Melanie Testa

Loosen Up, Melly!

I have been questioning what do do about dye. Should I continue to us it? Do I have the space to use it? Can I use it in a different way? I love working with dye, I love the vibrancy, the hand, the way it lays on cloth as you apply it. But being diagnosed with cancer makes me question the efficacy of its use. I know using dyes did not cause or (directly) contribute to my having gotten cancer. But as a human being living on this planet, I find it difficult not to think that the waste, toxicity and pollution in the world, caused by humans, isn’t the cause in some way.

I use all precautions when using and mixing dye and always have. Dust masks, gas masks, gloves, the works. But I still own powders and I have concentrates mixed and ready. I also have yards of white cloth. So I don’t think that I will stop using it just yet. It is different using dye in our tiny apartment, but that can be worked around by.. well… working small. Tiny apartment, tiny works of art.

I snagged some stencils when I was at the Great American Scrapbook Convention. In an effort to get my creative juices flowing in new ways I am playing with my supplies. I used a ruling pen and a dauber to print the abc stencil.

This swan was originally drawn in my journal while traveling in Luzerne last year. Now it is getting a workout in thickened dyes. I would love to make a Sew-plies purse using Inspired to Quilt techniques, while playing, having fun and seeing what I can do with dye, in my tiny apartment, with the supplies I now use. Ruling pen, freezer paper, stencils…

Here I play with thickener and liquid dyes.

I want to get back to it but wanted to show you what I am up to. Let me know what you are doing this weekend, Comment and if you have a blog or Flickr, show me what you are up to!

Flashcard Friday-A Wash.

Creating a wash, or in the case of this flashcard in particular, a wash gradation in two colors, is both easy and fun. The challenge is to prepare your work surface with everything you need so that when it comes time to paint your wash, you can quickly grab whatever you need. I like to use a wide, cheap, bristle brush to lay the paint down. There are elegant brushes for this purpose, but I don’t own one.

On this journal page, I combined gradation wash with the use of paper frisket, (a flashcard for another day). There are some techniques that can or should be used in combination with other techniques. You can do a wash on the page to lay color down-then start working the page, or you can mask an area and paint over it, reserving a portion and coloring the ground. It is up to you.

On another note, I have been speaking with Diana from M. Graham paints. Diana has been gracious and is answering some questions about her paints and we wanted to share information with you. M. Graham are my paint of choice in all mediums-watercolor, gouache and acrylic. I started using her paints because the gouache formulation is such that it can be parsed out in a travel palette and allowed to ‘dry’. Not all gouache can be rewet, but M. Graham paints can. This is a boon for artists like me, who enjoy painting on the go!

Diana, I have been using your paints for a few years, I was turned onto them by Roz Stendahl, a blogger and artist whom I greatly admire. The selling point for me was the fact that you use honey in your formulation and that your gouache paints do not use opacifiers-making them able to travel in a travel palette. Will you talk about this? Why honey? Why no opacifiers?

The gouache story is that “designers” gouache that most people are familiar with was created for fashion, etc. designing. The artwork was created, reproduced and discarded. Because the original art was not to be retained, the permanency of the color was not an issue. Many of the hues are purples, reds and fluorescents which are available in beautiful pigment or dyes-few of which are lightfast. We chose to use the same pigments as our other lines (all rated lightfast I or II except Alizarin which remains by popular demand).

While gouache is like watercolor (and can be thinned and used as washes), the usual application is a thick, flat layer or layers. This requires a media that is film forming and resistant to cracking. The use of honey in ours creates a more flexible film and better adhesion.

Most brands add chalks or whiteners to make the color opaque. While some prefer this in design work, it detracts fro the brilliant liveliness in a fine art piece. We chose to leave the mixing to the artist so either technique can be used. Each color is as opaque as the pigment allows. Some colors, like Quinacridone Red, are like layering transparent colored glass trying to get opacity. No matter how much pigment you add, it is simply more transparent by nature than other pigments.

Some watercolorists apply transparent watercolor thickly, straight from the tube. Our watercolors are formulated for more traditional dilution and application and they may not dry if painted out thickly. For this technique, the gouache is the perfect solution.

