Finishing the Little Details

2
14 years ago
by Virginia Greaves in

I finished my latest piece, Celtic Woman, on Friday, just in time for the end of the month. I had it blocked and drying over the weekend — and thought I could take a quick picture of it today and be done with it and on to the next project.

I took a couple of rounds of pictures, and none of them were right. They were all a little blurry in the middle. I finally decided that the high contrast was causing a problem with the camera. I had a similar problem a few years ago with a piece I made called Ama. It is a very light portrait (my 1st person so judge me kindly) with a very dark background of blacks. The black has very intricate feather quilting using a heavy metallic red thread. I found that I could take a picture that focused on the portrait — and the picture blurred out all of the feather quilting details — or I could focus the camera on the black to get the quilting detail and the portrait would be blurry.

At that time, splicing two photographs together — which is what a professional photographer would do in the dark room and we can now do in Photoshop — was not considered an acceptable practice. Guidelines for the big shows were very explicit that you could not make any digital changes to the original shot — which made it a quilt that I couldn’t enter into a judged show. It also taught me a lot about the boundaries of a camera. I always expected the camera to see something just as I saw it with my eyes — and that is not always the case.

So when I realized that I had a similar problem with Celtic Woman, I started playing with the manual settings on my camera. I finally found that if I used spot metering instead of weighted average, the camera  would give me a clear image of the face but underexpose the cloak. I could compensate for that in Photoshop, however, and that is how I finally got what I believe is a good representation of the quilt.

You can see a bigger picture of it and a detail shot on the website here.

Celtic Woman

4
14 years ago
by Virginia Greaves in ,

I lost my blog yesterday — an experience I don’t care to ever repeat. It was running really slow so I added a 5 star add-on called WP Tuner. After I activated it, I learned what the white screen of death is. It’s a little like the blue screen of death you see sometimes in Windows. It means that your blog has disappeared. No error messages — just nothing.

I can say that I learned a lot. I learned how to access phpMyAdmin on my hosting server and change settings in the raw code. I restored all of my database files from a backup, deactivated all of my plugins, and changed to the default theme. Still gone. I finally went back into my history files to find the WordPress page from which I had found WP Tuner — and although it had 5 stars, as I scrolled down, I found that it was considered “broken” in WP3.0. Reading on, I found some discussion that led me to the realization that this plugin had changed my wp_config.php file. I went back upstairs to my clunky PC that I keep just in case & looked at the php files on the server. There was a new wp_configPCTuner.php file (something like that) — so I erased it. There was no mention in the wp_config.php file — but the site still wasn’t working, so I uploaded the copy of the file that I had stored on the PC from my original install. Finally — it worked.

What a nasty plugin. I have to be much more careful in the future. It made me worry about putting the entire website in WP. I’ve loved WP & have wanted to move away from Dreamweaver — but Dreamweaver really saved me yesterday.

On to my original intent for posting . . .

I was scanning prints into my computer recently and found an extraordinary picture of my sister-in-law. It was taken at Christmas almost 10 years ago, and she had just received a beautiful black cloak. She has red flowing hair that is very striking against the black, and the picture of her taken in the side garden of our old house captures her personality in such a striking way.

This is the first value layer — not much to see — the white muslin that I use for a base with a few shapes in a light value.

This is the 2nd value layer — you begin to see a little more contour in her face. You’ve got her nose — her chin — suggestion of her cheeks.

Then the 3rd layer — now she really starts to come out.

This one shows the problem I was having with her eyes. She has light green eyes — but that would be lost in this picture of her. Too light and yellow on the left — too dark on the right.

This is her with her teeth and the eye color that I chose. The eyes look really strong up close — but make sense once all of the values are on the wall and you step back. The mouth was fun — this is the first time that I’ve shown the inside of the mouth — just a little peek.

Also eerie about this is that it is just the face — so at this point, knowing the family as well as I do, I can see other people in the family peeking out at me, not just my sister-in-law.

Her face is also shadowed in an interesting way. This will make more sense when the cloak is added around her face.

I started her hair with a very brash orange. The more I looked at her picture, the more I realized that I needed more of this color — and I ended up using this for value 1 & 2 in order to get enough of it. The darker colors are nice — but the bright orange is needed for the highlight. It will make more sense in a minute.

For her, a lot of the effect is the hair.

