26 August, 2013

A Collection of Digitally Printed Garments and a thank you.

2013-08-26T18:48:35-05:00Gallery Exhibitions, Spoonflower & Fabric Design|2 Comments

First a very big thank you to everyone who attended, volunteered or wished me well from near or far on Thursday.  It was a lovely lovely party.  For those that missed my post about it earlier, I was honored by Textile Center with a Spun Gold award on Thursday night.  The Spun Gold is a kind of lifetime achievement award for contributions to the fiber art field.  One of the very neatest things for me was the excuse to bring a whole collection of my work to be part of the celebration.  I have never seen this whole collection in one place before and I was just blown away.  It was neat to see.

These are 13 digitally printed garments I created over the last 2+ years.  The waterlily skirt was the very first garment I created from Spoonflower fabric.  The dress I am wearing in the photos called “Wallflower” is the most recent.  I can’t get this gallery gadget to show you captions, so I will caption these below.  (You can mouseover to see the title for each piece. Top to bottom, left to right.  You can also click each one to zoom in.)

I work primarily in digitally manipulated photos and engineered prints. That means that each of these designs started with a photo as inspiration and then I sculpt it into a fabric design.  Some of them have filters and effects applied.  I cut out and rescale or move elements and bend parts of the image to fit the curves of the pieces I am working with.  I always know exactly what the garment design is before I start the design for the fabric and for the most part, each one is designed to fit the exact pieces I need to make it.

Glaciology:  There is a whole post about this one here.  Digitally printed silk cotton.  Manipulated photo of two views of ice.  One is an icy sidewalk beginning to melt, the other is ice blocks stacking up in the spring on the shore of Lake Superior.

Vein:  Digitally printed linen cotton.  A manipulated photo of a giant leaf at the Como Park Conservatory, St Paul MN.

Mosaic:  Another post about this one here.  Digitally printed cotton voile, layered with cotton.  A photo of a “mosaic plant” from the Como Conservatory water garden.

Wallflower: Digitally printed cotton sateen.  Hand beaded (the very last white stripe is sequined so the hem shimmers), belt made from grosgrain ribbon.  Manipulated photo of the wall of yarn and fiber from the Weavers Guild of MN.  The white lines you see on the dress are the shelves.

Guardian:  Digitally printed linen/cotton canvas.  Manipulated photo of a lion guarding the doors to Parliament in London and a photo of a stone street in Bayeux France.

1060: Digitally printed linen/cotton canvas.  Manipulated photo of my husband’s oboe.  Named for his favorite Bach solo piece.

Gallery: Digitally printed organic cotton knit.  Manipulated photo of a wall of art from the Minneapolis Institute of Art “Foot in the Door” exhibition.  My piece from that exhibition can be seen in several places in the print.

Coils:  Post about this piece here.  Digitally printed silk/cotton.  Photo of a huge pile of video cables.

Strut:  Post about this piece here.  Digitally printed linen/cotton canvas, vintage velvet ribbon.  Photo of a piece of lace from the Victoria & Albert museum collection in London.

Zinnia: Digitally printed linen/cotton canvas and hand-dyed cotton.  Manipulated photo of zinnias from Sioux Park flower garden in Rapid City, SD, combined with digitally created stripe and hand-dyed trim on pockets.

Flamingo Mambo:  Digitally printed linen/cotton canvas.  Manipulated photos of flamingos from Sea World Florida and a scanned sharpie drawing.

Neighborhood DNA: Digitally printed cotton sateen.  Manipulated combined photos of weathered paint from a curb cut and a parking lot paint marking.  Created for Spoonflower/Textile Center Urban Sightings challenge and exhibition.

Waterlily:  Digitally printed linen/cotton canvas.  A photo of a waterlily from my own tiny water garden.  My first printed garment.

Some of these are also accessorized with jewelry I made.  I paired them mainly with solid colored t-shirts so that the prints were really what draws your eye.  (And this is the way I wear most of them anyway.)

26 June, 2013

Giving doesn’t always = dollars

2013-06-26T22:58:21-05:00Everything Else, Gallery Exhibitions, Out & About|2 Comments

IMG_7463Many of you know I work for a non-profit arts center and I have for 9 years now.  I have worked for and volunteered for and advocated for a number of non-profits throughout my entire life and all of them have been pretty amazing creatures that do pretty amazing things.  So, I have had a couple of conversations lately with a number of different people about “I love this organization, but I can’t afford to donate anything and I feel bad about that and so I don’t know what else I can do.” and I wanted to say that there are TONS of things that you can do that don’t cost you anything, but can be enormously valuable to a non-profit.  So here’s my list of 8 simple things you can do that will cost you very little and can add up to a lot.

1.  Participate.  A lot of grants that non-profits write to help support their free concerts and exhibitions and make and take programs are all about the number of people served.  There are whole sections of grant applications that require the organization to talk very specifically about the audience and who will be participating.  So, everybody who shows up gets counted and the more people attend a concert or sign their name in the guest book, the bigger the impact the organization can show.  So just by showing up and seeing the art in the gallery and then signing your name in the guestbook, you are saying to that funder or sponsor “I think this is valuable” and that makes a big impact.  Downloading the email, clicking the link, or showing up at the event are all ways for you to be counted.

