Learning to Work in a Series

Note: This turned into a long post but I hope you will find time to read anyway!

Dear Diane,

How can it be that it was June last time we posted to this blog? Where did the time go?!

Well, actually some of mine went on doing two courses about Working in a Series, which I thought it was time to tell you all about. I really wanted to do the course run by Lisa Call on her own website but it was very expensive so when the opportunity to do a course run by Elizabeth Barton on Quilt University for around 1/10 of the price I thought maybe that was the way to go. So I signed up to that. The very act of doing that seemed to confirm to me how much I really also wanted to do the other one. So I signed up to Lisa Call’s class as well the same day.

For anyone on a budget, I would say that I had no complaints about the Quilt University course. It was a four week course and the method of teaching is that a lesson is made available for you to print off each class week and interaction with the students and teacher is by way of a sort of chat site. That means you can read all interactions with other students and learn from those too although a downside is that the list of messages can get long and clunky.

I decided for this course to make some quilts based on the Maasi tribe. I am not going to go into too much detail here about the exact contents of the course as I do not want tob reach anyone’s copyright, but I can safely tell you how it affected me I think. First, I tried out a new way of doing a ‘sketchbook’. I love notebooks to write in but drawing in them? Doesn’t do it for me. I can’t keep track of things, can’t move them around to collate ideas and one bad page ruins the book. So, I turned to ( you know what is coming!), yup, an A5 Filofax. I am still not a big user, tending to go straight from head to fabric but this is a great solution for me and I did take at least one sketch into fabric:

I now have two filofaxes ( both Cubans for readers who care) in use for this purpose with my subjects tabbed but its very flexible. I like that I can do something at lunch at work on a scrap and take it home to file later.
Secondly I began to work small, because of time constraints and to try out some new surface design techniques, making fabric with scraped screen inks and stamps. I was pleased with my fences made from stitch, paint and abaca tissue. The first quilt in this post is my SAQA Auction donation for this year. I do think it is a step forward for me. I am delighted to see it was chosen for the auction publicty material. These followed on and were submitted for a show in Australia but were rejected. which is frustrating as they are miles better in my view than the one that was accepted for the same exhibition the last time it ran! Ah well.

But, I soon started to experience the reality I had always feared with series work. How many times can you rearrange Maasai figures andstill see the point in doing so? Yes, if I was working only to sell, I would be creating recognisable works and that is a benefit for some people. But this subject soon became limited for me. I think there were two reasons for that:

Firstly the emphasis was on the visual not the story behind it and whilst there is nothing wrong with that it was not satisfying me deep down. Secondly, I was doing rather realistic pictures and I am now ( after some weeks for reflection) starting to realise that if I am not doing completely abstract work I at least prefer to have some symbolism in the work. Something that can be interpreted and worked out. Or at least something that holds attention and invited reading ( either literally of words, or figuratively interms of searching for meaning). Two spear toting men by a fence. Too easy!

So, that course was a good start but I was still rather restless being confined to a series. Of course, working in multiple series at a time is always a possibility but I could see that with limited time there was a real risk I would do twelve series of one quilt each per year! Not quite the point. So that Quilt University course was a good start but I was looking for more.

Then came the Lisa Call course. This was a much more detailed and professionally put together course and well worth the money. Lisa used her computer skills to set up a website for the course and the formatting (both of the site and the course) was really impressive. We studied with Lisa over eight weeks. On six there was a long ( at least 75 mins) live lecture withher during which you could phone in to listen and interact with her. Or, it was recorded and, as I was in an inconvenient time zone, I downloaded and listened like a podcast in my own time, taking notes as I went. Court users in Blackburn may have wondered why I was spending some time alone in my car at lunch time but it was a perfect time to get some concentrated listening time! In addition there were several substantial emails eachweek.

There was interaction with Lisa via the comments on the siteblog but also we got two half hour individual mentoring phone calls each. It was typical of Lisa’s organisation that these were not just nice chit chats. We got a call preparation sheet with some set questions on to prepare and this meant Lisa was able to use every minute (well after a few pleasantries!) to answer our questions and to offer focused advice and mentoring. Apparently some people used those calls to ask technical questions about the course material. I found all that was so clear I really didn’t want clarification and instead I opted to use it as a mentoring call. Lisa appears to be someone I have much in common with but who is further down the path than me and it was most useful to be able to pry into her experiences and have full and open answers.

In fact one thing we talked about was the possibility of using a professional creativity coach and about her experience of that being useful for a while and then going wrong and how important it was to get a coach that had the right skills and practice ethos. I had briefly flirted with that idea for a while having been in touch with Eric Maisel who is maybe better known as a coach for writers although he is certainly not limited to that. I came to the conclusion that there were better places I could put my money particularly as I don’t feel stuck or blocked. Besides Eric Maisel seems to have put all he knows into his many books so there is plenty for me to read there if I need to.

That said, if Lisa ever went into professional mentoring services I’d jump at the chance to work with her. One way in which she structured the course was to take a topic – say ‘balance’ and talk about how wec ould apply that to our art, to working in a series in particular, but also to the life of being an artist and our studio practice. So it was part practical, part psychology really, which I loved. And it wasn’t waffly stuff. It was backed up with articles on psychological research and from her own experience, both successes and mistakes. Good stuff and something to go back to over and over. Each week she also featured an artist whose work illustrated the lecture points so there is plenty of material to explore further there too.