And then the cloak. The top of the cloak is the lightest as that is where the sun is hitting her. There is still a blank edge around the rim of the cloak. I had to figure out a clever way to show the braid on the edge.

I decided to use a black stripe cut on the bias that I could manually curve around her face. Most of the black stripes I found were black & white — too much contrast — but I found this homespun with black and neutral tan/taupe that seems to work fairly well. I cut it wider than what I needed — and then ironed it down as I curved it to fit the line I needed — but I just ironed it down a little on that one side. Then I went back and cut the opposite side to match the other line. I took artistic license in getting it where I wanted it to be.

In the end, I think you get that feeling of the rolled edge — and the neutral in the stripe doesn’t shout.

I also added a green background which I’ll show later. I’m working on the applique now.

Textile Photography

3
15 years ago
by Virginia Greaves in

I joined SAQA recently and had my first Webinar. I holed up in the computer room, hogged the phone, and dialed in to hear Gregory Case talk about photographing textiles.

I take all of my own photographs — have for years — and have found that most instructional materials don’t cover the special topic of textiles. They photograph so differently from other medium — so I was thrilled to find this online class available through SAQA.

And I learned a lot. I’m fairly skilled at Photoshop, but he gave me a lot of helpful information about manual settings on my camera — all of which I put to use this morning. I finally finished Bull Dawg and needed to take pictures before sending it into its exhibition life — so I set up my camera and took what I think is the best textile shot I’ve ever made:

I’ve never taken a shot in which the quilting lines were so apparent. And the colors of the full view came out very true. I was so delighted!

I wish I could say the same of my detail shots — even placing the lights right next to the piece, they came out dark & the colors skewed. But Rome wasn’t built in a day. I may just need some more lights. I never realized how light hungry cameras are.

Pushin’ that Bull-Dawg

4
15 years ago
by Virginia Greaves in

I finally finished the applique on the bulldog. This is what it looks like before I quilt him. I changed his right eye a little, but I think that is the only big change. Finding good thread matches was challenging, but it isn’t very obvious unless you look at it closely — and most people view my quilts from 4 feet away or more. I did re-use a background that I’ve used previously — but it was the only thing that I really liked. It makes it look like he’s standing out on the field on a beautiful sunny day, full of excitement for the players on the field.

I have four days next week to quilt him & bind him — or put him in a frame — before I have to deliver him to the auction chair. Let’s hope I can do it.

I received the news yesterday that my quilt Duodecim will be included in Art Quilts XV: Needleplay to be shown at Visions Gallery in Chandler, AZ. The exhibit will run November 5th through January 15. From looking at the list of those juried into the show, I think it will be a phenomenal show, and I feel blessed to be included.

If you notice a few changes here & there, I have been working on my blog. I recently changed my theme to one that accepts menus, and I’m hoping to re-write my entire website into WordPress. It has been many years since I created my original website in DreamWeaver, and it has everything on it that I’ve done in the last ten or so years. I think it is time to pare it down & bring it into line with the blog so that it is all seamless. I may even write a blog post about how I do it.

Pedal to the Metal

3
15 years ago
by Virginia Greaves in

I was asked by my husband recently to give a piece to an auction — something I don’t ordinarily consider — but for various reasons, he wore me down & I decided to make something. In deciding on something that would do well at auction, I started thinking about framing it — which I haven’t done before — but I am starting to think that there is a larger art market out there that appreciates the simplicity of hanging a piece on a nail. It has become 2nd nature for me to hang my work on a rod — but when I gave a piece to my mom last year, I started to understand the frustrations that a hanging sleeve will give to an average person.

So it is my intention to frame the piece. I’m being a little noncommittal because I want to be able to change my mind. But in making the piece, I intentionally started with a standard framing size — 20″ x 24″.

And subject matter was another issue. In the great state of Georgia, what would appeal to the masses? That was an easy question to answer — football. And the most beloved symbol of Georgia football is its bulldog, a majestic animal that would make a fine subject for a portrait.

I really sweated the fabric choices on this. The bulldog has white fur — and I could have gone white and then started adding B&W fabrics in different degrees — but the end piece would look more graphic than familiar — so I attempted <gasp> solids. Or almost solids.

Interestingly, I’ve found that I’ve started segregating beyond basic colors — I now look for shades of pink reds — and shades of orange red. I tell myself that it is more about the shade than the color — but if you have 2 different kinds of red in a piece, it makes a difference.

