October

Welcome back again.  Joan is chairing the meeting today as Shirley W. is off on an adventure to the Philippines and Japan.  

Quote for the day.  "Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create."  Roy T. Bennett

On Thursday we took our Home Challenges to the VSSQ guild meeting and presented them, the accordion books, and the beads to the members.    Thank you Linda K. for making the bead display look wonderful!  Also many thanks to  Joan and Linda B. for setting up the tables for display and introducing the work to the guild.  Well done all!  We were warmly received and answered many questions at coffee break.  

Joan has encouraged you to chat with your partner in the Two Ways of Seeing challenge.  It is a great opportunity to get to know other members.

We could have another opportunity to show our Trailblazing Women pieces next year at a conference of the OK Historical Society.  More information coming in the new year.  So keep those quilts handy.  

We passed around the sheet for Edge Finishes hoping more of you would sign up to demo one.

Just a quick note on the Art Styles presentations.  Karen did an outstanding job presenting last month but we do want to assure you that you do not have to try to outdo her.  Your presentation can be more informal and encourage us to go see what the style is about and do some of our own research.

FAN exhibit of TEXT-ure will be on display at the December 8th meeting.  This is a travelling exhibit of small art pieces done by members of the Fibre Art Network.  Jeanette is organizing the exhibit for us.

Show and Tell

Bev has finished and mounted her Home piece and it looks wonderful.  She make a small Kandinsky piece with some cording.

Elisabeth has a sunflower piece, very appropriate for fall.

Linda  K. had some leaves, says her Home is almost done and showed a eco dyed piece with corrones and hand stitching.  

Shelley turned her twisted Kandinsky into a mouse pad by adding some clear plastic on top.  Great idea!

Cath brought in a Kandinsky inspired work she made in 2014 and one small one that will be the beginning of her Art Styles accordion book.

Linda B. finished her tree rings, showed a great rust dyeing piece with hand embroidery and a quilt she has made as a gift that was inspired by her step-mother's Mohawk ancestry.  

Cathy finished her tree rings and even found some green lichen to use on it.

Kaitlyn made a Thanksgiving hot pad, very cute turkey!

Linda W. had joined Karen at her dyeing explorations and has some beautiful results.  She has also put her accordion book together in a manner that lets her remove individual pieces for display.

Indigo dye

cochineal dyed 

Onion skin and herbs

Joan also played with Karen at the dye studio and had stunning results.

Glycerin Leaves

Linda W. gave us a demonstration of how to use glycerin to preserve leaves.  

It is really very simple and she brought along samples to show.  

Mix your glycerin 1 part to 2 parts warm water.  Add leaves to zip lock bag and pour in glycerin water.  Seal and lay flat for 7 days.  Remove from bag and let dry on towel.  Pat dry on both sides.  When dry use them as you like.

Joan had put the hydrangea's and the ball type flowers in the bottom of the picture in the glycerin solution and they have stayed soft and supple and are not dropping blossoms.

Leaves just out of solution

Linda took some of hers and made a cover for a journal.  She attached the leaves to the canvas with Matt medium.

When she was happy with the look she used more matt medium to keep them attached and give a coating.  She then stitched it down on her machine.  You can add another coat of medium after for a final finish.  

Leaf journal cover

Reverse side showing stitching

This link has the information as well but she is doing a large pan full of leaves rather than using the zip lock bags we chose.  

https://www.smilemercantile.com/blogs/tutorials/how-to-preserve-fall-leaves-with-glycerin?srsltid=AU7gw4U3RPxGb36x0P5FauHcHeLw3BvoitM3QTrApTopyiyFiq_gID70

Art Styles

Avant-Garde

Brigitte

September, the start of a new year!

Welcome back to all returning and new members!   

"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." Thomas Merton

A reminder that our Trailblazing Women of BC are on display this month at Gallery Vertigo in downtown Vernon.  Drop by and have a look at them there and see what else the gallery has to offer in its annual Cloth-O Festival.

Fall is a very busy time in the local art community, there are many different kinds of art exhibits on display in September.  A road trip anyone?  There is something going on all throughout the valley.  Some of these are one or two day events and others are on for the month.  Check out the websites for each for more information.