We had five exercises to do during the course ( catch up weeks were built in) and they involved both freewriting journal exercises (and you know how happy I am to curl up with a notebook and do that!) and then the making of a piece of art. The clever thing about this course is that the first task is for you to set the parameters of your own work so that you can decide what is feasible in the time you have. So you pick size, subject, media, how far down the production process you will go. Basically you set yourself up to succeed in completion. Or you do if you are not overambitious like I tend to be!


I decided to put the Maasi to one side and try somethingnew. Just before this course started I had been invited to submit a quilt for the Fibre Artists for Hope Group on the theme of Broad Changes, an exhibition about women who made a difference in the field of social justice. Immediately I wanted to do a quilt about Camila Batmangheldidge, which is ironic as I still cannot spell her name without a Google assist! She is a charity worker in the UK and whilst she is Iranian I can see that her dress makes her not a million miles away from the African Ladies I have made a few times. I do love fabric headwear of all kinds! So I decided myc lass exercises would be trial portraits of Camila. At the same time, as you know, the Twelve by Twelve group had embarked on the 20/12 project and I wanted my works for that to hang together as a series. This sort of multi-tasking or synchronising of effort pleases me!

The exercises were, just as a way to structure the course,based on various formal design principles, but we were given several choices of task, including setting ourselves a task, so it enabled everyone to adapt the course to their own interests and needs. There was no need to feel you were faffing about with pointless irrelevant games or working at a level below or above you. Lisa did ask if she could share some of our work on her blog. I did not consent to that, for reasons I am about to explain, but, after a few weeks more reflection and with the ability to place it in context I am ready to reveal all.

Or, actually not all because I did not do all the exercises. But that’s Ok with me, and I do not see it as a failure, because the course moved me from where I was, to where I wanted to be without me doing the last one. Plus, I had confirmed that I really work better independently where I can take what I need and apply it to my own work with thought and in my own way.That is not to say that the tasks are not useful but rather that I am finding it more beneficial to apply them in a normal studio practice and to my own goals rather than to produce something for the sake of a class deadline.

That said, I did do three portraits of Camila B. Now, I am only sharing on the basis that you are kind to me (and I think I require another pot of Rooibos tea and a slice of Millionaires Shortbread to fortify me before I do so). The basic idea ( again I do not want to give too much of the course away) was that you start with a reference work and set parameters for your work. So I started with this twelve inch test piece but I decided my class work would be 16 x 24 and would all involve a painted portrait. This was particularly stupid as I had never painted before and in fact always said I quilted because I couldn’t paint. But you know, you’ve got to challenge yourself…!

Now, no laughing…. For my first assignment I chose the task of working in a monochrome scheme.

The second assignment was to do with space and dimensionality and this did not work or come anywhere near it so I am not showing that

And the third was this half finished piece wth no background ever done.

The outcome of these assignments was that I grew immensely in confidence that I was getting better as I went along but still knew that I was nowhere near where I wanted to be. Two, almost throwaway comments, I pickedup on the course ( and which I wrote on my dry wipe board) were ‘Its OK to bewhere you are’ and ‘Its Ok to be a student’. They sound simple, and indeed they are, but to an over achieving perfectionist they were very comforting and important points. So, at that point I found an art teacher who is now coming to my house to teach me to draw and paint so I can do what I know I can do if I learn how to! I set Camila B. aside and decided to change horses and work with maps.


The maps thing came out of the 20/12 project to which I was applying the lesson from Lisa to define your parameters and change one thing at a time. So my 20/12 parameters were, obviously, the size, and then an African theme with a focus on wholecloth surface design, and a colour scheme that meant my pieces all hung well together. The first one on the metamorphosis theme was sort of part of the Maasi series. Or not, but vaguely linked to it.

The second was Vilakazi Street. In the making of this I stumbled on a great site about the Soweto Riots in 1976 which maps the various routes taken by student groups and the Police during the conflicts and tells the stories of the people involved.

That got me excited and I thought I had a series right there. Maps of the routes with the stories on the quilts. That met so many things I wanted in a series… something that could change endlessly without boring me, something that enabled me to tell a story and something which linked to my passions rather than being picked because I thought it would make a goods eries. So, I took another route, the Police route made some fabric by my current favoured method of scraping and stamping with screen inks, and…disaster. It did not work.

But, that was another thing I internalised from the course. Artists make bad work. Move on. And move on without beating yourself up. It’sthat last bit that was new to me! So, I shoved that in the cupboard and had a think. Camila had to be made. The deadline has now been extended but at the time I had a comfortable but not overly commodious time in which to do it. My art teacher is good but on one lesson a month I am not going to be painting faces on quilts well enough to want to submit them any time soon. Time for a rethink.

