Forest Through the Trees, Part 1, Warping the Loom

"Forest through the Trees" is what I am currently working on for this first piece of my Individual Artist's Grant.  I was planning creating it well before I knew I received the grant so it will not have the 3-D vining beadwork in it, but it does incorporate 3 panels, 2 of which will integrate beadweaving.  The back panel, which is woven, is what I am working on in these photos.  This is just the set-up (I didn't get photos of the dyeing process, which is another beast in and of itself, maybe next time!)

Cartoon for the back panel which will be handwoven in double weave pick up.

I hand dyed this warp yarn in my basement for the back panel of this first piece.

This is one of the warp colors being taken off of the warp winder.

Threading the reed of the loom with the first warp, alternating for stripes.

The second warp through the reed on top of the first warp, again, alternating for strips

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View from the back of the loom, next, all 720 strings have to be threaded individually though each heddle in order. You can see why you'll be seeing less and less of me away from my studio.

I remove the back beam on my loom to thread the heddles.  It gets me just a little closer.  My back warp beam is a pain to take off, so I just wrap myself over it to get to the heddles.

Warp through the heddles. I am completely in love with the colors of this warp!

Warp strings tied to the back beam.

I know it looks like a tangled mess, this is the front of the loom with the warp ready to pull through. It actually went faster than I expected.

Pulling the warp through the reed and the heddles.

....and the front tie on!

It's so nice to just have the warp done.  Now I'm ready to start weaving.  The next blog will talk a little about double weave pick up which is the type of weave the I'm doing with this piece, and also show the header with the separated fabrics.

I'll be trying to keep track of my time the best I can, here's an approximate run down for this portion:

Dying warp: 6+ hours

Balling and Winding warp:  4+ hours

Warping loom: 13 hours

This project is brought to you by the Arts Council of Greater Lansing.

Side note: My apologies on the quality of photos as many of them will be taken from my phone for speed and convenience in posting my updates.

Red Leaves and Lace Tunic

This tunic piece began as an idea floating around in my head, with very little direction, I just started knitting it.  I am not a very fast knitter as I mostly am knitting while working out on the elliptical these days.  I sketched out a few ideas, and was making the leaves in between other projects.

I started this in November of 2011.  I knit to keep my hands busy while I'm out, watching a movie, helping on projects around the house.

The "lace" pattern is from a free Ravelry pattern, which is actually a hat knitted in the round.  The hat pattern is by Natalie Larson.  When I knit, I prefer to wing it.  Also, when knitting a pattern, I like mistakes and small messes.  For this particular pattern I intentionally knitted it while with groups of people talking, half-paying attention, so that I could get an organic looking jumbled mess in areas.  I revel in the fact that the majority of my work isn't perfect.

Piles of beaded leaves and messy excess thread (which I leave on to stitch the leaves together with).

Once the tunic was knitted, I had it living on my dress form in the basement for a while.  I pinned the leaves on to the dress form was I made them so I had a large grouping of them before I sat down to stitch them all together.

I created a paper guide on the dress form (with leftover pieces of construction paper) so I had something to line the leaves up to as I stitched them together.

Front: Stitched leaves and adding more in as they lay on the dress form.

Back: Stitched leaves and adding more in as they lay on the dress form.

This is the beginning when I didn't have very many leaves but wanted to get an idea of how many and where I was going with this piece.

The top two images are from Sunday morning.  I put it on for some quick photos before I took it over to be juried into Fiber Feast, the Fashion Show that the Ann Arbor Fiberarts Guild puts on every year.  This year it is April 14, 2012 at Washtenaw Community College, the Morris Lawrence Building.  Tickets are $28 per person and they are selling out fast.  Come see this hit the runway!  More info on the Ann Arbor Fiberarts Guild Website.

