Joining the Challenge

cuff in progress
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

I have been reading Tara's posts lately, reading about her "use what you have" challenge. I admit that I have had little twinges of guilt, because first, I have been crafting, but stuff totally unrelated to business, and two, I have been spending way too much on supplies. I think my knitting and other leisurely crafts has been a help to my sanity, but it is time to buckle down and get back to business related work!

Anyway, I am taking on Tara's challenge, and I am adding for myself that not only will I use what I have on hand, but I will work on finishing some stuff that I had already started. I also want to make a little headway every day. So today I walked up to my sewing table, and dug around a little bit looking at what was in the heap, and found some pieced patchwork made by Karen of Chickadee Friends Studio. I had intended to make a quilted, beaded cuff, but had fizzled when Christmas approached. This morning I quilted the piece of fabric, fused it to a lovely green batik fabric backing, and finished off the edge. I hunted the button box for a great vintage button, made the buttonhole to fit. Now I need to sew on the buttons and add the beads, but all of the machine sewing is done!

Thanks for the inspiration, Tara!

Collage Mania Redux

Since Maggie didn't add a link to her own collages in her Fiber Art for a Cause post, I'm doing it for her:

Collage Mania Page 22

They look great, Mags! :)

Fiberart for a Cause

The preview for Collage Mania 2009 is now open! There are 39 pages of collages to see, I have only finished looking through about page 3 and I am already overwhelmed about trying to decide which one to bid on! The actual event will be May 5-7 2009.

Collage Mania is a fundraising auction hosted by Fiberart for a Cause. Fiberart for a Cause has already raised over $170,000 which has gone directly to the American Cancer Society. Many great artists have donated 8x10 inch fiber art collages to be auctioned off to benefit this great cause. The goal for Collage Mania 2009 is to raise $20,000 and they have 383 collages to auction off.

Here are the instructions about how you can get a beautiful work of art and help out a great cause at the same time!

365 Project- More than 10% Done

365 Project- More than 10% Done
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

I can't decide if it feels like we started this project of artful exploration eons ago or just yesterday. I was catching up on uploading pictures to our group, and as I typed day 37/365, I thought "Wow, 10% done." Part of me thinks I should put an "only" in there. Part of me thinks it is a good accomplishment.

It is most certainly a testimony to my crafting ADD. If you look at my pictures, I made books, embroidered on felt leaves, made thread buttons, glued buttons to bobby pin blanks, and sewed bags. I made more than a few earrings, but I also think I made much less than I would in an average month.

There were some reorganization days in there, where I sorted supplies and attempted to bring order to the mayhem. I need to do that some more- I need to sort my fabric stash and I need to reorganize the basement to try to set up an area for using a torch.

I also want to stretch my artistic wings more as time goes on, and try to strike that balance between making the items that will sustain my current business while trying to change it into what it needs to be in the future.

Keep your eyes on this space- you never know what we might be up to!

Too Many Barriers

inspiring words
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

I have spent way too long letting my anxiety get the best of me and prevent me from trying out art techniques that interest me. For example, I have a bit of a fire phobia, and that has prevented me from learning silver soldering. I have a goal to take a class in the spring for those techniques.

Today I wanted some words of inspiration to sew onto my leaves for a Fiber art Traders swap. I have long been terrified of trying to print on fabric and ending up with a huge messy unfixable printer jam. Well, I did get a huge messy paper jam on the first try, but the second try worked like a charm!

Here is how I successfully printed on fabric with my inkjet printer:
I ironed a piece of muslin to a piece of freezer paper. Then I trimmed the paper/fabric combo to 8x8 inches. I had originally intended to cut it 8x10.5, but life happens! Anyway, once I convinced my printer not to tell me my paper was the wrong size, I was good to go. I used my rotary cutter to trim, which probably means it is time for a new blade now that I have used it on paper...Or maybe a new cutter and turn this one into my paper cutter!! (Sorry shopping gets me a little excited.) Anyway, sorry back to topic- then I just emptied my printer paper tray, put my paper backed fabric in, and it worked beautifully.

I am really happy to have finally done this process that has intimidated me for so long, and now I have some nice words to use in some fiber art collage work.

Useful Art?

her highness
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

I seem to have a real mental block about my work. The thing is, I think if something is useful it isn't art. So I don't think of myself as an artist. More like "someone who makes stuff". But I want to be an artist, or at least explore my artistic side more.

To work on finding my inner artist, I decided to do some work on some fiber art items. Even then I have been making the pieces into earrings or brooches or hair pins, and imagining them as part of a journal cover. I can't let them just stand for themselves as a piece.

So I saw a tutorial somewhere talking about how to use a photograph as a jumping off point for a fabric portrait. I decided I would get a good picture of my cat, and use that to try the technique. This is not easy feat- I have been trying to get a decent photo of my cat for years. So I took it as a positive sign that I got this pretty good one of her today.

Tara told me it would be cute on a bag...I told her then it would not be art...