So I reverted to fabric portraits. I followed Maria Elkins instructions on her Quilting Arts Download. Well, I followed them in so far as I am capable for following any instructions without deciding to go my own way!That is I to say I put a photo into photoshop. I then adapted the instructions and used the xxxxxxxxx filterprinted that out in colour in reverse and the right way around and then extended the print out to finish the parts of her missing in the photo. I outlined in black. I traced over each piece I needed to make on typing paper then reversed it to go on fusible by, um well, I don’t recommend this but by holding it up and sort of more or less putting some marks on the back of the paper as it flops about. It is not precise but it works for me and I then can trim the fabric and play about with it. I should use a lightbox or even work in day light at the window. But hey, it’s my work and slapdash corrected is more me than perfect from the start. It’s just more fun!

I have fused the portrait to a scraped and stamped background and then I used the same method as on Vilakazi Street to do a map of the areas of London whereshe works and to write in her story and that of her charity. And this finally is where I wanted to be in terms of working in a series. Because the deadline on Camila B was extended I put the top unstitched to one side and for a while to work on another one for my colleagues wall at work. This was the result.

I think this is better than Camila B. I let go of the central motif that carried over from Vilakazi street and learned that is is better to ensure the map chosen is featureful as it is withot a gimmick. And so this could go on. I can change the people and the place and the stories, even the colours I use and the methods to delineate the road and buildings and the method of getting writing onto the quilt so I don’t feel at all restrained but the work will be a cohesive collection whilst still being fresh. I hope! The last 20/12quilt on Mythology was a spin off from this maps idea also, with its city blocks background.

i am currenltly having a break from the studio for a couple of weeks but I know one of my first projects when I get back will be another map quily. There is no doubt in my mind that it took Lisa Call’s course to get me to this point and I will always be very grateful to her. There are other lessons I learned and indeed, at least one other series involving township shacks under way too.

So, that was a lot about me. But I am curious. Does working in a series appeal to you?

Helen.

Dealing with UFO's

Dear Diane,

Thank you for an easy question to answer. You should throw out today any UFO that is not definately 100% still a work in progress and that will definately get finished. Here are several reasons why:

1. Because I say so. You know I am trustworthy and I like people to do what I say, so you would be making me happy. Really, that should be enough, but it makes for a bad blog post so here are some more reasons..

2. Those never-to-be-finished UFOs are dead. Dead and finished. They had a good life, lived with purpose but now they need a decent burial. Or cremation if you feel like a yard bonfire. ( Please, no- one comment about Health and Saftey.) One lesson ( of many) I learned doing Lisa Call's working in a series course is that all artists make some bad work but that is a necessary learning step. Once you have learned the lesson that UFO taught you it is in fact complete. Or maybe it was just about needing time to sew and play on the days you made them. Anyway they have served their purpose. Remember when you were learning to write? You did not save every attempt you made to write your name did you? No. These pieces were time limited playthings or experiments. It is not wasteful to dispose of them because they are all used up. Get rid.

3. They are taking up precious physical space. And space costs. Either you pay rent or you have invested money to own. Either way you paid for the space those UFO's are taking up. Even if its a small space,it has a cost. When you were calculating the costs of buying your house if a realtor had said, " Oh and there is an option to pay a little extra every single month and in return we will provide storeage for something you don't want and don't need, would you have signed up? No. Chuck them out and use the space for something better.

4. They are taking up psychic space. How long have you spent thinking about them and writing blog posts about them? How many more creative thoughts would there be space for in your brain if you got rid? How could you better have used that time?

5. Do it as a favour to others. At some point ( many,many, many years in the future, God willing) you are going to leave that house for care home or cemetery plot. And then someone younger like me is going to have to go through all your belongings. Really, you want us to see what you have been hoarding? Get shut of them now and preserve your dignity.

6. Because I say so. And I know of what I speak. When we built the new studio I threw out several UFOs. It was highly liberating. New studio, new art direction. The rule was that nothing that did not sustain my current work or did not excite me with future possibilties was allowed into the studio. Boxes and boxes of fabric went. remember the Japanese commerical fabric phase? I was there for that... All gone. No regrets. They were like outgrown clothes and they were holding me back. I know there are other changes afoot in life for you at the moment, and this is a fitting time for a de-clutter whilst other things are being dealt with. It will be both practical and symbolic.

So, look again,once, at what you have. Can you cut some nice fabric out of them for re-use? Can you salavage a part of what you did. Can you really, honestly say that you will use those pieces in the kind of work you are currently doing in say the next six to twelve months? Are you enthused and excited about doing so? If so, part salvage. If not? To the bin they go.

And in the spirit of enableing I have given you an example. The piece at the top of the post was a piece done in my emerging Maps series that I did as a class exercise a few weeks ago. It looks worse that it is because the focal point was still to be added,but still... No good. Lines too wide, not defined enough in colour and the quilting (done when I was feverish with a chest infection) is abysmal. So....

 

Does that help?

Helen.

Unfinished Business

Oh dear, we are at risk of our tea getting cold and, even worse, our cake getting stale!  I can't believe that the last post here was in April!  Of course, we know that we've each been busy with all sorts of things, some more creative than others!  But I think it's time to get our talks back on track, don't you?

Let's have a seat, gaze at the ocean, and catch up.

