How Original! Fiber Art by Retta

What it feels like to have an organized closet...

2008-04-11T02:11:00.000-07:00

All I can say is, "Wow!" I was lucky enough to receive the several hours with a professional organizer by the name of Jennifer Linnig. Not only did she make the whole process fun, but I ended up with a beautifully organized and clean closet. We emptied out the entire closet from floor to ceiling. Then we sorted. Then we put thing away where they belong. There are lots of empty hangars from the stuff that will be FreeCycle'd or eBay'd and I actually have room to hang everything up now. I even found a few things that I had forgotten about. Now I just need to do the same thing with the rest of the house and I will have a perfect house. (Well, I can dream, can't I?)

A first for me on eBay

2008-04-02T02:39:00.000-07:00

Well, today I received a question I had not been asked before. Someone saw this music fabric that I have for sale on ebay and wanted to know how much it would cost to sew a necktie out of it. Hmmmmm. Well, how much have you got? Seriously, though, it is difficult for me to put a price tag on such a task as it is not my typical sewing project. That fabric would make a really cool tie though.

I was really torn over whether to even agree to do such a project. On the other hand, it is money. So, I quoted what I hoped was not too unreasonable a price and we'll see what happens.

More fun with shredded junk mail

2008-03-28T00:49:00.001-07:00

I just completed the next piece in my Junk Mail series. It is a smaller version of the first envelope. I made it especially for the competition called "Art That's Small in City Hall" in Laguna Beach. It is for artworks that are 12"x12" or less. I even got through the entire piece without breaking a needle on my sewing machine.

So, now I am trying to think up other pieces to add to this series. I was thinking of doing a sculpture of the shredded paper in the shape of a nest with fake credit cards placed here and there. The title would be "Feathering the Nest." And then I was thinking of another sculpture in the shape of a mail box with the title "Junk Mail Box."

Then I am going to have to order a bag of shredded money from the US mint and make a money tree. And I wonder what I can do with shredded IRS forms. Hmmm, the creative process at work.

Designing patterns

2008-03-23T00:56:00.000-07:00

I have really been wanting to create more patterns for some of the things I create. I was very happy with the one I created for my patternless handbag. Those instructions have certainly ended up being referenced on a lot of other websites. Eventually, I want to do the instructions for my stuffed pumpkins and for my rag angels. And, with the video camera I got for Christmas (thank you Mother & Daddy), I can actually do videos of how I make stuff.

I got to practice my newly found video making skills a couple of weeks ago when I went to an elementary school up in Costa Mesa to film (sorry, video) the children's book author & illustrator Scott E. Sutton during one of his presentations to the kids. What fun! I had a hard time keeping the camera on him, I was laughing so hard. For a first attempt, the video turned out pretty good. Now it just needs to be edited down a bit.

That exercise has made me look more closely at how other instructional videos are shot. The problem I have when I was shooting my own stuff is trying to do it all myself. So, when I want a closeup of something, I have to stop, re-adjust the camera, and the start again.

The other more important issue is how much time it takes. It is easy to just sit down and make something. It is much more difficult to have to stop and think about how to make it, and to put it into words and pictures for someone else to understand. I found that it takes about 1 hour of working time to produce about 1 minute of instructions. So a project that takes an hour for me to make, takes about 60 hours of work to create the pattern and instructions.

Now that I look at it this way I understand why I have been so reluctant to start another pattern. And, I really understand why pattern designers get so upset when someone copies their design. I wonder how many times my patternless handbag has been copied.

Time to start thinking about spring art shows

2008-03-22T00:57:00.000-07:00

Now that spring is officially here, it is time to start looking forward to the spring art show season. I have several shows lined up. I'll be doing the Oceanside Days of Art again in April and the following weekend will be at the San Diego ArtWalk. I really love both of those shows. They do such a great job of selecting good quality artists. For May, I signed up for the Balboa ArtWalk, but I have not yet heard back from them so I don't know if I am in yet.

So, I spent today printing out some of my cat themed greeting cards and clearing off my work table and getting a bunch of interfacing cut to size so I can start making my 8x10 collages. And I have lots of new music fabric to play with. You can see a sampling of my collages by clicking here.

Fun with shredded junk mail

2008-03-20T01:07:00.000-07:00

Last night I took a few handfuls of the shredded junk mail from the huge bag that I collected and soaked it overnight in boiling hot water. It is amazing how much shredded paper just a few sheets of paper can produce. Anyway, today when I opened up the container, I had a nice soft mess. The paper shred hadn't disintegrated, and the type was still visible. So, I took a hand blender and made a nice pulpy, gloppy, gray colored stew.

