The Winter session at Fleisher is over now, but I took some photos of my
Stitch and Surface students work on the last day of class to share. Some people were finishing up their functional object/clothing embellishment, and others were completing their monoprint/fabric collage piece. I'm really proud of how creative and committed these ladies were this semester. It really shows in how individualized these pieces are:
Lynn Ellen Wolfe's functional embellishment was to add spark to a tweed winter skirt she'd made. She decided on creating an abstracted stand of birch trees in applique with stitched bark. I wish I'd gotten another image when she was further along, as the bark texture was exquisite. The hem of the skirt is ringed in lines of running stitch, completing the landscape feel.
You don't need to know how to sew your own clothes, though to do fashion embellishment. Check out
Grace Smith's deconstructed blouse:
It started life as a Target purchase a friend passed on to her, but the neckline was covered in weird jewelry-like embellishments she disliked and tore off, leaving behind an interesting tracery of machine stitched lines. Responding to the lines and the pieced aspect of the blouse, Grace started drawing additional fine lines with thread, connecting and meandering the existing ones, balancing out the heavy ribbon lines below and turning her blouse into an upcycled fashion piece. Don't be slaves to consumerism people! Put your own mark on thrift store finds and the old clothes lurking in your closet. It just takes a little imagination and a needle and thread.
Casey Jones turned this functional, but sort of plain satchel into a one-of-a-kind by adding buttons from her collection and a stitched feather. The large button at right was attached with shisha work, since the shank was so small compared to the diameter of the button. It looks like a compass now.
The lining of the bag has a map of the world in sepia tones. The feather reminds me of the wind and travel, exactly what this bag was made for.
Casey really got into the collage and found object embellishment. She is a great collector of keys, and finally found a use for them in her embroidery (below). By the end of class the king and queen had broken hearts connected by a thread. She said keys remind her of opening the heart. This piece is a great exploration of applique, reverse applique, and a broad definition of what can be used in embroidery material-wise.
Anna Lockhart also had a great exploration with the monoprint/collage project (below). I think she probably had the best transformation of her monoprinted fabrics- the eyes in the sky and the grid patterned cityscape play between pattern and representation. The eyes are reverse appliqued with seeding and beading filling in some of the edges (my favorite part!). Anna also has a collection of bric-a-brac she was able to include in the piece. The sun is a squashed salt shaker cap, and the trashy street scene include bits of plastic jewelry and a birthday candle!
I think the students were influencing each other a lot this session-
Fran Schatz's combinations of printed and dyed fabrics, ribbons, threads, beads, earrings, buttons, clothing tags, etc. etc. were quite inspiring to the other students! I like how in this one, she's making more of a pictorial affect- the randomness reveals an underwater scene.
I'll leave you with
Pam Thompson's sampler-like motif. Pam is very inspired by African textiles and culture and so this piece, I believe, is a fertility symbol. It will have some more beading included, as well as some cowrie shells placed in the bottom furls. I already know Pam is coming back for another class, and I can't wait to see how this one develops.
May your own creativity be endlessly fertile and personally meaningful!
Many of those paintings became a renewed resource for her current body of work. Cut up, stitched back together, they become greatly abstracted from their original existences, yet a remnant of the content remains. They're reincarnated, but have old souls.
I love the hanging threads in this one above. There's such complex color as paint seeps through canvas, or canvas is painted on both sides.
The works in this exhibit have a very organic feel to them. I like how she's used painted lines over the stitched canvas to reunite the surface and bring back some of the painting/layered quality she used in her previous, flatter work. 
Colleen has a solo exhibit entitled "Home" opening at the Painted Bride on First Friday, where she'll be showing her more architectural pieces. 
It's about 8x10 inches and includes a base layer of brown linen, a middle layer of 6 dyed cotton and silk scraps leftover from our early samples, and an overlay of my sculptural shibori in silk organza. The entire pieces was kantha stitched to fuse the layers and create a brick-like texture. The brown window square is reverse applique. The organza is slashed in certain areas to let the underlying color peek through. The brown vines up top are done in coral stitch, and the river mural is done in rayon satin stitch. I only had white bias tape, so I dyed it navy to bind the edges. (It was a REALLY old package of bias- original price 5cents!)
The gallery owner put in fresh heather at the front entrance sometime during the week. The building is a former bank that has been transformed into an alternative gallery space. Since it's pretty small, the owners specialize in offering the space to small groups of 2-3 artists with cohesive curatorial proposals. It's in the Kensington section of the city, and is a small bright spot of art in the area. 
Bright works greet visitors in the small vestibule. A few steps up and you enter a northern-light filled, high-ceilinged front room.
We made an effort not to crowd the works and find pieces that could hold conversations. My small pieces filled in the numerous nooks and crannies.
Walking past the front room, you enter a hallway/kitchenette that leads to a small back room.
The hallway was perfect for this series of cityscapes, as they're best on close inspection. (I sold 2 of these!)
In the back room we each had a piece to anchor each available wall. This room is southern-lit, arm and intimate. I wasn't so sure about having my one small piece on the wall at right, afraid to waste space, but the others convinced me.
She couldn't have asked for a better night for the final culmination of her months-long 
Nexus has a fantastic exhibit curated by 
I'm really glad I went Friday night, as I'd totally missed 
I enjoyed 
A collaborative printed canvas windmill by 
What I really enjoyed about the Nexus show was the expansive use of print. I think it's great that artists are pushing the boundaries of their mediums- moving a traditionally 2-D medium to break into space, combining with technology, and printing on more than just Rives BFK.
I loved the black and white origami growth in the center. Components of smaller elements making larger things fascinates me. Joking with another person, we imagined the whole thing could probably fold up flat to fit into a suitcase! (Sorry I missed the artist's name)
Then the piece de resistance of the Icebox exhibit was getting to see 3 
The real thrill was seeing this centralised carpet of pins with only a cut, patterned border.
I was interested in creating a piece that involved text, as I love text, but find it hard to embroider massive amounts of text. The inspiration was a selection of Islamic imagery, particularly a long scroll calendar from which I took the long border, short center text format. I was thinking how all the Islamic art I had found had religious purpose- calendars and maps and protective talismans all orient one toward prayer. So I created a purposeful, prayerful, personal object/ritual clothing. 
The only embroidery is at the yoke, with a verse from Matthew 28- for those familiar with the verse, the placement at "yoke" is significant.