Here is what is on my mind today.  I have been thinking about the various unfinished projects stacked in my closet, taking up physical space there and some mental space in my head.  Some of the UFOs are things that still please and interest me when I pull them out -- but I have them in "waiting" mode until I can get back to them with the energy and in the mood to move them forward.  Some are complex, pieced quilts -- contemporary takes on traditional quilts, really.  For example, one is a complicated "Cinco De Mayo" quilt (Karen Stone's paper pieced, complex version of the New York Beauty block) for which I finished the center but want to add a pieced border that will complement those detailed blocks.  Another is a red, white and blue quilt (the only one I've ever done) that involves really beautiful, detailed star blocks but needs a good setting.  I had a great idea at some point, sketched some complicated sketches, and now they make no sense to me whatsoever so I need to figure it out all over again.  I'm fine about those taking space in the closet, and I know I'll get them done at some point, and I'll be happy to have them.

Others, though, are just sitting there.  The ones that trouble me are art quilts that I started with a high degree of enthusiasm, some core idea, and then I got to a point where they just died.  With each of them, I've kept them on my design wall for various periods to contemplate where to go next.  I have pulled them out, had them up for a bit and, still uninspired, put them away again.  But with each of them, I think I'm stalled on them because I just don't like them, and I don't want to spend any more time on them.

But that feels ... uncreative.  Wasteful.  Some voice in my head is telling me that if I were a GOOD artist, I'd be able to figure out how to fix them and get them to a satisfactory (if not terrific) place.  And I can look at each one and see what it was that excited me in the first place.  In one, it was a cool piece of hand-painted fabric.  In another, it was interpreting a photo that I loved to create a scene.
Are they salvagable?  Probably.  But somehow, I just never get around to tackling each one.

And I think, I have only so much creative time and energy.  Let these old things go and move forward.  I generally do finish things -- maybe not fast, but I do.  But maybe it's better to recognize what it is about each of the pieces I LIKED and why, consider them steps on my learning path, and let them go and move forward.

Just chucking them out feels so -- final... a bit like I'm abandoning a child I once loved and had hopes for.  And then I think if I just tossed them, I'd feel relieved.

And of course, writing all this out makes me think that I can make this a way bigger problem than it needs to be.  Look at them, try to learn from them, let them go, and move on.

But here's what I'm wondering -- for you and any reader who chimes in:  Do you throw work (finished or unfinished) away?  When do you decide that something is not worth putting any more energy into it and let it go?  Am I the only one with this odd, Puritanical "you should do it BECAUSE it's difficult" mentality?

Learning to Work in a Series

 Note: This turned into a long post but I hope you will find time to read anyway!

Dear Diane,

How can it be that it was June last time we posted to this blog? Where did the time go?!

Well, actually some of mine went on doing two courses about Working in a Series, which I thought it was time to tell you all about. I really wanted to do the course run by Lisa Call on her own website but it was very expensive so when the opportunity to do a course run by Elizabeth Barton on Quilt University for around 1/10 of the price I thought maybe that was the way to go. So I signed up to that. The very act of doing that seemed to confirm to me how much I really also wanted to do the other one. So I signed up to Lisa Call’s class as well the same day.

For anyone on a budget, I would say that I had no complaints about the Quilt University course. It was a four week course and the method of teaching is that a lesson is made available for you to print off each class week and interaction with the students and teacher is by way of a sort of chat site. That means you can read all interactions with other students and learn from those too although a downside is that the list of messages can get long and clunky.

I decided for this course to make some quilts based on the Maasi tribe. I am not going to go into too much detail here about the exact contents of the course as I do not want tob reach anyone’s copyright, but I can safely tell you how it affected me I think. First, I tried out a new way of doing a ‘sketchbook’. I love notebooks to write in but drawing in them? Doesn’t do it for me. I can’t keep track of things, can’t move them around to collate ideas and one bad page ruins the book. So, I turned to ( you know what is coming!), yup, an A5 Filofax. I am still not a big user, tending to go straight from head to fabric but this is a great solution for me and I did take at least one sketch into fabric:

I now have two filofaxes ( both Cubans for readers who care) in use for this purpose with my subjects tabbed but its very flexible. I like that I can do something at lunch at work on a scrap and take it home to file later.
Secondly I began to work small, because of time constraints and to try out some new surface design techniques, making fabric with scraped screen inks and stamps. I was pleased with my fences made from stitch, paint and abaca tissue. The first quilt in this post is my SAQA Auction donation for this year. I do think it is a step forward for me. I am delighted to see it was chosen for the auction publicty material. These followed on and were submitted for a show in Australia but were rejected. which is frustrating as they are miles better in my view than the one that was accepted for the same exhibition the last time it ran! Ah well.

But, I soon started to experience the reality I had always feared with series work. How many times can you rearrange Maasai figures andstill see the point in doing so? Yes, if I was working only to sell, I would be creating recognisable works and that is a benefit for some people. But this subject soon became limited for me. I think there were two reasons for that:


Firstly the emphasis was on the visual not the story behind it and whilst there is nothing wrong with that it was not satisfying me deep down. Secondly, I was doing rather realistic pictures and I am now ( after some weeks for reflection) starting to realise that if I am not doing completely abstract work I at least prefer to have some symbolism in the work. Something that can be interpreted and worked out. Or at least something that holds attention and invited reading ( either literally of words, or figuratively interms of searching for meaning). Two spear toting men by a fence. Too easy!


