Five Fancy Fish

I made this quilt in 2005. I made this to fit in the space above the window in our bathroom. I have since been commissioned to make more. You can see them on my website, here. This piece is 11” h x 42” w I used fun fabrics to make the fish with drawings of fish that I found on line and in coloring books. These are not fish that were cut from fishy fabric!!! Click on the quilt to see a larger photo. There is lots of beading and embellishment with fancy threads and stitching. Here is a detail shot.

I hope you all enjoy making an undersea scene as much as I did.

Bliss

This was such a fun challenge. I was shopping at Trader Joe's a couple of days ago and the condensed milk can caught my eye. I think it is a new product, but it was the happy colors and shapes that caught my eye. I also liked the punch of black and white in the cow and the title.

I used some prefused scraps and made this little abstract landscape. I added the work bliss because it is my focus word for 2010. I plan to hang this in my studio as a reminder to follow my bliss and not get hung up on deadlines and obstructions.

Rainbow Fish School

I think I have improved this. I used some color pencils to do some highlighting on some of the fish, particularly the larger fish in the center area. I tried doing some stitching, but that was not effective. Let me know what you think.



Here is my piece with a detail. It is silk with screenprinted fish, using Lumiere metallic paints. It was then overdyed with Colorhue dyes. The fabric was laid over bubble wrap to give the bubble texture. I have just started experimenting with these dyes. They strike very quickly and require no chemicals or special batching. Once they are dry, they are done. They can be used on linen and wool, also.

I wish I had made a new screen with more detail as the fish are sort of blending into the water, but I guess that is what they do!!

Celestial Black Hole

New techniques that I used:

• painting over acrylic paints with a transparent black Setacolor. The acrylic acted as a resist so only the unpainted areas took the black paint. I love this way of working.
• adding Golden's mica chips in gel medium for some celestial glitz.

This also has a lot of foiling, which is not a new technique for me.

Here is a detail


I have another one painted, but it is not stitched as yet.

OK, I am ready for the next challenge.