I started with his mouth. Why? I don’t know. I try to start with the lightest colors & move to the darker colors so that I don’t have shadowing problems. Sometimes the muse moves us in mysterious ways. The pink looks like it goes too far to the right and left — but trust me — a bulldog’s mouth opens really wide & parts of it hang out.

Then the 1st fabric for the white. After I laid it out & started the 2nd value, I realized that the 1st fabric was not right — it was casting a yellow cast that I didn’t like. I needed whites that were more blue — so I tore off what I had done of the 2nd & re-did the 1st — and then re-applied the 2nd.

It looks a lot better — although I don’t know if the camera catches the subtle shift in color. No matter — trust me, it wasn’t working. The 2nd layer adds a lot of character.

This is after the 3rd & 4th values. I really wondered if this was going to work after the 3rd value — but the 4th helps pull it together I think.

Adding the different shades of black add the spark to his eyes and nose.

There is still a lot to do — I have to be done by the end of the month. I’m considering making a piece a month this year in about this size. That way, I could make 8 instead of 3 or 4 larger ones — and I think that the exposure to more subjects is what I need right now.

Motus 2010

1
15 years ago
by Virginia Greaves in

My Fiber Art Fusion group had our annual show reception last night. (It will continue to be on public display at The Art Place in Marietta through the month of September.) The theme this year was Motus — or Movement — which was a tough one for me. My first thought was to do an optical illusion — more abstract than what I usually do, but I wanted to see if it could be done in fabric. I used colors from the American flag & created Altered States of America:

When I made this piece, I showed it to a friend of mine that couldn’t see it — which I really didn’t understand — until another friend told me that some people can’t see optical illusions. (Learn something new every day.)

I also made this much larger piece, We the People:

and included a piece I made earlier in the year, Cracked:

I think it was a very successful show, and I was honored to be included with such a wonderful group of women (and Ben).

We the People

4
15 years ago
by Virginia Greaves in ,

In the past year, I’ve started to show my age. I’ve spent time looking through photo albums, archiving pictures in digital form, researching relatives (with the help of DAR, I’ve gone all the way back to the late 1700’s) — I’ve wanted to know where I came from. And part of that journey has been looking at how my lovely country developed — why our founding fathers here in America made the decisions that they did. Probably my best exposure to the Constitution, however, was provided by School House Rock.

So I’ve been considering this lovely document — hand written by our founding fathers — created at a time in which typewriters had not yet been invented. There is some beautiful calligraphy for the titles, and the majority of it was transcribed by James Madison’s cursive script. Cursive is a personal thing, unique to each individual. I’ve heard that there are some schools that have stopped teaching it — a shame. It is a beautiful and artistic expression.

All of this finally came out this past week — my kids went back to school and I had time on my hands. I also have the unique opportunity to include the piece in my local group’s art show — but I have to work fast. I only have a couple of weeks.

So this is where my muse led me — running at an insane pace.

I took white muslin & dyed it overnight in coffee. Coffee gives such a wonderfully rich color — very antique. I did not completely wash it out — I wanted to be able to add water stains to the piece to add to its age & make it look like old parchment.

Did I mention it was a lot of muslin? One & 2/3 yards. I thought that that would do it. Oh naive. For some reason, I thought that I could fit the Constitution on this. Well I was wrong. But I did fill it up with as much as I could. I tried to follow the calligraphy, but the rest is my own dear cursive hand writing. Did I mention that my hand cramped a lot? I forgot about that part of hand writing. But I kept going. I got through Article II Section 1 (although the final piece won’t show all of Section 1 because of how it’s cut out).

In copying it, I was struck by the number of capitals, the most wonderful of which is People. We the People — we are capitalized, just like President. We are important and have a soul in this document. It felt so beautiful and empowering. It is a document for us — We the People.

I decided to use Peltex for the inside — which was challenging. This is a large piece and required a lot of Peltex. It was my intention to quilt it after I sandwiched it with Peltex — what was I thinking? My domestic machine was no match for this. No — I would have to cut it up before I could begin to quilt it.

And did I say something about cutting this up? I’ve developed an interest in deconstruction — a fact that disturbs my DH — but I find fascinating. The Constitution is a living document that we have been amending — or deconstructing & rebuilding — practically since it was written. I wanted to make this hard edged piece fluid.