So, that course was a good start but I was still rather restless being confined to a series. Of course, working in multiple series at a time is always a possibility but I could see that with limited time there was a real risk I would do twelve series of one quilt each per year! Not quite the point. So that Quilt University course was a good start but I was looking for more.


Then came the Lisa Call course. This was a much more detailed and professionally put together course and well worth the money. Lisa used her computer skills to set up a website for the course and the formatting (both of the site and the course) was really impressive. We studied with Lisa over eight weeks. On six there was a long ( at least 75 mins) live lecture withher during which you could phone in to listen and interact with her. Or, it was recorded and, as I was in an inconvenient time zone, I downloaded and listened like a podcast in my own time, taking notes as I went. Court users in Blackburn may have wondered why I was spending some time alone in my car at lunch time but it was a perfect time to get some concentrated listening time! In addition there were several substantial emails eachweek.

There was interaction with Lisa via the comments on the siteblog but also we got two half hour individual mentoring phone calls each. It was typical of Lisa’s organisation that these were not just nice chit chats. We got a call preparation sheet with some set questions on to prepare and this meant Lisa was able to use every minute (well after a few pleasantries!) to answer our questions and to offer focused advice and mentoring. Apparently some people used those calls to ask technical questions about the course material. I found all that was so clear I really didn’t want clarification and instead I opted to use it as a mentoring call. Lisa appears to be someone I have much in common with but who is further down the path than me and it was most useful to be able to pry into her experiences and have full and open answers.

In fact one thing we talked about was the possibility of using a professional creativity coach and about her experience of that being useful for a while and then going wrong and how important it was to get a coach that had the right skills and practice ethos. I had briefly flirted with that idea for a while having been in touch with Eric Maisel who is maybe better known as a coach for writers although he is certainly not limited to that. I came to the conclusion that there were better places I could put my money particularly as I don’t feel stuck or blocked. Besides Eric Maisel seems to have put all he knows into his many books so there is plenty for me to read there if I need to.

That said, if Lisa ever went into professional mentoring services I’d jump at the chance to work with her. One way in which she structured the course was to take a topic – say ‘balance’ and talk about how wec ould apply that to our art, to working in a series in particular, but also to the life of being an artist and our studio practice. So it was part practical, part psychology really, which I loved. And it wasn’t waffly stuff. It was backed up with articles on psychological research and from her own experience, both successes and mistakes. Good stuff and something to go back to over and over. Each week she also featured an artist whose work illustrated the lecture points so there is plenty of material to explore further there too.


We had five exercises to do during the course ( catch up weeks were built in) and they involved both freewriting journal exercises (and you know how happy I am to curl up with a notebook and do that!) and then the making of a piece of art. The clever thing about this course is that the first task is for you to set the parameters of your own work so that you can decide what is feasible in the time you have. So you pick size, subject, media, how far down the production process you will go. Basically you set yourself up to succeed in completion. Or you do if you are not overambitious like I tend to be!


I decided to put the Maasi to one side and try somethingnew. Just before this course started I had been invited to submit a quilt for the Fibre Artists for Hope Group on the theme of Broad Changes, an exhibition about women who made a difference in the field of social justice. Immediately I wanted to do a quilt about Camila Batmangheldidge, which is ironic as I still cannot spell her name without a Google assist! She is a charity worker in the UK and whilst she is Iranian I can see that her dress makes her not a million miles away from the African Ladies I have made a few times. I do love fabric headwear of all kinds! So I decided myc lass exercises would be trial portraits of Camila. At the same time, as you know, the Twelve by Twelve group had embarked on the 20/12 project and I wanted my works for that to hang together as a series. This sort of multi-tasking or synchronising of effort pleases me!

The exercises were, just as a way to structure the course,based on various formal design principles, but we were given several choices of task, including setting ourselves a task, so it enabled everyone to adapt the course to their own interests and needs. There was no need to feel you were faffing about with pointless irrelevant games or working at a level below or above you. Lisa did ask if she could share some of our work on her blog. I did not consent to that, for reasons I am about to explain, but, after a few weeks more reflection and with the ability to place it in context I am ready to reveal all.

Or, actually not all because I did not do all the exercises. But that’s Ok with me, and I do not see it as a failure, because the course moved me from where I was, to where I wanted to be without me doing the last one. Plus, I had confirmed that I really work better independently where I can take what I need and apply it to my own work with thought and in my own way.That is not to say that the tasks are not useful but rather that I am finding it more beneficial to apply them in a normal studio practice and to my own goals rather than to produce something for the sake of a class deadline.

That said, I did do three portraits of Camila B. Now, I am only sharing on the basis that you are kind to me (and I think I require another pot of Rooibos tea and a slice of Millionaires Shortbread to fortify me before I do so). The basic idea ( again I do not want to give too much of the course away) was that you start with a reference work and set parameters for your work. So I started with this twelve inch test piece but I decided my class work would be 16 x 24 and would all involve a painted portrait. This was particularly stupid as I had never painted before and in fact always said I quilted because I couldn’t paint. But you know, you’ve got to challenge yourself…!

