Moon Trees On A Night Sky

Silk dyes on silk with wax resist and stitching

Moon Trees On A Night Sky 

detail of Moon Trees On A Night Sky

detail

Sewing Spirit Goddess

about 8-10" tall
linen, metal beads, pearls, clay bead
threads and a long needle

I made a Sewing/Needle Spirit Goddess for last night's holiday get together gift exchange. 

Martha M. was the lucky winner!

Gingo Leaves oil painting finally finished

Finally finished this 30" x 40" gingko leaves painting! It'll be digitized and giclees printed. I may even do cards.

It was so much fun to paint this one. No contemplating, no centering, just fun.

Silk Scarves, Gingko Leaves oil paintings and fun!

The Euclid Arts Cooperative in Atlanta had an Open Studio Arts Sale this past weekend. As one of the invited guest artists, I showed my work in Michelle Jordan's clay studio. Lots of fun, meeting new people, seeing old friends, and students and friends who drove miles and miles to midtown Atlanta in the wet, cold, damp weather to support me! I am grateful to all of them!

A couple came from Jasper, somewhere up in the North Georgia mountains I think, and another came on crutches after foot surgery all the way from somewhere called John's Creek, and two walked 3 miles to come see me! Oh my!

I received nice comments about my work and of course that made me want to rush home and paint some more right away.

Clay masks with silk by Hellenne Vermillion

Silk scarves 

oil paintings of gingko leaves

oil paintings of gingko leaves

Coming up for air...

Had my daughter's wedding on a farm in NJ…..

Me wearing my hand dye painted wisteria kimono jacket.

…the following week attended a workshop and met some nice people….

….the following week visited the Bay Area and went to my high school art teacher's opening with my friend Sheila and learned to become vegan…..

Sheila, Mr. Parlante, and me

…and now working on a large oil painting….

work in progress, gingko leaves

Pen & Ink Graphics

A request from my daughter for a guest sign in "tree." It's done except for being tinted with colors.
18"x24"

This was the first version, but I decided a horizontal version would be better.

And because I have OCD I started another tree just for fun, but not too happy with it so far.

Night Dream oil painting

Night Dream
22"x28"
oil on canvas

detail of Night Dream
22"x28"
oil on canvas

Fool in Silk

"Fool" 24" x 36" was made for our fiber group's "It's All In The Cards" exhibit

this September at The Art Place in Mountain View in North Metro Atlanta.

My card picked was the Joker, and instead of a literal translation

I did an abstract depicting the foolishness, the naivety

 the there are no limitations in life,

and just go swirling around into the unknown aspects of the "Fool" in the Tarot Card.

A few of the circular motifs actually turn.

It's supposed to be a fun piece.

Nothing serious. 

Fool
24" x 36"
silk, acid dyes, embroidery threads
mounted on stretched canvas

detail

Three Silks for Mini SPIN Festival

These three works are at the Mini SPIN (silk painters international) Festival in Tallahassee, Florida, this week.

Tree With Moon
Silk dyes on silk crepe de chine
wax etched
embellished with French knots

detail

Autumn Tree
Wax etching silk dyes on silk
embellished with French knots
mounted on silk dupioni

detail of Autumn Tree

Koi Fish With Plants
silk with acid dyes
embellished with embroidery
mounted on silk dupioni

detail

Procion MX dyeing on cotton/linen fabric

I've decided to dye linen/cotton with Procion MX dyes using soda ash and do some experiments to see if I like this process. Below are four pics of my first attempt at ice cube dyeing. It's on linen/cotton rough weave medium to heavy weight. The colors aren't as strong or bright as  I had hoped, so next time I will sprinkle more dye.

This one has "freckles" where the dye powder did not get as wet and just sat on the surface of the fabric.

Ice cube dyeing is putting ice cubes on top of the fabric and sprinkling dyes on top.
The cubes slowly melt moving dyes around and the dyes strike at different
times as it hits the fabric.

There is a spot where the dye powder was still dry on the fabric and did not get wet.

Below is a hexagon clamp resist piece and leftover dyes were used. The darker spots are navy dye that had a lot of Superclear in it which was hard to rinse out. It back-dyed on some areas.

Below is a hexagon folded but not clamped piece using leftover dyes again. Both the one above and this one had intense dye on them (not as diluted) so the colors are more brilliant. Both are the same medium to heavy weight rough weave linen/cotton fabric.

Using the navy mixed with SuperClear (not straight solution but 50/50 with water) I stenciled onto the same fabric. It was hard to get the dye all the way through at first. Notice how light some areas are where I didn't continue to rub the stencil brush over and over.

Dye didn't go all the way through the stencil. Light areas can be seen here.

The Superclear was hard to wash out and I wanted to see if I wasn't careful how much would dye-back onto the fabric as can be seen below. I may try rice paste or some other medium to stencil with.

Back-dyed spots on the right hand side.

Back-dyed spots.

The reverse side of this medium to heavy weight linen/cotton fabric didn't get dyed as well. Needed to work the dye through the stencil some more.

aprons, aprons, aprons .... potholders

My daughter requested aprons as gifts for her bridesmaids. I needed to make 7 plus one for her. Twelve plus reversible aprons later.... my OCD is forcing me to continue making them! Help!

They are all completely reversible, pockets on both sides, adjustable buttonholes, faux piping on the straps.

They have been fun to make.... and the scraps became 9 plus funky potholders. I love the running silhouettes fabric.

And the lobster print! And the deviled eggs print... so much fun but enough is enough.

Published! Calendar this time

Four of my 12"x12" pieces are part of SEFAA's 2014 Calendar. One of them is the cover!

Click SEFAA's website to purchase calendars to buy one and support SEFAA