River Terrace Installation Reception with Jenny Schu

This is the finale for me.  When I finished this installation, it felt great, but there was a sense of something missing.  Usually when an artist finishes a body of work, we had an exhibit, showing or reception for the public.  So this is mine, it's coming up in a few days, but then I'll feel done!

Come ask me questions, see the work in person, check out this really beautiful church (and the stained glass this was inspired from).

Thursday, May 23, 2019

5:00pm to 8:00pm

River Terrace Church

1509 River Terrace Drive

East Lansing, MI 48823

The public Facebook Event can be viewed here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2808992972475158/

Long thin Wrap Necklace/Bracelet for CCFF 2019

I always have a jewelry piece that I'm working on.  Sometimes I get them done quickly because I can't put them down, sometimes I slog through a little bit at a time between other projects.  this one I slogged through because when I wasn't at work, I was focused on the River Terrace Church Installation.  This piece wraps to be a long, medium or short necklace, or wraps multiple times to be a bracelet.

This inspiration for this piece was a new dress I picked up at Grace Boutique in Old Town.  I decided it was perfect for one of the weddings I have to go to this summer, but also I wanted to wear it to the Capital City Film Festival Red Carpet event.  When I started this piece, I pulled all the different colors of beads that would match the dress is 15's, 13's and 11's.  My initial thought was to create this necklace in the St. Petersburg Chain Stitch (see below), but that was quickly scrapped.  It had too much going on, the stitch needed to be smaller and simpler.

Simple stitching is not my forte, but with all the color options I could still give this piece a complex feel.  5 feet, 9 inches later with a vintage clasp from my grandma's old costume jewelry I came up with a smooth multicolored blend of seed beads with little leaf and pearl accents.  This piece is very lightweight with a nice hang, almost like a very light rope.

You can barely see it in the above photo, but you can see the dress and how it didn't need a lot of extra pizazz with it's jewelry.  Honestly, the cut of the dress on my is just ok, but I absolutely fell in love with the fabric and print of it, it's very pretty and comfortable.

I chose this length so that I could wrap it 2, 3 or 4 times and wear it from a choker to all different lengths.  When it gets bothersome at work and I'm worried I'm going to snag it on something, I wrap it up to a choker or around my wrist.

Little Leaf Detail

Bracelet Pile

I'm just posting this now as a breather from finishing the huge River Terrace Installation and getting ready to lecture and teach at the Needlework and Textile Guild of Michigan next week to a sold-out workshop.  I can't believe I got everything done the week of Film Fest between floorset at work (rearranging the entire clothing sales floor for the new month and new clothes), volunteering at the Film Fest and finishing and hanging the River Terrace piece. What a whirlwind!  

Group Photo from CCFF. Film fest is always one of my favorite Lansing events,

this photo honors the pre-digital camera age where, due to Bryan's height, 

his head always got cut off in photos.

2019 Church Commission Progress

If you follow me on Instagram, Twitter or my personal Facebook profile you have been seeing snippets of a piece that I'm referring to as "the big project" or "the big commission."  I have been commissioned by a local church to create a hanging triptych to be hung at the very front of the church's sanctuary. Three panels approximately 3.5 feet wide by 12 feet long each.  It's very exciting to be working so large and getting to play with all the silky, shiny and sheer fabrics I can get my hands on to create this large piece of fiber art.

I usually am pretty wary of taking on commission pieces but after meeting with Melissa and Laura one afternoon in October, I came home excited and inspired.  There were already bits of an idea in place, but they needed someone who knew how to put it together.  This fiber piece is being created to compliment the stained glass windows that accent one side of the sanctuary.  I pulled imagery from these windows and started pulling fabrics and colors. Stained glass has always spoken to me, these particular stained glass windows are a bit more modern looking than one would imagine when you think "church" and the lines and color are very much along the lines of my style of artwork.  I have already been thinking about how these window designs would play into my beaded jewelry and other various works of mine.

This process has been interesting due to it's size, I have the first cartoon for the first panel and it's taken over my dining room table.  There's lots of rolling, unrolling, moving cats, and placing fabric going on in my dining room.  I pin together sections and stitch, pin, cut, stitch, press, roll, unroll....  

I wanted to go skiing yesterday, but I couldn't ski with a free conscience knowing that the Easter deadline is looming over me.  I thought I'd finish this panel yesterday but I only got to the point of sewing the rest of the pieces at the top together and starting to measure and press the edges.  As usual, this is a long tedious process. Just the way I like to do all of my artwork.  I did solve my slippage and too-small-ironing-board issue though. I've been pressing and moving fabric between my ironing board and my dining room table. My ironing board was taking up more space than was comfortable to work in and moving the fabric back and forth just wasn't working for me or my surfaces.

I have had a padded table cover sitting in my Amazon wish list for forever.  Ever since someone (Cheryl maybe?) suggested it at a learn-to-use-your-sewing-machine workshop day at my place a few years back.  The top of a table pad is vinyl but the other side is soft and thick.  Thick enough that I can do light ironing on top of.  I can also pin into it!  Why I waited so long to order this table cover, I'll never know, but it's going to be a huge help with this project and future projects.

