Armstrong Industry Journal

Kacey Carneal Suffolk Arts

We have a great show opening in Downtown Suffolk this Friday.  In Celebrations of "Minds Wide Open:  Virginia Celebrates Women in the Arts"  the Suffolk Center is presenting Kacey Carneal a Woman and Her Art.  Kacey is a wonderful Folk Painter from rural Virginia and her work in included in the archives of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC. Opening is June 11, 6-8pm., the show will be on display through August 27, 2010.   Come early and visit some of the other local art venues, including Shooting Star Gallery, Red Thread Studio, and the Suffolk Museum.  Stay late for dinner at one of our local restaurants, Primo 116, great sushi at Sushi AKA, Barron's Pub, or Amici's.  You can find more information about local happenings here.

 

"My Friends Have Made the Story of My Life" by Kacey Carneal

New Art Class

I will be teaching a summer class "Exploring Fabric and Fiber Art" at Suffolk Center For Cultural Arts.  I have been teaching middle school age students for several years, and this is a chance for me to work with adults.  I look forward to this new program in Surface Design and Guided imagery I am introducing.  You can check out all the details here.

Dyed and appliqued fabric with knit trim.

Wood Design

We do have some new products coming out.  I have them at the Red Thread and they will soon be available at on line.  All wood boxes, work well for display, serving, and organizing as well with a retro, modern look.  Made from recycled, reclaimed wood each with some quirky printing/painting details and a quilted fabric mat inside.

Out of the Mud

Jeannine started a great art journal class last week.  I am a little behind, due to the end of the school year activities, but am getting back on schedule.  Digging in last week hand me thinking about these last few months, and all the changes that occurred and are coming to my life.  Being able to get back to a working space has been so inspiring, flowers are blooming in my work.  The lotus flower is formed from a seed growing out of a deep dark bed of mud and reaching up through the water,  so my world has seemed since last fall. 

I had not realized until the business closed last fall, that I had been practicing yoga for a little over three years.  It caused a real emptiness, the  yoga work helps both the body and the mind and just when I had the most stress-it was not available to me.  The lotus is also a powerful symbol in yoga.  In Hindu it is the symbol for beauty, purity and good fortune.

More photos here.

Design Collection Lists

I having researching and creating a kind of standard list to help with planning a design collection.  The information out there is usually geared toward the student or a large production company.  I am an indie designer and do most of the work myself, so this has really helped me keep up with my business and have all the creative freedom I love.

1.Choose your inspiration and narrow your focus.  I have hundred of design ideas, plus all the inspiration available on line, magazines, etc.  I have made the point of limiting the number of pieces, types of fabric, and techniques I use.

2.  Draw the designs. Include the details for each idea. I decided to make mine basic ideas on large index cards.  

3.Select your fabrics(or other materials) plan your color palette.  I is so much easier at the fabric store(you know how all those beautiful fabric prints and colors will be begging you to touch and buy them).

4. Make your patterns.  Most of my designs are based on a block type shape.  I have made a system of random pieces that can be put together to make garments as well as home accessories.

5.  Create Samples.  I sew 2 or 3 of each silhouette to help work out any design problems with the patterns, and/or embellishment techniques.

  These are the basics for me, and I will expand on these in some coming posts.

                                                    

Scale of Art

Recently I did some art for an invitational "small" (nothing larger than 6 inches)show at the Charles Taylor Arts Center.  It was a little tricky.  Working in fiber and fabric I usually create clothing or home accessories and they need to be on a larger scale.  It is best, especially with sewing machines, to make things larger than you need then cut away excess.  That does leave you with some interesting tidbits of scraps for future projects. 

On the other end of the scale, my current show going up at the Red Thread is a collection of work from two mural paintersGlenn Bangley and Erick Murray. Their work is much larger in scale than any show we have presented and offers some nice insight for me in my own work. I have always wanted to do some large pieces, thoughts to ponder.  

              
                 "Treasure" by Erick Murray

Art Action Obamaware

I just found out about a great art auction, Obama/Biden fund raiser. Jessica'sblog is always full of great information.  We have an Obama office right across form the galleryand it is so exciting to see the energy and work on some of the activities in a campaign this big.  Ayumi Horie is the originator of the sale and they have some lovely work form 27 ceramic artisans.  You can go the the live auctionnow and it will end Wednesday, so hurry and Go Obama.

Update:  This is a beautiful post and very touching thoughts on parenting, and mothers.(Via Atrios)

A Single Piece of Paper

While researching and geometric paper folding project for my building and design students, I found this wonderful artist, Peter Callesen.  He does the most unbelievable paper cuts. Each one is made using and single sheet of paper.  I use blocks and Legos and other items for the class (middle school), but I love showing them how to create in three dimensions with simple items, such as paper.  The images speak for themselves, more here. 

 

Cloth Texture Color

We are discussing different types of fabric in my design class.  It is difficult to find, in local fabric shop, a variety of natural fiber.  The independent quilt shops offer cotton, but silk and wool in a pure form (not blended with man-made fiber) is getting harder to find.  I order my fabric on line which is easier, but if I tell my students to look at the shops, it is the "faux" silks, linens, etc.

My work is in silk, linen, cotton and love all the texture that can come with just these fabrics.  The dying and printing is a little different for each but not a big change in process.  The silk does take the dye so well and presents a great color range.  I found this artisan Pamela Tang on line a while ago and have loved her designs, they have a feel of my own style and color favorites.  Her work and the photography is so lovely, more can be found here. 

Pamela Tang Quilt

Green and Grey

I teach a design class for fiber art students and we are working on color theory these next few weeks.  I love the research on Flickr and this is a lovely group with greena dn grey as the focus colors. Enjoy.

 

1. Spring, 2. Green and Gray, 3. Every night for a hundred years the angel of dreams came to the town & splashed the walls with bright colors that stayed until the first light of day., 4. Path, 5. Nantucket, 6. Lines and Circles, 7. Driftwood, 8. Global Warming and Climate Change, 9. JL_507ra, 10. Pigeon, 11. tree girl, 12. Pods