ACGL Artist Grant: Intro

I am SO excited to announce that I am one of the 2012 Grantees for the Arts Council of Greater Lansing's Individual Artist Grant!  I have been involved with the Greater Lansing Arts Council for some time now with the Taste of Art and Life event, I did a workshop for Social Media for Artists, and am an ongoing artist-member.  This is the first grant I have ever applied to, and I can already feel it encouraging me to open new doors with my work.
The Individual Artist's Grant has two major components to it. 1) Community level of involvement and 2) the Project presented should be opening new doors and move your art into a new realm for you as an artist.

With this, I will be creating jewelry mainly by special order and focusing most of my time on my larger proposed pieces.  I will be moving my beadweaving into larger-scale pieces for exhibition purposes and making it play with my weavings and intergrating it into found objects.  All of these pieces will speak to each other as a final exhibit in March 2013, but each piece will have it's own unique voice and background biography.

I will be trying my best to keep constant updates here on my blog which you can access through my website www.jennyschu.com also.  I'm one of those artists who usually has a number of pieces going at the same time so I'll have plenty to share.

Along with my blog posts I invite you to join me when I am out beading in public.  Follow me on Facebook under my artist link: Jenny Schu  or on Twitter under JennySchu4.  I'll try to post where I'll be a day ahead, but sometimes I'll be last minute.  Don't be afraid to introduce yourself to me!  Also follow the #LansingArts hash tag and the Arts Council of Greater Lansing for extra info going on in the Lansing Arts scene!

40 grams of 11/0 seed beads



One of my roommates in college pointed out to me once that the way beads are distributed seemed a lot like drugs.  Little vials and baggies, weighed out in grams and kilos, and the way I was purchasing them and leaving them around the house, I was clearly an addict.

I have always just purchased beads by their package without ever really thinking about how many beads are passing through my fingers, how many square inches does x-number of grams make for me.  Mainly because I have just been making small things like jewelry. 
I am starting in on a much larger project, I opened a new package of transparent root beer-colored seed beads and started in on one of the pieces.  I ran out.
I am using the St. Petersburg chain stitch, and have a larger 8/0 seed bead down the middle of this stitch so it's not just this 40 grams of beads, but I decided to make note of it anyway.
This strip that I'm working on it about 45 inches long, give or take the tendrils that are hanging off of the bottom.  This comes to approximately 27 square inches.  The panel that I am making with these is 30 inches wide by 45 inches long, and they're going to be layered up.  Also, it's heavy!

Looking at my bead stash now, I am placing a bead order with a new thought process in mind. That total bead-addict.  Go big or go home.  Forget the 40 grams of beads here or the 7.5 grams of delicas there.  I'm officially ordering beads by the half pound and the kilo now.

Orange Geometric Necklace

After creating a necklace to match a bracelet that Liisa bought from me, I decided to create another version of it in orange and taupe.  The main difference in this piece from the original one is that I did not fill in any of the triangles created by the bugle beads.  I thought about doing this on the first one, but the bracelet is all filled in, so I filled in a few.  The goal for this piece was to leave it totally open and lacy feeling.

The clasp on this piece is sterling silver and has a little Chinese-looking design in it.  I wanted to keep with the geometric feel.  This piece is 16 inches around.  It can be found over at Grove Gallery right now for my spring/summer collection.

Goldfinch Feather Bangle

After creating my peacock feather bangle (a number of years ago now), I thought it would be fun to work with some other feathers.  The yellow/black/grey combination has been so popular that I decided to go with a goldfinch feather for starters (but I do have some other Michigan birds in mind too!)

This style of design tends to take a while to draft.  My usual process involves a 4 or 2 pattern repeat, but not with the feather bangle. This particular bangle is a bit smaller than my "standard" size, maybe I wasn't counting correctly, but I think I was having problems with the proportions of this design at one point and just made it a few beads smaller.  I wanted this to come out narrower than the peacock feather, so I had to dumb down the design (I love to put in too much detail), and this is the outcome.