I cannot wait to have this finished and be able to show the finished hanging in all of its glory, but for now, bits and pieces and fun pops of color.  A huge thanks to Melissa for suggesting hiring me to make this piece and to Bryan for being totally cool with me turning our dining room into an extension of my studio and being a cat-wrangler when I cannot have them messing with this.

I have a few other things coming up too:

I'm the March Presenter at the Weavers Guild of Kalamazoo!  Monday, March 11th, 2019

I will (as usual) be at Fiber Feast with the Ann Arbor Fiberarts Guild modeling and selling my jewelry for their annual fashion show and luncheon. Saturday, April 13th, 2019

#CCFF Bangle and Earrings

I'm finally in a place where I can start doing a bit of volunteering here and there.  For the past few years the Capital City Film Festival has been one of my favorite local events.  This year I kept seeing the pattern logo for it and I needed to put it into a bangle.

This bangle can be purchased HERE. 

When I started drafting this piece it, it wasn't looking great and I realized I needed to put it on an angle.  The peyote stitch (which I use in much of my work) lends itself better to angles.

And so, I got the bangle and a matching pair of earrings done for the Red Carpet event last night!

Earrings can be purchased HERE.

A few CCFF High lites:

And it's finally spring so the kittens can enjoy the front porch!

Retro Small Bangle and Earrings

I'm excited to say that I've put myself on the artist vendor list for Bridgefest in Lansing on June 21, 2018.  I haven't done any sort of outdoor tent/art fair sort of thing in years so I figured I'd dip my toes back into it to see how it feels. That being said, I'm trying to put together more stock that's $100 and under, which means smaller, more geometric bangles and lots of earrings. 

I think I pulled this black/white and teal mix due to the current color at the women's clothing store I work at.  The bangle above turned out very retro looking to me.  Like when MTV came out (back when it still played only music videos).  I didn't have cable growing up but it was still part of the pop-culture that surrounded me. 

You can purchase the bangle HERE.

I liked the bangle enough to put together matching earrings.

You can purchase the earrings HERE.

Tiny layering bangles are becoming a big focus for color play.  

(This is the MTV that I remember!)

Moving on.... I also got out my larger bead kit/case to start in on a bangle that I finished drafting last night.  I'm trying out ginkgo leaves, inspired by Rhea who owns Old Town General Store.  Another pop-up I'm doing is My Arts Night Out in Old Town Lansing on May 4, 2018.  We are a regular customer at OTGS and she's getting her artist line-up in early!  I know she's an amazing gardener and I asked what some of her favorite plants were, ginkgo was the first thing that came to mind, so I'm going to see about doing a few of "Reah's Favorites" for this show.

Greys and Gold with a Teal tint Tonal Arrow Bangle and Earrings

I originally was going to stick with greys and gold on this arrow bangle variation but the teal metallic beads jumped out at me when I was putting colors together.  the teal really makes the greys look more blue which surprised me. It looks like you'll be able to pick up this set at the next Arts Night Out in Old Town! 

Sometimes you need a new dress for Capital City Film Festival

After finishing my weaving ("She was Lost in the Woods and Followed the Sound of Your Waves") I needed a creative detox.  I popped into East Lansing to Grove Gallery, Saper Gallery and the Broad Art Museum.  Then over the Beggars Banquet, one of my old haunts from when I lived over that way.

I started doodling, thinking about the red carpet event for the Capital City Film Festival and how to show off my new tattoo (a large pair of sewing scissors).  I know I had been looking at a lot of red carpet fashion online from Hollywood and there's always some level of pushing the line of classy/decency.  I decided to try it.

I went home, found fabric that I already had from who knows where...I know the sheer black is from a 1920's themed dress I made in college for Art School Prom, back in 2003. I draped half the dress with this heavy bright salmon stuff that I have a ton of (again, from who-knows-where) and went for it.

I decided if the dress wasn't pretty much done by Tuesday night it wasn't going to be finished. For something like this I like to have a time limit.  I need to make something for myself every once in a while, but I remind myself that I have many other obligations.  Other rules for myself was that I had to use fabric from my current stash, so outside of my time this dress only cost me $5 for the gold zipper I put in the back.

The zipper was in on Tuesday night, which meant I just needed to put in a bottom hem and trim loose threads.  I'm really happy how it turned out.Thanks so much to Facebook and two of the photographers posting for Capital City Film Festival (I pulled photos from their facebook page).

Lansing is full of awesome people! (Photo by Matthew Dae Smith for CCFF) 

(Photo by Matthew Dae Smith for CCFF)    (Photo by Khalid Ibrahim for CCFF)

(Photos by Khalid Ibrahim for CCFF)

(Photo by Matthew Dae Smith for CCFF) 

And, it goes to show that a dress that fits your body correctly (I have a long waist, my dress form doesn't account for), well-placed darts keep things in place.  I did have fabric tape as backup in case I got nervous.