SpiroHazard

The latest Phat Quarter Swap was themed around toys. I was very fortunate and got Olisa aka cocoaeyes as my swap partner. She made me a piece for the food swap so now it was my turn to return the favour!

I knew that Olisa loved hazard signs and wanted to include this in my piece. I then found out from her that she also loves Spirograph. I decided to create a take on the biohazard sign in a hoop for her, but instead of the biohazard symbol I would use a Spirograph pattern!

I found a pattern that I liked and centred it in a black triangle on a yellow background. I thought the Spirography design might take a while to stitch but the satin stitching of the triangle was actually a lot more time consuming - I always forget that about satin stitch before I start it!

I wrapped the hoop frame with some black fabric so the whole thing was a hazard sign and sent it off! I was really pleased with how this turned out and how much it was personalised for my recipient. I think Olisa really liked it too - right Olisa?!

Brand New Day

My piece finally arrived in New Zealand so I can share it with you!

I made this piece for my friend Jo because she donated the vintage linen doily I used for my dirty doily. We are both huge Joss Whedon fans so my piece is based on Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog.

My favourite line fro Dr. Horrible is in the song Brand New Day where he sings "and she may cry but her tears will dry when I give her the keys to a shiny new Australia"... and so here is Billy's gift to Penny - a shiny new Australia! With a heart shaped key and everything :-)

Work In Progress - Surprise!

I have actually had a little bit of time lately to get some stitching done and so have been working on a piece for a friend. Now, I can't show you the finished piece until it reaches her in New Zealand as it is a surprise, but I thought I'd give you a little sneak-peak :-)

Enjoy!

Wild Side

My ship is currently running an art contest, so while I had a little bit of spare time I decided to give it a go. There was no theme, no real rules, I just had to use the canvas, paint and brushes provided and then could add and do whatever I wanted.

I'd had a piece in mind for a while that was based on a photo I took of my ship in Alaska, but doing it just for fun seemed a little silly. Doing it for an art contest on the ship seemed apt though.

Originally I did think I was going to use any paint but then I started thinking about a mixed media piece and got excited. I used old schedules as a background and painted over them with white leaving a few words visible. I then painted in a pale outline of my ship from the photo I was using as a reference. Finally I added some Alaskan mountain in the background. Next came the stitching.

My ships always have fun, colourful images painted on the side so I incorporated this into my piece. I stitched the artwork down the side of the ship and also used a mixture of paint and stitch to represent colourful pearls on some sparkle net. This pieces is going to be about layers!

I emphasised some wording from the background with embroidery in colours to match the ship and then added a slogan in embroidery as well over chiffon.

I made a few changes to my original plan for this piece but I think it came out almost exactly as I envisioned it in my head. I'm really happy with it and I'll let you know how it goes in the contest!

Art: From Enchantment To Down

One More Trophy - Pocahontas

I stumbled across a blog post on BUST magazine's website the other day from a few months ago but wanted to write about it here. Check out the original post here.

Just a Trap - Alice


My Sweet Prince - Snow White

Thomas Czarnekis is a photography artist and in his latest series he takes Disney princesses and places them in doomed situations. The writer of the original blog post I read about this seemed quite offended by these images but they made me think.

Happy End - The Little Red Riding Hood


On The Other Shore - The Little Mermaid

I have never see the Disney Princesses as images of frail women who needed men to function. To me they are women going after what they want, some to me seem stronger than others but I have never seen them as contrary to my strong feminine beliefs. Apparently some people do and the art of Czarnekis has strengthened this concept, even making people look at the art as if it condones violence towards women because they are fragile.

Too Fast - Cinderella


Not So Romantic - Beauty and the Beast

I don't see it this way. To me it seems that it is shattering an image of perfection that women cannot live up to. Perhaps even a perfection that our modern world makes it difficult to manifest. These images may even represent the destruction of the frail feminine in our modern world because our modern ideals break it down. Also, a very good point was made in a comment on the original BUST blog post - these stories were not written by Disney. Fairy Tales were stories of violence, danger and abuse used as warnings. Perhaps these images harp back to those origins as well.

Naughty Girl - Sleeping Beauty


One Last Wish - Jasmine

I like these images - I do not think they promote violence towards women or make women seem frail. Instead they make you think, which is really what art is supposed to be about.

To see them on Czarneckis' website go here.
To see a further post on the on DesignBoom go here

Tiger Feet!

It has been far too long since I posted a blog! I have been super busy at work and haven't had time to do any stitching, but the Phat Quarter had a swap so I just had to find time for that.

This time the theme was the 1970s and rather than go to my usual standby of a piece based on David Bowie I thought I would do something different. As a costumer, and a girl, I really love shoes and as a teenager I was really into 1970s platforms - the perfect subject for my piece!

After chatting with my swap partner, Juline, I based the colours on a story she told me. A combination of blue, orange, silver and purple seemed very 70s to me.

I found the border fabric in a quilt store in Seattle and thought it was perfect for this piece, incorporating the colours and almost a 1970s wallpaper feel.

Not a bad little effort in the time I had!

Sketchbook Project Limited Edition

Goodness, it has been a long time! I have been settling in on my new ship, the install of the new cast was very busy and there is still soem work to be done, but I have five minutes right now to post a blog so I thought I's better pop in!

I'm currently in Alaska, enjoying the crisp air, inspiration and beer :-) I've already bought some lovely dyed fabrics from Juneau that I have plans for. I also have an embroidery piece in mind for a friend, now I just need to find time to start it.

Until then here is a little art to tide you over. I worked on a Sketchbook for the Art House Co-Op's Limited Edition project where one spread from each book entered will be put into a series of art books. I tried to express my process and show some experimentation with the theme Thread and Surface.

I experimented with surface design techniques and then used the fabrics I created to make mixed media collages at the end of the book. Some of the techniques worked really well and others need some work. I really liked flour paste resist once I got the hang of it and silk painting is always a winner.

I think I might turn some of these into prints at some point, or greetings cards - what do you think?