Now, no laughing…. For my first assignment I chose the task of working in a monochrome scheme.

The second assignment was to do with space and dimensionality and this did not work or come anywhere near it so I am not showing that

And the third was this half finished piece wth no background ever done.

The outcome of these assignments was that I grew immensely in confidence that I was getting better as I went along but still knew that I was nowhere near where I wanted to be. Two, almost throwaway comments, I pickedup on the course ( and which I wrote on my dry wipe board) were ‘Its OK to bewhere you are’ and ‘Its Ok to be a student’. They sound simple, and indeed they are, but to an over achieving perfectionist they were very comforting and important points. So, at that point I found an art teacher who is now coming to my house to teach me to draw and paint so I can do what I know I can do if I learn how to! I set Camila B. aside and decided to change horses and work with maps.


The maps thing came out of the 20/12 project to which I was applying the lesson from Lisa to define your parameters and change one thing at a time. So my 20/12 parameters were, obviously, the size, and then an African theme with a focus on wholecloth surface design, and a colour scheme that meant my pieces all hung well together. The first one on the metamorphosis theme was sort of part of the Maasi series. Or not, but vaguely linked to it.

The second was Vilakazi Street. In the making of this I stumbled on a great site about the Soweto Riots in 1976 which maps the various routes taken by student groups and the Police during the conflicts and tells the stories of the people involved.

That got me excited and I thought I had a series right there. Maps of the routes with the stories on the quilts. That met so many things I wanted in a series… something that could change endlessly without boring me, something that enabled me to tell a story and something which linked to my passions rather than being picked because I thought it would make a goods eries. So, I took another route, the Police route made some fabric by my current favoured method of scraping and stamping with screen inks, and…disaster. It did not work.

But, that was another thing I internalised from the course. Artists make bad work. Move on. And move on without beating yourself up. It’sthat last bit that was new to me! So, I shoved that in the cupboard and had a think. Camila had to be made. The deadline has now been extended but at the time I had a comfortable but not overly commodious time in which to do it. My art teacher is good but on one lesson a month I am not going to be painting faces on quilts well enough to want to submit them any time soon. Time for a rethink.

 So I reverted to fabric portraits. I followed Maria Elkins instructions on her Quilting Arts Download. Well, I followed them in so far as I am capable for following any instructions without deciding to go my own way!That is I to say I put a photo into photoshop. I then adapted the instructions and used the xxxxxxxxx filterprinted that out in colour in reverse and the right way around and then extended the print out to finish the parts of her missing in the photo. I outlined in black. I traced over each piece I needed to make on typing paper then reversed it to go on fusible by, um well, I don’t recommend this but by holding it up and sort of more or less putting some marks on the back of the paper as it flops about. It is not precise but it works for me and I then can trim the fabric and play about with it. I should use a lightbox or even work in day light at the window. But hey, it’s my work and slapdash corrected is more me than perfect from the start. It’s just more fun!

I  have fused the portrait to a scraped and stamped background and then I used the same method as on Vilakazi Street to do a map of the areas of London whereshe works and to write in her story and that of her charity. And this finally is where I wanted to be in terms of working in a series. Because the deadline on Camila B was extended I put the top unstitched to one side and for a while to work on another one for my colleagues wall at work. This was the result.

I think this is better than Camila B.  I let go of the central motif that carried over from Vilakazi street and learned that is is better to ensure the map chosen is featureful as it is withot a gimmick. And so this could go on. I can change the people and the place and the stories, even the colours I use and the methods to delineate the road and buildings and the method of getting writing onto the quilt so I don’t feel at all restrained but the work will be a cohesive collection whilst still being fresh. I hope! The last 20/12quilt on Mythology was a spin off from this maps idea also, with its city blocks background.

i am currenltly having a break from the studio for a couple of weeks but I know one of my first projects when I get back will be another map quily. There is no doubt in my mind that it took Lisa Call’s course to get me to this point and I will always be very grateful to her. There are other lessons I learned and indeed, at least one other series involving township shacks under way too.

So, that was a lot about me. But I am curious. Does working in a series appeal to you?

Helen.

Posted with Blogsy

My Fiber Art Filofax

Dear Helen,

I have been a very bad blogging partner, I'm afraid.  You know why -- family matters, a bit of personal upheaval, other matters to attend to, a strange stomach bug, and a good-sized dollop of procrastination.  I have a lot of comments on what you've posted so far (and I'll post here again soon) but first, given that I can't entice your forgiveness with cake (a lovely slice of Victoria Sponge would be nice, yes?) I will show you pictures of my Fiber Arts Filofax.

Like you, I originally used a Filofax in my law firm lawyering days.  I had a lovely blue one (it seems shockingly ignorant to me now, but I don't think I ever knew what model it was).  I loved using it for keeping appointments and to-do lists and addresses and all.  But once I retreated to the life of a stay-at-home mom (and part-time home-based lawyer) the filofax got relegated to the back of a drawer in favor of online calendars and lists.