I’ll try to talk about honey next.

Noodles, eat, shop, play.

Yesterday I went to the Fashion District to poke around in trim shops. This was the first time I brought my video camera and I was shy to whip it out. M and J Trimming was all for it, I asked if they were OK with my filming, yes. No questions. In fact it was almost as if they were saying, ‘No need! It is all on the web anyway!’

I love M and J, they have so much stuff packed into that store, it is arranged and managed beautifully. It is where I go to find stuff, then I try to source it elsewhere to get a better price. Yesterday I went for the clip closures I am using on the Sew-plies purse. They also have these snaps that I have my eye on. But I think I can find them at Pacific Trimming at a better price. Pacific trimming had these safety pins that I find adorable and have been using in the Sew-plies purse, so those came home with me too.

Both stores had stuff that I would like to mull over. I like to mull over and process how I might use a thing before I purchase.

I would like to do this again, let me know if you think it is fun.

When I was flying to Arlington Texas last week, I traced off an image on an airplane and embroidered it to the center back of the Female Magazine blouse. The blouse is piling up the embroidered stitches. The fabric is changing to the touch. Very nice. I will post overall photos soon.

Last week I went and played with Victoria Findlay Wolfe (whom I love and sorta have a crush on, she is creative, gentle, awesome, smart and she is coming out with a book!!). She keeps a site called 15 Minutes Play (also the name of her upcoming book). She sat me in front of a machine and got me sewing without specific purpose in a playful way. Oh my goodness! This was so good for my soul. I have been moving away from intense dye use in my work and using cloth in this way-piecing and playing, really helps to loosen a girl up.

So this weekend I put the idea to the test. I gave myself 15 minutes to play (it turned into hours and hours). But. Here were the ideas I applied to the 15 Minutes of Play:

Use new materials, in this case wool batting

Use stitch in an unexpected way

Combine one piece of hand made cloth with mostly commercial prints

This sew-plies purse is so yellow, it glows! As I have said before, I want to make one for everyday of the week. I may need one for each day of the month. I think this is going to become something for me. I want a piece of clothing to embellish, embroider, print and surface design to go with each purse! I am going to take the Gather your Sew-plies purse off the web and update and fix it, so if you want version 1, download it now.

Soft Light

I am back from teaching at The Great American Scrapbook Convention and oh my goodness gracious. Those scrapbookers? They know how to play right into my obsession for neat, orderly and functioning workspaces. Scrapbookers seem to really like efficiency. And they have some toys, inks and supplies. They use punches, gadgets, embossers, and the inks! I felt overwhelmed. I am going to have to see how all I saw and experienced in the vendors center integrates. I wonder how I would use their tools! I am not one to step in feet first. I like to research and walk around back and kick the tire. I need to understand before I can proceed, so I will be looking into one of the things I saw.

I am preparing a post for CreateMixedMedia. I have to say, I really like what they are doing at that site. I think it offers real content and is colorful and open minded in exploring its themes. I am an author of theirs, just for your reference. But they have not asked me, nor are they paying me to say so. I am just putting my two cents in.

AnYway. I am preparing a post for them and it involves a Rumi quote and a certain collar.

In the meantime, I show you one of the latest purses. Leslie Tucker Jennison named it The Bellybutton. Will discuss soon. I have been bitten by the fever to create many of these purses. I want them as accessories. Maybe I need one for my iPod. Hm.

Sew-plies Polka

I am off to teach at the GASC in Arlington Texas. I have my hand sewing and embroidery work all packed and ready to go. I, of course, am bringing all 3 Sew-plies purses. I am attached to them right now, I love them-they have become tiny backpacks with specific intention-to help me sew. I love the idea of them. I will have a 4 hour flight and I am have my Fuxion erasable pen.

I will have internet access. I will not be doing Flash Card Friday, that will resume next week.

Exponential Sew-plies

This weekend I became obsessed with making a Gather your Sew-plies purse for each day of the week. You can see, I am well on my way. I have been settling into a new form of textile art, which isn’t clearly defined yet but it seems to have something to do with cloth, dressing myself, and embroidering and embellishing the clothing I wear, make and use. All of the sudden, I feel as though my clothing can become a journal. I can trace off a drawing from my journal, embroider it onto my clothing, I can say things, verbally and visually on the clothing I wear, it if it were my journal.

