Ellen Anne Eddy's Thread Magic Studio: gardening

Showing posts with label gardening. Show all posts

Monday, January 2, 2012

Not Quite Ready for Prime Time Theater

4:49 PM |

Posted by Ellen Anne Eddy |

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I was wandering around on the web today and found this great segment that AQS taped for me at the Des Moines Show this Fall.

This is a very nice tutorial for making flowers out of simple shapes. They taped this the last day of the show. I ran in and babbled like a brook.

But I found it and listened to it today. I didn't ummm. And it felt as good to listen to it as to do it.

Build some cool flowers. For heaven's sake leave the patterns out. Build something wild, while you're under the gun. It is, after all, time honored.

Labels: art quilters, art quilting, embroidery, fiber art, free motion, gardening, Thread Magic Garden, youtube |

6 comments

Friday, December 30, 2011

Thread Magic Garden Is Ready for Pre-order!

11:32 AM |

Posted by Ellen Anne Eddy |

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Thread Magic Garden will be arriving for shipment around January 20th. You can pre-order your copy today!

You never really know what a project will take until you see it done. Perhaps that's good. A good dream well done should take your whole heart's effort and give you your heart back in return.

When I started this book, I had no idea it would take 2 years to finish. Part of that is that I had to learn so much to do this book. Part of that is the meticulous process C&T puts into every book. I got my premier copy a week ago.I'm still scraping myself off the ceiling. It's past my expectations. I'm hoping you'll feel that way too.

When I started this book, I wanted to continue what I'd accomplished with Thread Magic. I wanted to show folk ways of adding wild free motion to quilts that set things hearts and imaginations on fire. I wanted to set up instructions that would take you through your own process with this. You'll have to let me know how I've done when you read the book.

But for those of you who've known me in class or in print, you know I don't give recipes for cakes that don't rise. I tell you everything I know. I also don't do anything really hard. I just do things that are time consuming and compulsive.

So here is what we have.

Fifty eye popping new quilts in the gallery
A patternless approach to design
Intuitive applique that makes creating flowers easy and fun

Tutorials in

Color theory for flowers
Corded buttonhole binding
Angelina Fiber
6 Free motion zigzag stitches
Machine Beading
Globbing
Sandwich stabilizing

I'm hoping I've done a good job of opening doors, traveling a new path, leaving good bread crumbs for anyone who wants to follow, and breaking the best rules I could find to break. See you on the trail.

You can pre-order your copy of Thread Magic Garden at

www.ellenanneeddy.com

Labels: books, C and T Publishing, embroidery, fiber art, flowers, free motion, gardening, life as an artist, Thread Magic Garden, threads, zigzag stitch |

3 comments

Saturday, December 17, 2011

No More Color Police:Creating Flower Colors

10:08 AM |

Posted by Ellen Anne Eddy |

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"Roses are red. violets are blue. Angels in heaven know I love you." Down in the valley

What color is a flower, actually?

In spite of everything your kindergarten teacher told you, it's not a simple answer. If she made you color all your roses red, give me her name and I'll go have a little chat with her. Or better still, you might want to tell her that she can't live in your head anymore without paying rent.

That's not a white tulip. Nor is it really red or yellow. It's a wonderful swirl of a number of great colors. Leaving any of that out is a loss. But how do you do it in fiber?

We have two great tools. Well, we probably have hundreds but these help with this.Hand dyed fabric has all those great streaks. It's a great way to start a flower.

Machine embroidery also speeds us on our way.The wonderful thing about stitching flowers is that thread really is minutia. We can slip in that dash of green, that edge of orange or purple that flowers either do have or should.
When Mark Lipinski asked me how important color was on his show this week and why I put so much emphasis on it, I almost fell of my chair. Color IS the media. We see everything through the color and the texture. You can here that conversation on Mark's Creative Mojo show, December 14th.

Thread Magic Garden has a full chapter on creating colors for flowers. It's a magical thing. And you can do it too.