2.  Comment.  Good or bad, take the time to write a comment or complete an evaluation:  “I really loved seing this work in person because it was so amazing to be able to see the detail up close.  I will come back again for your next exhibition.” or “My kids and I attended the concert in the park and they spent the rest of the afternoon pretending to play violins and conducting their own imaginary orchestra.  What a great afternoon!”  One of my very favorite REAL quotes from a teacher that brought a field trip to my art center:  “The second grade says weaving is better than recess!”  (We named our annual youth programs exhibit after this quote.)  Quotes are also a valuable way for non-profits to communicate with sponsors and funders as a way to say “We know this project is successful because we have this feedback from people who participated.”  Evaluations are required by many program funders and feedback good (or not so good) is all really important.

3.  Like it or tweet it.  Every non-profit would like to reach more people.  If you see something on your favorite organization’s website and you hit the “like” button, you become part of the magic algorithm that networks like Google and Facebook use to rank search results.  Very simply put, the more people “like” something, the more the search engine thinks that it must be “important” or “relevant” to whatever it is looking for.  So something as simple as clicking “Like” on a post about an upcoming class about shibori silk scarves can mean that more people will discover that art center you think is really cool when they are searching around on Google.

4.  Link it.  Have a facebook page or a website or a blog?  Post a link to your favorite non-profit’s website.  Links to organizations work the same way as likes and tweets.  The more connections to the site, the more important the search engines think it is and the bigger the potential reach for your favorite organization.

5.  Spread the word.  The next time you are at your art center or a concert in the park, take an extra postcard or flyer about an upcoming event and stick it up on the bulletin board at work.  Or at your favorite coffee shop.  Or at your church.  Let me tell you from experience that getting those beautiful postcards out into the world is one of the hardest jobs ever.  There is just never enough time in the day (or postage money in the budget) to get everywhere you would like to get them.  If you get an email about an event, pass it on to a friend or post it on your Facebook page.  (Or print it out and put it on the bulletin board).  Even just talking about it is great!  Word of mouth is a really powerful tool, especially if you tell your story.

6.  Donate stuff, but ask first.  Speaking for my own non-profit program, I am delighted to get donations of stuff, but I have about zero square feet of storage space to put it in.  So although I would LOVE to have your yarn, I might have to store it on my desk until I can make room to put it. Which isn’t really ideal.  But there are really goofy things that I need (that you might not even think of) that I could put to good use right now.  Like a gallon or two of vinegar or a salad spinner or some empty yogurt containers.  We used all of those items at summer camp today and we could have used a few more.  Other useful stuff?  Rulers, sticky nametags, tablets of white scratch paper, flexible tape measures, a crock pot, a wall clock, a really big color wheel…  Many organizations have a “wish list” that might contain something you have collecting dust at your house.  Win win.

7.  Time.  Do you have an hour?  Would you be willing to hand out programs at a concert?  Or stuff envelopes for a mailing?  Or weed the garden around our building? Or help clean up after an event?  Volunteering seems like an obvious one, but sometimes the hardest jobs to fill are the ones that sound boring.  Everyone wants to attend the XYZ Event for free in exchange for some volunteer hours, but maybe you would be just as content to listen to the radio in your car and deliver these concert flyers to all the public library branches in Minneapolis.  Or maybe you would be happy to look up the address and contact info for all of the afterschool programs in the metro area and address some envelopes for me so I could send out some field trip applications?  Also if you have special skills, tell someone.  Are you a lawyer and would be willing to read over contracts for me, just to point out anything I should be concerned about?  What a great resource!

8.  Photos.  Do you love to take photos? As staff at an event, I am lucky to have a minute to snap a few pictures because I am busy making the event happen and although I would love to hire a photographer for every event, that is just not in the budget.  But I would LOVE to have your photos if you are willing to share them.  Photos are another great tool for spreading the word and showing the impact of a program or event.  They are a handy way for us to document who was there and what happened so we can refer to it next year when we start to plan the next one.

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So in the spirit of “walk the walk”, here are links to some of my favorite non-profits or community organizations:

Textile Center.  This is the art center where I work and I am pretty proud of what we do.

Weavers Guild of MN.  A sister organization to Textile Center with some of the greatest staff and members ever.

Northern Clay Center.  Ditto.  Amazing people, great work.

Upper Midwest Great Dane Rescue.  My friend Danielle volunteers like crazy for these guys and the photos of those giant floppy faces just make me smile.

Orchestrate Excellence.  My friend Paula dedicates a lot of time to this group that is advocating for the MN Orchestra musicians and their endless lockout situation.

Star of the North Concert Band.  My husband is a member of this band and there is nothing I like better than a summer evening in the park with my knitting and listening to them play a concert.