Next, I scooped out handfuls and plopped it onto a fine mesh over a paper plate. I used the paper plate to confine the pulp to a circle. I laid another layer of mesh on top and pressed a towel over it to soak up the excess moisture. Now I need to wait for it all to dry. It is somewhat thick so it may take a couple of days. No photos yet. It's too soon to move it.

In the meantime, I am listing lots of new music fabrics on eBay. I just went over 500 for my feedback rating. Yippee!

boo hoo

2008-03-19T01:32:00.000-07:00

Well, the Festival doesn't want me this year either. I didn't get past the first phase of jurying with even one of my submissions. Oh, well. I'll try something else next year. I really wonder if the judges understand fiber art. Whatever. It's hard trying to not second guess them.

In the meantime, I have made a departure from my regular raw materials. I had a bag of shredded junk mail that was about to go in the trash. It really bugs me to throw stuff like that out. So, I got to thinking about what I could do with it. I tried a small sample piece and found that I could actually sew on paper. I then made a much larger piece of "paper" and folded it into the shape of a #10 envelope. I stuffed a bunch of unshredded junk mail into the "envelope" and here is the result, shredded paper art! I call this first one "Junk Mail." I see a series coming.

I need to do this more often

2008-02-18T01:57:00.001-08:00

I didn't realize how long it had been since I last posted. Yikes! So, what have I been up to recently, you ask? Well, I respond, I have been busily making lots of new stuff for competitions. In January I made a piece to enter in the Vision art quilt show in San Diego. I am still waiting to hear if I got in. After that, I got to work making stuff to enter in the Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach. I have been trying to get into that show for many years. In previous years I knew I didn't have much of a chance given the disparate work I was entering. I had not yet learned that the jurors like to see consistency, not examples of everything you can do.

Also, this year, to increase my chances of getting in, I applied in several different categories, sculpture, mixed media, and fiber. The fiber category was difficult to enter in since most of what I wanted to enter has been sold and I don't have any good quality photos of those pieces. I had to scramble and find something I already had in inventory since I was out of time and could not make anything new. And, I felt better at least attempting an entry in as many categories as I could.

If you want, you can click here to see all of my entries.

My original intent with the sculpture was to have the kelp plant, a dolphin, and a flock of sanderlings (shore birds). Well, the dolphin didn't work out as I had planned. Then I couldn't figure out how to do the birds. Then, suddenly, in a fit of inspiration, my brain said, "Tide pool!" Perfect! I could do that without have to do too much experimenting. So, back to Home Depot I went. (I have spent more time at Michaels, JoAnns, and Home Depot recently than all last year combined.)

So, here's the beginning of a tide pool for your enjoyment...

I started with a 24" diameter table top and started adding pieces of Styrofoam packaging material to build up a general shape of the tide pool. I just hammered some nails into the wood and shoved the foam pieces onto the nails. I suppose I could have glued the pieces on. Actually, maybe if I had done that I would not have hammered that nail into my finger.

So, the next step was to use another product from Home Depot, foam in a can. It is used as a gap filler. I just squirt it on top of and around my foam pieces, and here is what I ended up with after using up two cans of the stuff...

And here, after hours and hours and hours of making anemones, and starfish, and mussels, and rocks, and other sea life, is the finished tide pool. (Well, almost finished. The side that you can't see in the photo does not yet have any creatures on it. I still need to make several dozen mussels and whatever else I decide to make to fill in the rocks.)

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-24T00:56:00.000-08:00

For the first time in a while, I put up a Christmas tree. But, not just any Christmas tree. First, have a look at the original...

This is my 6 foot tall rendition of a California Giant Kelp plant. Now, have a look at my Christmas tree...

I never really thought of using my own artwork as a Christmas tree, and I like it! Thank you Scott Sutton for the idea!

Its Been a While

2007-12-21T00:43:00.000-08:00

So, what have I been up to? Well, not much. I got another cold that I am just getting over. I've been selling lots of fabrics on eBay. And, I actually sold one of my ornaments on CafePress. I also managed to get my Christmas cards out just in time. The above photo is of one of the poinsettia flowers I made for this year's cards. I really like the way it turned out. This is my usual technique as I used to make both the rose and the kelp sculpture. Eventually, I'll get some photos of those to post.