Labels: art quilting, books, color, embroidery, fiber art, flowers, gardening, machine stitching, threads |

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Monday, December 12, 2011

Lauren Strach: A Botanical Lunatic with a Plan

12:28 PM |

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Lauren doesn't look like a lunatic. She looks like a pink cheeked soccer mom. Look out! Stand back!

She's an emerging art quilter who attacks new approaches and techniques with gleeful ferocity. And masters them with passion. Every time she visits me, I find myself flying to my machine, inspired by her intensity.

Lauren says,

"My inspiration, like so many other quilters, comes from nature.

As a life-long biologist and Master Gardener, I thought I saw nature, but it wasn’t until I embraced my artful journey that I began to really see. My inspiration is found in the whorls of snail shells, the miniature worlds of mosses and lichens, the rugged nooks and crannies of the bark of the fallen tree, and the intricate shading and nuances in the early spring wildflowers. And, the more I see, the more I see.

The act of translating that vision in line, pattern and color into textile recreations introduces the next level of AHA! It is an ever fascinating challenge to take the experience of seeing with eyes wide open, to shape it into form. From the fantastical realism of exaggerated insects, to the abstracted likeness of the quintessential flower bud, I seek to uncover the universal codes, to bring them to life with fabric and thread. Tactile, textile translations of the mysteries of nature, celebrating the wonders of life, that is where I find my inspiration.

Lauren's work has been showed at both Paducah and Houston. She was a finalist in the $100,000 Quilt Challenge. Where will she show next? It could be anywhere. If she doesn't send it in, it's likely
to fly in on it's own.

Labels: art quilters, art quilting, free motion, gardening, life as an artist, lifestyle, lunatic fringe, quilters, quilting |

11 comments

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Musings;Art Outside the Box-Symbols I have known.

10:15 PM |

Posted by Ellen Anne Eddy |

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As someone who has always turned to animal imagery, it's always a hard moment when someone says, " You really like frogs, don't you? "Or bugs, or any of the other creatures that fly, swim or crawl through my work.
Symbolism doesn't work that way. It's not a matter of what you like. Images are taskmasters. They grab hold and won't let go until you somehow dance with them. Work with them. Run them through the mill of the mind. Do what you will. Somehow that image will come around again and again until you've found a way to flip it into a different place internally.

Every so often I run into some bright eyed youngster who tells me their totem is the wolf, the dolphin, the eagle, etc. I loved the young man who told me his was the great brown bear. He didn't know enough to know that that image is usually viewed as female. He was trying to follow indigenous religion and thought. He thought it was cool. I think I would have shocked him had I told him, but perhaps he was improved by a female totem.

I've been writing art statements long enough to be aware of where much of my imagery starts. The frogs and bugs come from some fairly deep seated body images.The fish are about life in the stream of life. The birds are about the mix of feral wisdom within a bird's life. And in the midst of all of it, I know with certainty, I'm quilting people I know. Most often it's about me. It's mostly social commentary. I'm trying to make sense of my life.

At one point when I was constantly on the road, I couldn't leave the dragonflies alone. Then it hit me. They live a transitory life, flitting from place to place. It was like they'd read my itinerary.

I often don't understand my own imagery except in retrospect. That's fine. If I pay attention, listen to the images that drive me, they will fuel my art.It may heal the bruised bits of ego and id that rule the internal chaos.Art is causative and purposely for transformation. Good art changes the relationship between the artist and whatever symbol they're in action with.

Perhaps what each of us have to give that is most precious as artists, is the unique view that spills out of our art. The symbols are a vocabulary. It makes sense if each of us is an island, a separate and distant country, that that language not be the same as anyone elses. What is most miraculous is when someone else sees that land from their distant shore, reaches it to view that different county, and can make the translation of it for themselves. When that happens, art breaks all boundaries, changes people's thought's and minds and hearts.