I started by marking my pieces on the top — I was lucky & found the perfect circle to use that would cover the entire width in exact repeats — and then I added tape numbers — because once this is cut up, putting it back together could be tricky. The circle seemed the perfect shape to me.

It was so large, I had to cut half of it on the floor — and I’m very sore today. You wouldn’t think that crouching on the floor would use muscles that you don’t usually use — but it does. After I was half done — it was small enough, thankfully, that I could finish at a table.

My first thought was to only use the circles, but now, looking at it on the design wall, I think I’m going to keep the diamond intersections.

After I took this picture, I sprayed it carefully to create more water marks.

My next move will be quilting each piece — and then the difficult task of edging each piece with thread — and when that is done, I have to think about hanging it. I’m still mulling it over in my mind — but the circles will hang horizontally, each from the piece above it — and the diamonds in a similar way but at an offset to the circles. I may use thread, I may use chain — I may add tea bags since they symbolize the freedom that we grasped by turning away from British imperialism.

It’s a work in progress — not like my illustrative work — but something the Muse commanded me to make.

The Fat and the Skinny

3
15 years ago
by Virginia Greaves in

Although this may sound like a discussion of waist size, it’s actually about envelopes. When you enter an juried exhibition, you generally know by the size of the envelope whether or not your piece was accepted. It is the same when sending applications to colleges. A fat envelope tells you that you got in — the skinny envelope is <hopefully> a polite decline.

I was lucky enough yesterday to receive a fat — and a skinny. One acceptance — one rejection. I value humility as a character trait so I can swallow the rejection — and certainly, it’s more digestible with a fat envelope in the other hand.

For those in the know, I’m talking about the International Quilt Festival World of Beauty exhibition to be held in Houston in November of this year. I am thrilled to be included. I’m still holding out hope that some day I’ll win something — “hope springs eternal” right?

Both of my entries were in the “Art: People, Portraits, & Figures” category. The one going to Houston is Rwandan Lady:

I hope she does well.

I try to show each piece at least once, so I now have 2 other pieces from this year to put out into the world. I’ll have to start thinking about other venues.

Quilting a Face & Conquering Your Fears

6
15 years ago
by Virginia Greaves in ,

I should say, conquering MY fears. Every time I finish a quilt, the hardest point for me is when I have to sit down & start quilting. I think about everything else in the world I can do to put it off, and my heart races at the thought of beginning. I think it is very similar to the fear of drawing — which is the fear of failure. Moving through a process that makes it less initimidating & breaks it into smaller, workable pieces is how I have to approach quilting — or I would never get it done. To be honest, I’ve even considered skipping this part altogether. I know an artist that mounts all of his fabric pieces on wood — and another one that mounts it onto a frame — but in the end, I know that the quilting adds a dimensionality to the piece that I like. I just don’t always know how to get there.

What works for me is to take a black & white picture of my photograph & start drawing on it with a pencil. I can mess up, erase, and start over. I try to follow the natural contours of the face — or the line of the shirt, or the neck, or the ear. Pulling all of these lines together into something cohesive is what I am working out on paper so that I won’t be pulling out stitches later on the quilt. I used to draw all of my lines on the quilt — I don’t do that anymore (it took too long & once I had my confidence, I didn’t need it anymore.) I look at my roadmap & I draw in a few primary lines on the quilt — and then fill them in with contour quilting lines.

I won’t always follow my map exactly, but I have an idea of where I want to go and I refer back to it as I quilt.

Studio Time

5
15 years ago
by Virginia Greaves in ,

I had to remind myself today to hold studio time more sacred. I realized that I have just over a month to complete my current quilt if I want to enter it into Houston. So I ignored the ringing phone and did everything I could to finish cutting out the appliques on my latest quilt. I had to re-do the turban — I really didn’t like the fabrics in my 1st effort & the actual drawing in the turban needed some tweaking.

Even though the light is at the back of her head, all of that white just looked wrong so I switched it with my medium tone used on the front of the forehead to add balance. I then added some deeper tones in the folds and ignored the final value I had in the drawing — I didn’t have enough in my new fabric range & I decided it looked fine without it.

I am so pleased with it. Strange that the turban would be the part that gave me the most trouble.

Tomorrow I will begin covering the raw edges with an applique stitch — I use a narrow zig-zag. That will take me about a week — although it will be next week until I finish it as I have company coming tomorrow for a few days. Nose to the grindstone.

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