Stitch Club: Notman

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Since this week’s TextileArtist.org‘s Stitch Club workshop requires supplies I do not have (transfer paint), and I’m still waiting for some leaves I collected to dry for another, I dug out my list of older workshops I’d like to complete. In 2021, Emily Notman led a workshop having us design a wrap for a jar in her mixed media style. I am waiting for the day art historians appreciate fiber art just as much as painting, so we can speak of textile artists in styles such as Impressionism. This is where I’d place her; she uses color and texture to allude to cheery landscapes, and I fell in love instantly! And this bring to my attention the style of textile art I am always most drawn to, the ones that are impressions of beautiful worlds with rich texture and lovely color combinations. This style is also the hardest for me to work in, wah wah.

I began with a white palette, mixing little snippets of fabrics and trims. I was not in love with my piece at this stage, but I have learned that doesn’t matter! Sometime along the way, I learned that in most instances, whatever I don’t like about a piece can easily be remedied later if I feel it is worthy of salvaging. Thus, I continued undaunted with paint.

I am new to adding paint to cloth. My first real trial was through my Ruth Norbury project, and it was a struggle. Of course, I used calligraphy ink on that one, while here I used more familiar acrylic paints. I recalled something important Ruth taught me – that paint is afraid of water. That seemed so counter-intuitive to me for some reason. (Wouldn’t the paint want to spread into the water? But, no!) So, when the purple started mixing into the yellow where I didn’t want it, I simply dabbed a bit of water there and got the results I wanted. I had a color vision in mind, and while the real life results don’t match it well, I was happy enough with them to proceed to the next step. And, you can see I became dissatisfied with the sun and added some vintage hand-knotted trim that I painted.

I needle felted a bit of color and texture into the sky. Then, I needed to add something to the other side of the wrap, but I hemmed and hawed because I wasn’t sure what. My original intent was to create a ferris wheel, black against a sunset with maybe some fun colored squares to be buildings along a beach front. I abandoned this idea though; it isn’t the right project for it. Finally, I determined that I was not on a beach near a pier, but instead near a lake shore. One with cattails!

I followed the next steps of the workshop to stiffen it up a little, then decided to add a leather join, with a little loop at the top. It provided a really nice stability to the jar wrap.

While I had originally picked a small jam jar to wrap around, I embellished almost all the way to the ends of my cut ground so when time came to wrap, I actually left it a little larger than the jar rather than cover anything up. It still fits in there, of course, and still holds things like pencils without them leaning against the cloth. That’s a win!

Overall, I really enjoyed Emily’s techniques. It pushed me out of my comfort zone for sure, being more messy and intuition-based than designed, but I like the softness of it and learned a lot. Thanks, Emily! (And can I get a congrats for veering away from my normal colors? Wow!)

 

See more posts related to:

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Looking for more cases of the Crafties?
Update

Update

Just a summary of random things that’s been keeping me from posting.

read more
Stitch Club: Kaur

Stitch Club: Kaur

Saima Kaur led a TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club designed to make us smile by stitching brightly bold and whimsical figures, and I was inspired by ancient South African rock art.

read more
Stitch Club: Edwards

Stitch Club: Edwards

Priscilla Edwards led a TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club where we learned to make a wire frame and use batik wax to form a sculpture. For whatever reason, I decided I’d make a sailboat!

read more
A new era

A new era

My craft room has two new additions, Toby and Ollie.

read more
Hexie Dreams + Template

Hexie Dreams + Template

My Hexie Dreams quilt, which was carefully fussy cut and hand pieced by me, then hand quilted by my gramma, is finally finished after three+ years of work (and avoidance). The proof is in the stitching – persistence pays off!

read more
Stitch Club: Dias

Stitch Club: Dias

Cassandra Dias lead a TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club workshop on embroidered landscapes, and I was inspired to recreate a honeymoon photo of France’s Pont Du Gard.

read more
Hello 2024!

Hello 2024!

For the start of 2024, I’ve been playing with drawing, paint, and watercolor pencils to get a feel for the media.

read more
Ida Andersen Lang’s Tutorial

Ida Andersen Lang’s Tutorial

I followed a water color pencil tutorial by Ida Andersen Lang to work through some techniques to set me up for a successful Mixed Media 2024 journey.

read more
Stitch Club: Boschert

Stitch Club: Boschert

Deborah Boschert lead a TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club on creating a mixed media art quilt. I based mine upon a visit to a new town and restaurant.

read more
Finds and Things

Finds and Things

A random post about some art supplies, vintage finds, and an AI-generated experiment for future crafts.

read more
Stitch Club: Stone 3

Stitch Club: Stone 3

Sue Stone’s third workshop with TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club prompted us to use text in our piece, so I recorded a trip to Shawnee National Forest.

read more
Stitch Club: Stone 2

Stitch Club: Stone 2

Sue Stone led a TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club in her well-known portrait style, and I was inspired to capture a man in a hat in four variations.

read more
Hexie Dreams 19

Hexie Dreams 19

My hand sewn fussy-cut EPP Hexie Dreams quilt is all ready to go to my gramma for hand quilting. Check out a few of my embellished hexies, and come back in the future for the finished product!

read more