And then you pointed me to Philofaxy.  Oh, how I love that blog!  Finding others who are smitten with paper and pens and leather books and all things stationery is as wonderful as finding quilty friends!   You reawakened my dormant Filofax love at the very time I was organizing a whole lot of things in my life, and next thing you know, I have several Filofaxes in which I am happily keeping track of things.  It makes me very happy. 

Let me show you my red A5 finchley.  I do love it, although I must say that when it arrived, I was a tad dismayed at how dark the red is.  I tend to like red to be a strong, bright, fire-engine red.  I would call this color "burgundy," or "maroon," but not red.  (This looks a bit lighter than it really is.) Still, it is wonderfully soft and beautiful and I have come to love it.  I love the feel of the Finchley leather, and yes, it lies perfectly flat on my desk.  I have dedicated it to Fiber Art matters only, although that may change eventually ... I am finding that the perfect organizer set-up is an evolving thing. 

As you know, the finchley has two pen holders.  I keep a pilot rolling ball pen on one side and a mechanical pencil on the other -- but what I use most for writing is a Lamy fountain pen (fine nib, since I know you're wondering) which either sits in the rings or I clip horizontally onto the zip pocket of the inner front cover because it's too fat for these pen-loops.  (By the way, Lamy calls THAT color "dark purple."  Hah.  It's maroon.  Or burgundy.  What is it with not calling a color what it IS???  But it matches the red finchley beautifully and it makes me happy to match.  Ridiculously happy.)  I mostly use the pencil for sketching and drawing doodly design ideas and write everything else with the pens.

I made my own dividers with personalized tabs, as you can see here, using heavy decorative paper from the scrapbooking section of a local craft store and bits of washi tape.  For this filofax, I used the same happy polka dot paper for all of the dividers -- the way the dark red (burgundy!) dots match the color of the FF is very pleasing, yes?  I had a good time decorating the dividers with quotes and images I had -- bits cut out from magazines or printed from the computer.  I have the following tabs:

Calendar -- holds a vertical year planner, which I use for noting show deadlines, fiber art related meetings or due dates, dates of retreats and workshops, etc.  Behind that is a month-on-two-pages calendar, where I make notes on my goal to do something creative every day.  By the way, I also decorate the back side of divider pages.  (The back side of the red dot paper is this acid green stripe, which I quite like.)  You can't read it well here, but this quote says "Creativity comes to those who seek it" and it's stuck on with pretty washi tape.

Goals - I started this section with a list of creativity goals for 2012, and I've found that I keep adding pages -- a page of accomplishments, another with thoughts about what I want to convey in the art quilts I make, etc.  I have to confess that this is the first year in which I've actually written goals down that have anything other to do with work-related objectives, and it's proving to be a very useful thing.  Here's my decoration on the Goals tab:

The quote says "The harder you work, the luckier you get."  Appropriate for goals, isn't it?


Projects -- This section is actually subdivided by top tabs, also hand-made, for various projects.  For example, the 12x12 project gets its own section, as does "Maps" as I have that series going and lots of notes on that topic.  (I had a brief moment of indecision, when "map" was chosen as our current 12x12 theme -- which section do I put THOSE notes in?  But I've got them in Maps because, well, it involves a Map.  I don't feel the need for cross-referencing.   Yet.  :-)   I put inspirational material into the subsection of the project to which it applies... at least so far.

I am not letting myself be bothered by the fact that this quote says "loose" rather than "lose."  Intentional?  Maybe, but it makes me smile when I see it, because if I can't lose that fear, at least I can loosen it.


Blog -- Here's where I make note of ideas to blog about, notes of blogs or websites I've read about and want to check out, etc.

Ideas -- This is turning out to be a bit of a catch-all section, at least as it comes to ideas that pop into my head when I'm working on something else.  For now, I figure that if I note them in here, I'll be able to find them later, or I can look here if I'm stuck and looking for some random trigger.  I love this image -- clipped from a magazine, I think.

Technique notes - this section, at present, contains notes on specific techniques or ideas about using them.  I started this section when I was making some notes about cutting and using stencils and it wasn't specific to any particular project.  If I'm reading a magazine that shows a technique I want to remember or think about using in the future, I'll make some notes here -- including a reference to the magazine and issue where I saw it so I can find it again.  Again, this section may change, but so far it's handy.

UFOs - I don't have so many unfinished items that they require a whole tab of their own, but I did decide that getting some finished this year is on my goal list and keeping track of what UFOs I actually have is critical to that.  And you know?  The list wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be when I sat down to make it.  The photo above shows the inside of that divider, which aptly says "It always seems impossible until it is Done."

I also have a blank tab which at this point holds plain paper, and so far I've been using this for random sketching when I'm out and about and don't have an actual sketchbook.  I keep thinking I should put some decent paper in this section, but right now it's just plain old copy paper, cut down to A5 size.  Good enough for on the spot sketching.

I considered adding a section for the  City & Guilds course I'm working on (or rather, I *should* be working on) but I mostly keep those notes and sketches in a specific C&G bound journal.  Maybe I'll change that when I get back to work on the C&G assignments.  That's the beauty of FF, isn't it?  I can just add another tab and keep going.

In case you're wondering, I DO use the pad that slides into the back cover of the Finchley. I love that pad, and find it's my main note-making place, and when I'm done I move the page into the proper section.