 

 

13 October, 2012

Coils Dress

2012-10-13T12:32:00-05:00Gallery Exhibitions, Sewing & Design, Spoonflower & Fabric Design|5 Comments

Our annual gallery fundraiser at work was last night.   I don’t have a lot of time to make very elaborate pieces of art, so this is my goal each year, to make a dress to wear to this event.  This is based on a vintage-inspired pattern, with some tweaks.  The fabric is digitally printed silk/cotton from my friends at Spoonflower.  The same scribbly circles from the skirt show up smaller scale on the top although as a very subtle color variation (you can’t really see it in the photo) and the fabric has a lovely silvery sheen with the green.

The image I based the fabric design on is a photo of a pile of video cables.  I love the juxtaposition of 1940’s inspired dress with digitally printed video cable design.  My friend Jay does something high-tech with keeping TV stations running and sent me a couple dozen photos from his last trade show gig that were pictures of coils and tangles and piles of bright colored video cables.  I love that I have friends who don’t think I am crazy when I send messages like “OMG, I need that photo to make a dress, can I use it please!?”  Ok, he might have thought I was crazy, but he sent me that photo and 15 more.

I had a lot of fun walking around last night and talking about the dress and the design.  Two of the people from our local printing company (who do the newsletters and things for the center) wanted to know all about the printers and how many colors they use.  Because I work at a place where I am surrounded by some amazing artists, at least one person commented on the hand-picked zipper (where else would that happen to you?) and everyone needed to touch the fabric.  On Tuesday I will show it off to a highschool class we are doing a residency with.  They are coming to dye some fabric with me to accompany their own Spoonflower printed designs.

14 August, 2012

Mosaic: Spoonflower & Sewing

2012-08-14T19:00:38-05:00Gallery Exhibitions, Sewing & Design, Spoonflower & Fabric Design|3 Comments

“Take This!”, an exhibition of work by Textile Center instructors, closed today.  This piece called “Mosaic” was my contribution to the show.  It is cotton voile, digitally printed by Spoonflower, layered over a sheer cotton with a burnout paisley design.  The top layer is very slightly transparent so you can see the texture through and the lining peeks out about an inch longer than the top layer for another hint of paisley.  The fabric design is based on a photo of a “mosaic plant” which is a neat little water plant that we found at the Como Park conservatory.  The original plant is about 3 inches across; I printed this one at 54+ inches across.  (If you look closely in person, you can see an itsy-bitsy bug on one sleeve.)  I pretty thoroughly modified a Simplicity pattern to get the shape.  The trim at the neckline is some vintage lace that I handpainted with Dye-Na-Flow paints to match the fabric and it has 3 vintage metal buttons on the back.

6 March, 2012

Things in Progress

2012-03-06T09:15:30-06:00Classes & Teaching, Gallery Exhibitions, Knitting & Ravelry, Spoonflower & Fabric Design|Comments Off on Things in Progress

It’s been quiet around here but really I am working on all kinds of things.

This exhibition opened at the Textile Center and light rail construction “officially” started.  Constructions in Concert.

I taught a digital fabric design class.  Hi Class!  This was their “grid works” fabric design based on a celestial theme.  I am teaching another class at Darn Knit Anyway in May.  You should come!
I started knitting another “Venomous Tentacula” shawl.  I wear my other one all the time and I love when people ask me what the pattern is and I say “venomous tentacula” and they look at me like I have lost my marbles.  The photo of my other one is actually featured on the pattern page – the designer asked if she could use my photo (cool!) and will be featured on another site that is putting together kits to go with the pattern.  This one is merino/silk yarn that I dyed and I have been waiting for the perfect thing to knit with it.
I have very recently become the co-Captain of the Etsy Sellers Assisting Sellers Mentoring Team.  (Team SASsy)  My job is keeping track of the team blog and Facebook page and doing a lot of mentoring in between.  If you have an Etsy shop, you should know about us.
I submitted an article to a new e-zine about teaching embroidery to kids.  We will see if they like it.

And somehow it is March already.  How did that happen?

12 November, 2011

Eye Spy

2011-11-12T00:04:28-06:00Embroidery, Gallery Exhibitions, Out & About, Sewing & Design, Spoonflower & Fabric Design|1 Comment

“Eye Spy”, digitally printed fabric and hand embroidery.  Cotton fabric, rayon & silk thread.  8″ x 8″.

I made this piece to donate to a fundraiser for the art center in the city where I grew up.  They have an anonymous auction every year where artists donate pieces but you don’t know which artist belongs to which piece until the end.  So I had to wait until after the event to show this off.  The owl is one of the education owls for the U of MN Raptor Center program.  He was very photogenic.  The “eyes” design I drew digitally and the “feathers” are a pencil sketch that I scanned.  Printed at Spoonflower.   I then went in and embroidered feathers on top in shiny silk and rayon threads, so it has a little depth and shimmer.  You may recognize the design from a skirt I made a while back; I liked it so well I decided to play around with using it in other formats.

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