I have been playing with the idea of labels. We like to categorize things, people, visual impressions, items. When working with clothing we have lots of physical labels, actual labels that tell us about size, fiber content, washing instructions and the like. I have been having fun inserting and using found labels in new ways. Here you see my latest Gather your Sew-plies purse is a size 14, or is 14th in some unspecified order. I have been daydreaming of removing and redistributing the labels that are sewn onto my clothing.

This latest Sew-plies purse goes with a t-shirt blouse I bought at H&M. I started embroidering it just this morning. This is part of my new approach. I am going to work on and wear the clothing I choose to embellish all summer long. This is an active project. I don’t yet have a blouse to pair with the pink Gather your Sew-plies purse…but I have been thinking about how to remedy that.

I will be teaching in Arlington Texas this week and will be away from home for almost 4 days. Luckily, I now have an iPad (A.K.A iMelly) and can keep up with you guys wherever I am.

Making!

Boy am I having fun over here. This purse is coming out really well. I want one for every occasion, I want to wear this or one like it everyday. My next creative path has opened up to me and this feels like a very formative and expansive time creatively. Last fall, I stood with Deborah Boschert in a great hall in Houston looking at embroidery work. I wish I could find my notes because there were two people’s work that really stood out to me and I can’t remember their names.

I kept walking the halls looking at quilts and artwork and thinking, what will I do next. How will I move into art making post cancer? Do I want to use dye?

I think I will still be using dye. But my focus is changing and I like where it is headed.

V2

Today my man and I celebrate his Birthday by going to a Mets game. I, of course, need a project. I have decided to reinterpret the Gather your Sew-plies purse. I am now perfecting and expanding this pattern!

I would love it if you would make one and show me how you put it together.

I pulled this linen and silk out of a bin and they looked so interesting together. It isn’t what I would have thought to be drawn to. I am daydreaming a new neckstrap. I am having fun building.

Positively Flash Card Friday

Here is another contribution to Flash Card Friday. Last week we talked about Negative Space, this week we talk about Positive Space. Positive space is object itself. Positive space is the person, place or thing that you are drawing. In the last post, I painted the negative space around the chair, in this one, I painted the chair itself.

As I have said before, negative space stymied and alluded me for years. I didn’t get it, so I created these two images to have relationship to one another so that you will not get confused like I did.

Have you considered making a set of Flash Cards for yourself? These can be used to challenge yourself to a throw down, as Chapter 5 in Dreaming from the Journal Page suggests. This will help you to start layering and building innovative and interesting journal pages all while trying out each technique in the book.

Embracing Ambiguity.

Two weeks ago, David and I went to Kripalu, a yoga retreat center that we visit regularly. Of course I packed up my travel kit, journal and special treats and I took the time to find a flower to two to draw and paint.

While drawing the orange flower I was bit by a nasty bug and am still healing from it!

The next day, I returned to that ~~bug infested place for more torture, ops, I mean,~~ same spot to color the drawing. This is the third drawing I have done at Kripalu. If you have Dreaming From the Journal Page check out pages 118 and 122 for the other two Kripalu flower drawings and a piece of art inspired by them.

When I came home, I continued to work the page using stencils to help ‘pattern up the page’ (this page is featured in video content from the Stencil Magic class (please sign up, I would love to work with you). I want the frenetic energy of the wildflower patch to really shine through and don’t feel as if I have captured that yet. I like the page a lot, it is moving into the right place but is not quite there. Almost, just about, but not quite. Oh the ambiguity.

When I first started working in my journal pages over time like this, it felt quite uncomfortable. I felt as if I needed to return to the page as soon as possible and complete the image. But, I find when I would do that, I often make impulsive and ill defined decisions that leave me regretting and wishing I had taken the time to truly decide what my next step should be. For me, taking this sort of time is tantamount to creating the beautiful pages I want to see realized in my journals.

So, I wonder, how do you deal with creative ambiguity? Do you embrace it, struggle and push against it? Do you not experience ambiguity? Talk to me!