teresashippy

Faces can be challenging.  Every little detail along with shadows and highlights are so important, especially if  you want to capture the true essence of the individual your working on.  A loved one or a commissioned piece can be daunting.  To capture a simple frown or those well deserved lifelines.  To define using threads helps a great deal in capturing those moments in a realistic way.

To the far left is a sketch from a ten-year old  photo.  The same sketch was traced onto worded cotton fabric.  By stitching heavily with threads I was able to define what this person looks like now.  I used the reversed side of the fabric so that the words would look like shadows.  It worked great!  Much more to do……..

Cotton variegated pale hues courtesy of Valdani  Threads                  

http://www.valdani.com

More faces,                                                                        

Taking a bit of a detour from my “Cool Classic Rides”  to finish up a couple of special exhibits.

“Delphinium fields” A 8 piece floral collection curated by Deborah Stanley will be in travel mode starting May 2013.  Thrilled to have “Handful” travel the full circuit of shows with the Mancuso quilt shows organization.  Honored to be amongst such wonderful talented artists.  Artistic Expressions is a wonderful group founded by Deborah Stanley.  Each of us brings a bevy of artistic ideas to the table at every meet.  Much more additional info here…http://5artisticexpressions.blogspot.com

Hand painted cotton canvas. Raw-edge work. Heavily stitched using a wide variety of variegated cottons and pearl cotton threads from Valdani 

So many memories!  Love the classic car shows. Mom used to drive a pale green corvair way back in the day. Three of my fiber art cars are currently on display @ the Avantgarden Gallery  in downtown Santa Ana, Ca. The entire 27 piece collection will debut this September in Anaheim, Ca. Additional dates for 2014 coming soon.I’m forever grateful for Valdani  Inc. for their wonderful support and sponsorship. Each car is approx. 15-25 pieces of different fabrics stitched onto a hand painted canvas cloth. All 27 cars are stitched with Valdani  Hand  Dyed Variegated Threads. The original concept started in 2011; I thought it would be cool to design funky cars out of pieces of leftover fabrics, some from cut/up quilts, left over painted pieces from my workshop classes, anything that looked on the vintage side was fair game for me to use.  Another source of an inspiration for me is remembering the cars that we had in our large family; 6 brothers, 2 sisters makes for many crazy fun cars to create!  Enjoy the ride…….

Havin Fun!                                                                                                                                                                                   

Below is a before and after pattern. Each piece of the pattern becomes a template; I usually use tracing paper to make each template. People have asked me why not just use a single drawing of a car and let that be a pattern. In order to give it texture and a  cool dimensional look, you really need the many pieces of fabrics along with the thread-work to define.

Love to do faces! Happy to be part of a wonderful art group. The Serendipities current rotation trade theme is “face Value” My 12 x 12 , “Harmony” is free-motion thread stitched using Valdani Hand Dyed Variegated Threads. The background was stitched with a beautiful hue, Subtle Elegance,  50 wt. I used Black Night, also 50 wt. to outline the faces, and also fill in the facial features. Pearl Cotton #8 and # 12 was used from the reverse, bobbin work for the hair. The pearl cotton threads really added a nice textured look. Different weights of these threads create a variety of textures; because I tend to embellish heavily with threads its so important to me to have the quality. Valdani provides just that, a fantastic product!

Let’s begin 2013!

Thrilled to have my black/white fiber piece “Searching For Coco Chanel” amongst such wonderful photographers. “The Photography Show” exhibits such an amazing collection of black/white pics along with wonderful color photos; a must see if you are in the area.

Coco is a perfect fit within a cool mix of talent. Please join us at the Avantgarden The Art Gallery, located inside the beautiful historic Santora, 207 N. Broadway, Santa Ana, Ca. Artists Village. The Photography Show, Opening Reception January 5th, 7-10 pm. Exhibit dates, January 5th- 27th, 2013.