A Photo Safari

I decided today that I wanted to go on a little photo safari. For the past two years I have noticed thistle growing along side the railroad track not far from our house. 

I'm talking fields of thistle. 

For one reason or another I have let the time slip away and the next thing I know the thistle is puff balls.

 I decided I wasn't going to let that happen this time.  I haven't been doing a lot of photography recently and I realized today how much I miss it.







This blog post is being linked to www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

 Enjoy!

Vacation with a little work

The Stripper
29" X 39"


 My husband and I visited good friends in Harbor Island, SC this past week.  I knew I was going to be out of the studio all week but I really needed to get some finish work done . I prepared two pieces and got them ready for hand work to do while riding in the car.  After almost a year and a half of working on this piece it is now officially done.

A study in Green
12" X 12"

I posted this piece last week while I was still in the midst of beading.  I finished that and sewed the binding down.  This is my donation to the SAQA auction.

I also worked with my friend, Ann while at her home on the Typographic Portraits.  I was able to show her how to create a text portrait of her granddaughter.  It was good practice for my class that begins June 2.

That's it for this week, I will be busy the rest of this week preparing my supplies, samples, etc. to take to J..C. Campbell Folk School next week.

I should have lots to share from that class next week. See you then.
This post is linked to www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

A Great Week in the Studio

I gave myself a gift for Mother's Day.  I haven't had a lot of time recently to create.  Well, that's not exactly true.  I've been creating, as in creating a new class, but not art work.  So for Mother's Day I gave myself a week to create.

I really wanted to get a piece ready for the Annual SAQA auction.  They are due June 1 so I decided it's now or never.  I still have some work to do on this, I am going to add some beads.  Don't usually do beads but decided this was a great candidate for some beads.


 12 X 12
A Study in Green

 Close-up of A Study in Green

 Another project I've been working on this week is a portrait created using thread painting.  I think I have a good start but it is so hard finding the right color of thread.  I have blended threads in order to get just the color I want but this is not an easy job.  I do love to do this through.  Can't wait to get the wild white hair in his eyebrows and hair line.

Okay, here is my dilemma.  I belong to a wonderful fiber arts group.  We have a challenge where we are to make a monochromatic quilt. I love this group and I want to be supportive and make a piece for this challenge.  I took a wonderful photo last Summer of a sunflower. with the sun shining from behind the flower.

I've wanted to make this into a quilt since I took the photo.  Easy, right?  Not quite.  I dyed fabric last week in graded colors using Tangerine. It turned out beautiful and with a little added brighter yellow the flower develop beautifully.

Now I need a background.  If you know my work you know that I favor bright fabrics.  However, I am trying to follow the guidelines and make this monochromatic.  The piece to the left would fit the bill.  Do I like it?  I'm not sure.

So I auditioned some different backgrounds.  If I used this one it doesn't fit the bill for monochromatic but if it's better then it doesn't matter. Right?

Then I tried this piece of hand dyed multi color.  Not quite as good, in my opinion.

I feel like this is me.  I need to add some leaves and a steam.  I plan to do some hand-quilting in the center maybe add some beads.  No way does it fit the bill for the monochromatic challenge.  I have to make a decision.













Tomorrow is back to work on prepping for my class.  Which by the way is June 2-8 at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC.  There are still a few openings in case you would like to learn something new and exciting.

This post is long but I hope you will bear with me I want to add two more photos to give you an idea of what the students will be learning in this class. .

Spirit of the Kive

The technique I used to create the image for this piece will be part of my class presentation.  Included in this process is creating a four-value portrait.

A is for Aubrey


Typographic Portraits will also be taught in this class.  I will also be teaching other techniques as time allows.  Would love to see you there.  




I am linking this post to www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

Sun, Fun and Dyeing

We have been planning a day of dyeing fabric for a month.  We have been having rain everyday for about a month.  However, yesterday we were blessed with a warm, sunny day, at least until we finished with the session.  About 3:30 the bottom fell out, again, and we had our daily rain.  Shouldn't complain too much, I'm sure we will be wishing for rain later this Summer.

The dyeing session was held at the picnic shelter at Keowee Key, on beautiful Lake Keowee.  Couldn't have been lovelier. 

Bonnie Ouellette, offers this class just about every year.  It's a win, win for the members who don't do a lot of dyeing.  Bonnie, makes up the dyes and furnishes all the supplies, except fabric, and we go and have a fun day dyeing fabric.

Bonnie's not terribly fond of having her photo made so I try to respect her wishes.  I'm showing her back here.  She has the table all set up with bottles of dye that are labeled and ready to use.

She also makes a huge bucket of soda ash water for soaking.

We also dyed some silk scarves by soaking in vinegar  adding the dye and microwaving.  I had time to rinse out the scarves but the cotton fabric needs to set over night.

A few of the scarves.

One of my favorites.

My apologies to the creator of this beautiful piece of fabric, I don't remember her name.

Most of what I created was gradations in color, as that is what I use the most.  They should be ready tomorrow.  Will post those later.  A great day with like minded friends.

This post is linked to www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

A if for Aubrey and the museum

A is for Aubrey

Saturday night was the opening reception at the  Pickens County Museum of Art. 

This was a juried exhibit of South Carolina artisans.  There were 394 works of art representing 214 artist. The competition included all mediums. 

The final selection of 112 works of art represented 100 individual currently creating visual art in South Carolina.
Karen Watts, Director of Collections & Exhibitions for  The Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC served as juror.  

My piece A is for Aubrey was one of those pieces. 

The museum has a small gallery on the first floor with a larger and smaller gallery on the second floor. 

The juried show always brings a big audience.  This is the thirty-fourth year for this show of South Carolina artist.

As a fiber artist it is always an honor to be accepted into a mixed media show.  We are still a new medium in the art world to a  lot of folks.

While in the past this juried show, has accepted several pieces of fiber art, this year mine was the only one accepted.  Perhaps it was the only one entered, I will never know.

As photograph has in the past we, as fiber artists,  continue to struggle to be accepted as fine artist.  This year the second place winner went to Sam Wang, a photographer from Clemson, SC.  Five honorable mentions went to photographs. The Director of of the museum, Allen Coleman chose many of these as purchase awards. 

So fellow fiber artist persevere, someday our time will come.

This exhibit is open until June 13, 2013.  If you're in the area it's worth a side trip.

Linked to www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com