Living In The 80's

Hey Guys! 

Time to jump in the 'way back' machine, we're going back to the 80's, cue music!

Oh, the 80's... Who didn't love the 1980's? It was a good decade, wasn't it? The music, the movies, the art! Born in 1974, I am mostly a child of the 80's, since it's when I did most of my growing up, and what a great decade to do so, too many things to list. 

Another Fifth Festival Friday of Fabulousness, Phat Quarter swap is just wrapping up over on Flickr, and now that my partner has received the piece of embroidery I made for her, I can share with you. The theme of the swap was "Living In The 80's", there was no way I wasn't going to participate in this one.

Can you think about the art from the 1980's and not think about Patrick Nagel?  Beautiful but remote, simplified, ethereal women.  His work was everywhere when I was a kid (even on one of my favorite albums!) and I don't think I realized how great it was until recently. It's also great fodder for embroidery, the hard part was choosing which lady to stitch. Now that she's finished, I want to do another one for myself. 

For this swap I went with Striped Pants.

(click any of these pictures to embiggen for more detail)

It was a fun challenge for me to make this piece, I did a few things I hadn't tried before and I loved the way they came out so I'm looking forward to using this technique in future embroidery projects. Part of the reason I picked this Nagel lady was because of her white skin on the gray background, I thought this would translate well to fabric and thought applique was the way to go.

Here she is traced out with fusible web ironed on to the white fabric.

I cut her silhouette out carefully... 

Then fused that silhouette into the grey background fabric. I think it came out very like the original piece that Nagel painted. I was already happy at this point, but this piece continued to come together so nicely, that I'm actually perfectly happy with it. Usually there's something I wish I'd done differently, some small regret. Not this time. This time it was like this piece was meant to be.

The first bits of stitching I did was her outline, stitched just barely outside the applique, then her shades, gloves and pants (which I'll be honest, I thought was a skirt until after I stitched it).

Then the hair. Stitching hair is a booger, ask anyone. I guess it's really not that bad, it just seems to go on and on (and on and on).

 I embroidered her hair in single strand perle cotton using a stem stitch, I liked the sheen of it, and the small twist in the thread gives her hair texture and movement. In this series of  progress pictures, you can see how I tackled stitching the hair. I like to do it kind of directionally, the way real hair would lay.

Her hair, earring and lips completed. Worth the time it takes to do right.

 Then all that was left was the yellow stripes on her booty. 

The stitching went quickly and was surprisingly neat on the back.

 I fill stitched the yellow portions using a brick stitch pattern. 

As far as finishing the piece, I painted a simple wooden hoop matte black,

 and finished the back like so,  a printed paper label with another Nagel lady and the details of the piece, attached to black fabric with scrapbooking brads. The fabric was spray glued to a layer of batting and mounted to a layer of craft board. Nice & neat. 

I added a sheer black ribbon to hang the hoop, and she was ready to go!

Miss Striped Pants is now living in Arizona with her new owner, who, I am happy to report loves her. Yay!! Just like every time I make something for a swap, I worry that the person won't like what I've made. I make myself crazy with that, actually. I need to stop.

So yeah, the 80's! 

Totally bitchin'!

oxo,

Lisa

p.s. I can't wait to show you what I got in this swap, it's terrific so stay tuned!

p.s.s. She got featured today over on Craft Gossip, yahoo! Go take a look.

The Big Show!

Hi All!

Ready for some great art! This is just a small sampling of the wonderful offerings at Hello World, I had to narrow it down a lot, also I'm terrible and didn't note all of the artists when I took photos, but nearly everything in the show is for sale at a web store the gallery has set up, here, if you see something you simply must own. 

Oh! I never did say what I was submitting to the show, did I? Here are the finished pieces just before I packed them up and sent them off...

Home Is Where The Bra Comes Off

 Finished size 8" x 10"

Super Butch!

Finished size 8" x  8". 

I finished the piece only hours before I mailed it out, I think when you last saw it, it looked like this. I stitched the words on bright yellow fabric, trimmed it down to a strip and blanket stitched the strip to the existing piece. Then I did some piecing around the embroidery, much like a quilt square. 

After everything was squared up, I mounted on the piece on a gallery matte that I first padded with cotton batting so the stitches weren't sitting so "hard" on the matte, does that make any sense? I just like to have a little padding for the stitches to sink in to. Then I learned something new, how to make perfect gallery corners! 

Ok, let's go!

The show was held at The Service Station, this place is really cool. An old service station repurposed as an art gallery, event space, Hello World was it's opening event, but they've got some very neat things coming down the pipes, like open air movie screenings, they did Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure last weekend, how fun, no?

Yarn for bombing, bombs away!

 Thanks Lion Brand!!

My pal, Ellen. Ellen Schinderman that is. She and I bombed that fence, we cross stitched "hello world" for the day of the event. Cross stitching a chain link fence isn't as easy as it might seem (and it's dirty, nail breaking work). But it was worth it :)

After bombing and helping with site setup, Ellen and I took off to get gussied up for the show. Back at the event we met up with our stitchy friends who were all contributing artists in this show. It was so exciting to meet these folks in person. Most of my stitchy friends are "online" but fortunately highly concentrated in California. Hi guys!!