The lines are cleaner and it has more of a "color blocking" look to it, which I am really enjoying.  I'll be wearing it this Sunday at Grove Gallery's Opening Reception for Jennifer Gould.  So if you find yourself in downtown East Lansing on Sunday, stop by for treats from 12-4!

Call for entries:"EARTH" at the Technology Innovation Center

Hey Lansing Area Artists! Here's a great exhibit oportunity coming up with easy drop off and pick up! 

CALL FOR ARTISTS

Third planet from the sun …we walk on it, make mud pies with it, plant seeds in it, bury our dead in it.  Mother Earth, salt-of-the-earth, earthquake, Google Earth.

The TIC Gallery welcomes submissions for Element: Earth, an exhibit which will run from April 28 to July 28, 2012.

The Technology Innovation Center (TIC) is housed in a 7,000-square-foot space on the third floor above the former Barnes & Noble in downtown East Lansing.  The TIC, which officially opened in late 2008, provides office space to a growing number of entrepreneurial businesses, from producers of documentary films to high-tech startups.  A steadily increasing flow of visitors is expected as the TIC gains attention over the coming months.

Schedule of Events:

Wed.  April 25:           Deadline for submission of information to Kelly Boyle

Sat.  April 28:             At TIC, drop off artwork, photos, and artist information  from 9-10 am.

                                     Jury process 10-noon
                                     Declined artwork notification: noon
                                     Show will be hung when jury process is complete

Sunday, May 6:          Opening Reception, 1-3 pm    

Saturday, July 28:      Pick up artwork  9-10 am

Media Accepted:  All media suitable for hanging will be considered for the exhibit, including professionally produced, limited-edition Giclee prints, hanging sculpture, and fabric pieces. About 40 pieces will be selected for the show.  Most pieces will be hung in hallways and should not exceed 48” in either dimension.

You may submit up to four pieces; however, this number may be reduced to two if we receive an excessive number of entries. If this is the case you will be notified prior to April 28.   

All work should be equipped for hanging, with a wire stretched across the back (no saw tooth hangers.) The hanging system has a weight limit of 80 lbs. per piece.

Deadline for Submission of Information:  Wednesday, April 25, 2012.  Information on each piece of artwork you plan to exhibit must be RECEIVED by this date.  Include title, medium, dimensions, price or NFS.  E-mail to:  Kelly Boyle

Drop Off:  Deliver artwork to the Technology and Innovation Center (above Barnes & Noble, accessible from 2^nd level of parking ramp) between 9 and 10am on Saturday, April 28.  All works selected must remain until the end of the exhibit unless sold, in which case you may contact Kelly and arrange to put in a replacement piece.

Declined Artwork:  Pick up any declined artwork by noon on Sat. April 28. If you cannot pick up your work, please arrange to have someone do it for you.                                      

Sales: There will be a 20% commission on sales. Kelly Boyle (through the TIC) will be the contact for prospective buyers.  Artists will be notified when a sale has taken place and will be paid when the sale is final.  Artists will have the option of bringing in a replacement piece after a sale.

Liability:  See Waiver of Liability and Release (request from Kelly)

Hanging Committee:  Kelly Boyle plus 2-3 volunteers.  Please contact Kelly if you’d like to help with hanging on April 28.

Exhibitors’ Responsibilities at Check-In:

All artists will provide:

1.     Up to four pieces of artwork that follow the guidelines given above.

2.     A label securely fixed to the back of each piece giving the artist’s name, title, medium, and price or Not For Sale. 

3.     A good-quality 4x6” photograph printed on photo paper of each work submitted for the show         

4.     A one-page, up-to-date, bio/statement including telephone number, address, and email.

Use narrow margins – the page will be displayed in a sheet protector.

5.One page of photographs showing a representative selection of the artist’s work.

6. Several business cards to display in the card holder of the exhibition book.

7.  Sign Technology Innovation Center’s Waiver and Release Form