Coldstream

Lake Country

Lake Country

Kelowna

FAN exhibit, Penticton Art Gallery

Osoyoos

A reminder that we are showing our Home Quilts, Accordion Books and Beads at the second VSSQ meeting in October.  It will be held on Thursday October 15th.  You can bring your pieces to the October 13th QuArtz meeting for Joan to organize.   Any questions please contact Joan.

We discussed bringing in a travelling exhibit from Fibre Art Network (FAN).  You can look at the exhibits on the website,    https://www.fibreartnetwork.com/exhibits/,  Jeanette will keep us informed about when we will be having them and there will be a small cost to cover postage.

Karen has rented a dye studio at the Vernon Community Arts Centre for the week of September 20-26.  She wants to know if any of you are interested in coming up and exploring dyeing methods with her.  You can get in touch with her for anymore information.  Further down in the Show and Tell section you will see some of her indigo dying results. 

Joan is talking to Charlie Hanson, the artist on display at Gallery Vertigo this month, about a gel plate printing workshop.  If you are interested please talk to Joan as this will be a private workshop and not part of QuArtz.

Two Ways of Seeing

This is our challenge for the year.  One abstract and one representational quilt of the same picture by two different people.  We had a good time handing out the pairings and the pictures.  There are 20 people participating in the challenge.  Your quilt is to be 18" x 18" square.  Finished however you like, embellished as much as you like.  It needs a 4" hanging sleeve on the back.   You can work with your partner or not, it is up to you both.  Any questions see Cath or Judith.

Art Styles

Karen   Lyrical Expressionism.

Our first presentation on Art Styles was done by Karen.   Her featured artist is Wassily Kandinsky.  https://www.wassilykandinsky.net/  

He is usually considered as one of the pioneers of abstraction in Western Art.

"Everything starts with a dot."  Kandinsky  

She had a compelling talk on his work and many wonderful large images to show how influences changed his art over his lifetime.  She had seen his work in a gallery and even has two throw pillows inspired by Kandinsky paintings.    

 Here are a few examples of his work.

Pillow

Pillow

Prints

Edge Finishes

This season we are also looking into different edge finishes.  Shirley presented our first one in her show and tell.  She has finished her tree ring by making a fringed edge out of the burlap in her piece.  

The sign up sheet is going around and please sign up to talk about your favourite edge finish.

Show and Tell

Shirley has also mounted her tree ring using velcro on a covered canvas.  Some nice stitching on the background.  She showed some fine line pens she found online to use on her Home piece.  Also and example of using them on fabric.

 

Joan has made a pair of tree rings.  She also brought in some of her collage work .

Deborah has a background made for her accordion book and also showed us a felt wallhanging.

My apologies here, it was a busy meeting and I lost track of whose tree ring was whose.  So I will add them here, well done everyone!

Brigitte brought along a tree ring and an origami butterfly page for her accordion book.

Linda W. showed her beginning picture and the finished piece using a photo transfer.  The brown striped outline is made with wasp nest paper.  Thread work moss and a real feather decorate it.

Sandie showed us her rust dyed fabric, it had been missing since her move but she found it.

Ella has her shibori fabric all dried and now just has to decide what to do with it.

Shelley showed us two pillow covers she made, one of our local Terrace Mountain out by Fintry.

Karen has been exploring indigo dyeing and has shown us a large selection of samples.  She dyed some with many dips into the indigo pot to get the darkest of the blues.

Linda W. will be showing us Glycerin Leaves next month.  She had a sample leaf and a small piece she had used them on to give us an idea on what to expect.

Featured Talk

Shirley P. gave an excellent talk on the Mola art of the Guna Indians of Panama.  She has been fascinated with them and their artwork for years.  She has visited them in Panama and studied the difficult techniques they use to make their unique art.  

Here are some resources for more information on the Guna Indians.

Shirley had a huge selection of mola artwork to show us.  Some quite old and others newer.  A large variety of subjects are depicted in the works.  

Early depiction of the Guna. 

Cartoon ducks

Garden of Eden  

Nativity scene

Shirley has made some of her own art works using the Mola technique and made her own designs.

Full Quilt

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