Blog – Page 27 – Melanie Testa

Happy New

I have not blogged in about 3 weeks, if not more, and I apologize for it. To be honest, I have been depressed and needed a break. The Newtown sadness affected me deeply, life has not been easy for a few months and it all came to the forefront and slowed me to a halt.Continue reading “Happy New”

American Bittern

I have begun making my Deep Cleaning interview, but got distracted by The 20, so please-stay tuned, the interview/fugly giveaway will occur this week. In the meantime, let me introduce the American Bittern. This bird is a marsh wader, from the Heron family of birds. This is a secretive bird, confident in its ability toContinue reading “American Bittern”

Be prepared!

My studio reorganization is now complete. I went through every single box, prison 8-O, drawer, everything. Wow. I am impressed with myself! Over the weekend I am going to film an ‘interview’ of myself and my space and reveal all I have done. This upcoming post will have a giveaway of some Fuglies (defined asContinue reading “Be prepared!”

Deeper and deeper

Deep cleaning sure takes a lot of work. I have been going through every bin and drawer, sorting, rearranging, recycling and getting rid of a few things. I haven’t gotten rid of much, really, I keep a pretty tight ship over here, but I have been stuffing miscellaneous items into the wrong drawers and binsContinue reading “Deeper and deeper”

The monsters in my studio

The above cabinet is really a monster. I jam pack stuff into and need to pull stuff out and rearrange things every time I need something stored in it. My intention for this cabinet is to store items that will be used in wet work, In other words, soda soaked cloth, urea, textile paint, brushesContinue reading “The monsters in my studio”

Big Clean Sigh

As you may know because I have already posted to Facebook, my sweet Arrow passed away. This animal wrapped his double paws right around my heart, he taught me to love him, to communicate with and listen to him, he loved me deep into my bones. I felt as though no day were complete withoutContinue reading “Big Clean Sigh”

Stitching away the Blues

I am stitching away on this Breastplate. I guess this is called a running stitch, I just pick up a few threads and then continue to stitch, maintaining a similar length of stitch for each. It creates little dots on the back of the work, which is very pleasing to me. So far I haveContinue reading “Stitching away the Blues”

Print and Stitch

I am happily sewing away over here, working three Breastplates at a time. This Breastplate is the biggest of the seven. If I were to decide to wear them, rather than consider them an art object, this would be the one. Each of the Breastplates were made by ‘eye’ they are supposed to be clothingContinue reading “Print and Stitch”

Quiet hum.

I am changing the surface of this Breastplate by stitch, differences in stitch and thread quality as well as scale. This is the first application of stitch that I can see so far. This first application of stitch is hand dyed DMC 6 Strand embroidery floss. My plan for this Breastplate is large stitch, geometricContinue reading “Quiet hum.”

Breath of Fresh Air

Last week I took myself out for a much needed day on the town. I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where I stumbled upon what is probably the smallest exhibit there, Gems of European Lace. It took me about 5 minutes of trying to locate room 599 before asking a guard where the roomContinue reading “Breath of Fresh Air”