From left to right, is Mark Bieraugel, yours truly, Ellen Schinderman, Amy Goldsmith Sheridan and Mo Powers. 

The show was a blast, there was live mural painting, a DJ, art everywhere you turned, drinks, a pizza truck and happy people, it was a wonderful amalgam.

This is the live mural painting, this was an amazing process, I watched it develop online the week leading up to the show, then the guys went gangbusters on it on Saturday. Dave MacDowell is a very talented painter, and a pretty chill dude. Meeting him in person was rad, he had a great vibe.

.

Meex One's tribute to Keith Haring.

The Fiber Room! 

Yu Cotton-well, what a sweet lady and an amazing artist.

Amy's piece was the first sold at Hello World, and to a pretty high roller, to boot! Congratulations, Amy!! Amy is a creative wonder, and prolific! Mad skills, and quick! I don't think I know anyone else who produces more embroidery than Amy. You should really check out her Photostream. I'm lucky to have one of Amy's pieces hanging in my craft room. I snagged it from her Etsy shop the day she listed it. I loves it. 

This piece by Tod Hensley is astounding, I mean wowza! Previous to the show, I'd never seen Tod's work in person and like many embroidered things, it's hard to grasp the scale of the thing looking at it on a computer screen. This piece is SO small, the stitches comprising this amazingly dense piece are minuscule! The finished size of this piece is 16" x 16" but it's matted on raised, black velvet, I'd say the embroidered portion is no bigger than 4" x 4"! I was honestly blown away, and stood gawping at this piece for quite a long time. Click the photo for a bigger view, you will be amazed, too. 

Strange Charm by Mark Bieraugel, science meets embroidery = awesome.

These two embroideries by Mo Powers are my favorite of the show, oh, how I'd love to own them. They are so graceful and somewhat haunting. Just gorgeous. Let's take a closer look...

Primrose by Mo Powers

Fallow by Mo Powers

The trio of pieces on the left are by artist Alaina Varrone, they are wonderful and weird and I really dig them. Alaina's stitching is incredible, her use of teensy, tiny satin stitch blows my mind. I actually own a very small piece by Alaina, it's one of my favorite things in the world.

The piece on the right is by Katharine Lawrie, the stitching is delicate and interesting, but what's more interesting (to me) is that Katharine made the fabric and the frame. She made the fabric, people. That's dedication.

Speaking of dedication, this piece by Ellen Schinderman is incredible. It's a portrait of her mother, which in itself is pretty great, but as I mentioned earlier, seeing things online makes it difficult to get an idea of the scale of a piece. This piece is large. LARGE. Two FOOT by three FOOT. 

Over sized cross stitch, pixelated portrait. 

Here is a snapshot I took of two people looking closely at the work in portrait. I wanted to give you a true idea of how big this is. I enjoyed seeing people go in close for a good look and kind of shake their heads, unbelieving at first, "whoa" and then they lean a little closer and see that this huge portrait is actually made of thousands of stitches, not ink, and utter another, breathy "whoa!" and then turn to their friends and say "whoa, this is crazy, come check this out!" It makes me proud for my friend. I'm smiling just thinking about it.

Wait until you see what else Ellen is cooking up! I'll have to think of a better phrase than mind blowing, but let's just say it will make this gorgeous portrait look rather small.

My friends came to the show, too! 

Hi Lokens!

These are some other pieces I thought were great...

 Yarn bombed.

I did that, heehee! I think wrapping those fence posts in small, knitted squares is as close to actually knitting as I'll ever get.

Oh, hai guys! Hey look, it's that thing I made.

It was a great night, but it went by so fast! I got to meet some online artist friends in person, I got to see fabulous art, I got to see my best friend, and I got to be a part of something I never imagined I would. I think it's fair to say I might have been floating on air that night. What a lucky girl I am!

This was short trip to LA, just an over nighter (thanks for the lodgings, Ellen!). Next morning, I had breakfast with Mel then hopped on another plane and flew home. The day after that I hopped on two more planes and flew to Georgia to see family, but that's another post ♥

Whoa, that was a lot of links, I hope I didn't miss anything. Did you make it through? 

Is anyone still here? 

Hellolol...?

What'd ya think? Pretty neat, aye?

oxo,

Lisa

Hello World - The Big Day!

Today's the big day, kiddos! 

I'm flying to Los Angeles this morning to take part in my first art show, and it's a doosie! I'm very excited to see so much fantastic art tonight, and nervous about what people might think about mine!

Lookie there, I've got business cards! 500 of them! Arteests need business cards, ya know...

I used an image from the Sashiko embroidery that I completed not too long ago for the front of the cards, and went with matte black on the back with my contact info in white, I wanted it clean and simple. I'm official now, yo!

 3160 Riverside Drive

Los Feliz, CA 90027

The show's begins at 2pm, and ends at 10pm and there's going to be music, drinks, and art! Art! ART!

If you're in the Los Angeles area please, please come, I'd love to meet you!

I feel so, so... hopeful! So open to possibilities. Energy and love are flowing on an electric current. Watch out, I'll zap ya with my looove!

Thank you for all your encouragement and your kind comments, dear friends!

I'll take tons of pictures, I can't wait to come back and tell you about it. 

See you tomorrow (or tonight if you're coming to the show, hint-hint!)!

oxo,

Lisa!