out some very transparent "fabric" for a see-through bottom rim. Its actually stuff meant to be used as a lightweight pattern for dress-making. Heavier than paper but lighter than woven fabric. I like the way it looks by itself and overlaid on other opaque fabrics.
Don't know if you can really make it out but here I have sewn down the white stuff. I use a glue stick to stick all my fabrics together while I'm sewing collages of this sort. Regular sewing pins allow for too much slippage.
How about a nice lime green ridge? Also batiked fabric, of course (but no dots on this one).
Doesn't that lime green go well with the hints of green in the underlying pink fabric. Its vibrant! Love that. OK, time for the projection thing that comes out of the bottom of the jellyfish. A school bus yellow orange was my pick. Here it is laid out but not sewn down.

Are you intriqued?? I hope so. Check back again soon for the next jellyfish construction installment!

What Jellyfish??!!

Hah! So several of you have been mystified about my Facebook status report from yesterday that I'm making a jellyfish. Well..I have entered an annual show in the past held in a fishing village in Alaska that is fish and ocean themed and aptly named "Fish Follies". I didn't enter last year but check out their website: http://www.cordovamuseum.org/

Fun, huh? So this year I'm making a new piece for that show and have chosen to represent a jellyfish. I was inspired by the incredible scientific illustrations of Ernst Haeckel made in the 1800s. Here is the plate that I found particularly interesting. He has an incredible gift to be scientifically accurate and yet esthetically pleasing at the same time. Mega-cool.

I'm still alive...

Hello all (well, West Coast Harpy, anyway!),
Sorry for the ridiculously long gap--its been a rough year. I have actually been creating and have some things in the chute. Hopefully I'll be able to upload their images. I attended and participated in Nude NIte Orlando again this year again. What a blast. My piece was purchased by the lovely performance artist CoraLee whom I photograghed in the 2008 Nude Nite. Here's a quick pic of that: its called "Soft Curves" and is a two-sided piece on a light, breeze-catching gauze. Fun.

Nude Nite Orlando

Was very pleased to learn yesterday that one of my pieces, "Confrontation in a Jungian Landscape" (see my post from Sept. 18, 2006) was accepted for inclusion in one of Orlando's most (dare I say it?) avant garde art events: Nude nite. Nude nite is an annual happening that includes art of all media (including performance), music and wine. Its an awesome 3 night show of all nude-themed art (keep that open mind!) that helps to raise money for breast cancer research (please note that there is an entry fee charged for admittance). The show will be at held from February 14-16, at 1013 E. Colonial Dr. Orlando, FL 32801. I'll be there on Valentine's Day Thursday (opening night) so come see me if you're in town! See all of the exciting details about this venue at the official Nude nite website: http://www.nudeniteorlando.com/index.html

Whew---that was easy (NOT)

A couple of months ago I committed to donating a piece to be auctioned off at a fund-raiser for the university arboretum here in Orlando. No sweat, I thought, I'll have lots of time to whip up something. Well, lah de dah and time flew by...last Sunday I finally thought to check the date and, YIKES, it was due in on Friday, Nov. 2!! OMG! Ack! Eeek! Time to come up with an idea and put the pedal to the metal. The sewing machine pedal, that is. Since the fundraiser was for the UCF Arboretum I reasoned that the piece had to be botanical. So...I based my design on some evening photos that I took recently of a night blooming Brugmansia or Angel's Trumpet we have in our yard (see pic to the right; sorry its a little dark). OK, too many flowers, I decided to limit it to 3 in my piece but I loved the black background and the shapes and color of the flowers. Well, I have created, cut, fused, sewn and quilted like the wind and the piece is done--just in time for me to take it in tomorrow. Whew! While such a deadline did put the pressure on (which I didn't like) it did also jump-start a good creative flow (LOVE that). I'd finished a small astronimcal piece the week before and have another in the works to finish tomorrow as well. So check out my galleries soon (botanical and astronomical) for those 3 newbies. And if I really get my act together, I'll post new pictures of me, too. (I have recently achieved my weight loss goal, and who wants old fat pictures on their web-site??). Well, I'll never procrastinate like THAT again. My fingers are literally sore and my eyes are weary from all of the black on black quilting and sewing (love the look, hate that particular process). But I finished it, dammit, and it looks good (see pic to the left above). I can sleep the sleep of the just tonight for sure.