Last show of the season

2007-12-03T23:26:00.001-08:00

Well, the Pomona Harvest Festival was this past weekend. It was a very nice way to end the season. Of course we had to contend with a few minor difficulties along the way, like rain all day on Friday and a bit of flooding on the floor. But, other than that, I talked to lots of people and even met a fellow Glendale High alumnus.

Here's a photo of what the booth looked like during setup. It takes me about 4 hours to get all set up. Most of that time is spent dragging all the boxes and display stuff from the car to my booth space. This photo shows my tent and walls put together and some of the boxes and tables waiting to be moved in. It's amazing how much work goes into putting together a booth. And, when it is done right it looks just perfect.

As exhausting as it is, I do so enjoy the show life. It is a very intense few days, from the last minute production of artwork, to loading the car, to the setup process, to being at the show ready to talk to people and sell my artwork, to teardown, and finally to getting home and recuperating. That's what I've been doing today, recuperating.

What fun!

2007-11-21T01:15:00.000-08:00

I have been adding more images to my CafePress store. Now there are three different dragon designs, and two different cat designs. More designs will be coming soon. The hard part is deciding what types of products to sell. So far, I have greeting cards and ornaments. Some of my designs my also lend themselves to t-shirts, but I'm not sure if I want to do those or not. Anyway, check it out. Click on the link in the links section.

New Work

2007-11-20T01:10:00.000-08:00

I still have this cold, but it is going away, very very slowly. In the meantime, I have been hard at work on new items. I am doing some Christmas ornaments to have available for the Pomona Harvest Festival. I'm not quite sure what I am doing yet, but there seem to be stars forming from bits of fabric. The first idea I came up with for stars uses the gold holographic fabric that I found in Las Vegas when I was there during Art Expo. I am trying to figure out a way to do music theme ornaments.

I have also just opened up a web store. So far I have only put in two different images, the black cat with the yarn and the red dragon. More will be coming soon. I need to do lots of work to get the images sized right. This is the link to the store.

The image shown is called "Who, Me?" and, of course, as with most of my cat art, I had some inspiration from my favorite cat. He used to dig a nest in my piles of fabric and yarn. And then he would look at me with those eyes, pretending not to be guilty. Yeah, right! By the way, the original of this piece sold at the San Diego Artwalk earlier this year.

Great Show!

2007-11-15T21:59:00.000-08:00

Well, the Del Mar Harvest Festival was great! There were lots of people there enjoying themselves and I sold many things. Unfortunately, I ended up getting a cold which is why I haven't posted until today. This is a photo of what my booth looked like. The piece on the far left is called "Do I Have to Practice Now?" It was given a new home by a lovely lady who absolutely fell in love with it and couldn't resist. Now I am going to have to get to work to make something new to replace it. For now, it is time for sleep and try to get rid of this cold.

I Got Accepted!

2007-11-08T01:31:00.000-08:00

I had completely forgotten that I had submitted an entry to a juried competition. Today I was notified that my piece "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" was accepted into an exhibition at the Art for a Cause Gallery in Miami Beach, Florida. How cool is that?!?

This was my very first pictorial quilt. I started with two different photos, one of me with the setting sun in the background, and the other of palm trees. I photoshoped myself out of the first photo and merged it with the tree photo. This was the result.

The piece was made by collaging a multitude of different fabrics in colors to represent the sky, the sea, and the sun. The semi-circle of the sun is done with a piece of gold metallic fabric. After a lot of heavy quilting, the palm trees were appliquéd over the collage. The trees were painstakingly cut from non-fraying upholstery velvet.

Opening Post

2007-11-05T23:54:00.000-08:00

Well, it seems only appropriate to start this blog on my birthday. In these pages I hope to show a glimpse into the life of an artist. Being an artist is not an easy life, full of parties and art openings. Yes, I do get to attend events and such, but there is so much more to being an artist.

So, now we get into some of the drudgery... I will be selling at an arts & crafts show this weekend, the Harvest Festival to be precise. The dates were changed from the last weekend in October to November 9-11. (Yes, because of the wildfires.) Now the pre-show fun begins. Today was spend trying to get my garage organized so I know where all my show supplies live. Tomorrow will be making some last minute inventory. And Wednesday will be loading up the van.

In the meantime, my creative brain is still busily working. I am still trying to figure out what to do as an encore to my kelp sculpture. Maybe a dolphin, or a sea urchin, or an abalone. Don't know yet. My brain needs to process this further. The idea will come. Eventually. And probably from some unexpected source. I'll post a photo of the kelp later on.

Retta