It's interesting to me that we've opted to keep track of different things in our studio FFs -- and I have to admit that reading about your organization made me look at mine to wonder if I needed to supplement.  So far, though, I don't feel the need to keep track of time spent on projects -- while it'd probably be interesting, it reminds me too vividly of all of those law firm years where I was required to write my lawyer time down in tenths-of-an-hour increments.  So now I don't count time unless I HAVE to!  Similarly, I don't keep detailed records of the financial side of my fiber art, although this also makes sense and probably is more necessary as one gets involved in selling artwork.  At this point I throw receipts into a manila folder in my file drawer and add them up come tax time!  Maybe some day I'll get more organized and by then you'll have perfected the system, developed the perfect page, and I can just follow your system.

I considered a "Call for Entries" tab when you mentioned it -- it sounds so Organized and Efficient and Forward Looking!  But at present, I've decided that when I see a call for entry, if I think I will pursue it, I create a Project subtab and put the relevant entry info, along with my notes and sketches for the piece I anticipate entering, in there.  So far I've not needed a section for miscellaneous entries, mainly because life has been too distracting lately and making things for shows is down on the priority list... way down.

There are so many things I like about this organization system -- before using this filofax, I had several different journals and notebooks and I'd tend to make sketches or notes in whichever was handy.  Mostly I used a moleskine sketchbook and was operating on a "just use the next blank page" system.  Some people use this sort of journalling beautifully and then tab the pages them in a way that allows them to link the related pages even when they're not next to each other in the book.  (Diana Trout comes to mind.)  But that was driving me crazy, and I always felt like I had the wrong notebook at the wrong time.  I love how I can move pages around in the FF.

The biggest pleasure, though, is that using this system has made me really THINK about what I'm doing, what I want to be doing, where I want to be going, and the like.  I feel much more intentional about what I am doing, and this helps me keep track even when I end up detouring to work on something new or unexpected.

One last picture for you.  You  know that I'm continuing in an online sketching and painting workshop taught by Jane LaFazio, called "Watercolor Sketchbook: Designs from Life."  This class was actually a spin-off from the mixed media one I took a few months ago.  One of the assignments involved sketching and painting something from nature and then abstracting some designs.  Everyone in the class got so into doing those pages (and produced all sorts of great pages) that Jane decided to plan a whole course around that.  So far, we did a week of flowers, and then vegetables, and this week is "from the factory" -- manmade objects with hardware as a focus.  Here's the page I did on Friday:

It is very fun to take something and then think about design elements from that.  I have a box of different picture-hanging gizmos sitting on my table, and I think those will be the subject of tomorrow's page!

Beginning to work in a series

Dear Diane
Sometime ago I wrote and told you about the little breakthrough I had in discovering the thin lines in my work, remember? Well, I have had another breakthrough. At least I think it is a breakthrough not a breakdown but I will let you be the judge of that.

I am just starting the Working in a Series course that Lisa Call runs. This has caused me to consider what my series for the course should be.

The general advice on this ( not just on this course but on other art and writing sites too) is that you start by identifying what your passions are then narrow and narrow and narrow. After I discovered the example of George Rodrigues who has a collection featuring a canine in a certain hue I am calling this Blue Dog thinking. As opposed to Blue Sky thinking, get it? Well, it amuses me.

Anyway, I think this is probably easier if you are a visually inspired person to begin with. If you love landscape getting from that to beaches to shells to conch shells as a subject seems quite linear to me. The trouble is – and I know you are the same- I am inspired by conceptual things. Words and Ideas. And so many of them Not so easy to pin down.

So, I had in mind that I needed to do this exercise when I started to read a catalogue called Ethiopian passages  Café BocBoc with tea and thick hot buttered toast and I got seriously excited. Really, really excited abut what I was reading. So, I rushed home, grabbed my creativity journal and wrote down all the words that made me feel that way from the two introductory essays. 

Then I looked back over about the last two years sets of journals in which I had jotted down ideas for quilts and found that many of those same words were already down on my pages. So I did a composite list (over a special pot of Moroccan Mint Tea) and ended up with a big page of words about big things. Things like Exile, TransNationality, Culture and Hybridity. Words that tend to get written with capital letters. Not helpful! I knew I was closing in on something but it was a bit like hunting a polar bear in a blizzard.*

 Which is about the stage I was at when I sent you the private email bemoaning the fact that I knew I was interested in other cultures and found my own boring to put into art but that I was afraid of stealing from other cultures. You told me to find my own viewpoint to those cultures, remember? I tried to do that but it only got me as far as knowing that it was now like hunting a polar bear only by air, looking down rather than face to face on the ground.*

I am sorry - this picture refuses to rotate no matter what I try.. will you just tilt your head for me?

 Now, one of my mottos in life is : everything can be reduced to a flow chart. I reduced entire years classes on my law degree to a two page flow chart for revision purposes. So, I began to draw. And this is what I got.
Which makes it immensely clear to me if not to you! In essence, I am not making art about the other cultures or about my own. I am interested in the place between them and the process of movement from one to the other.
I expended this into an artist statement at first writing it with lots of tentative phrases like “I would like to” and “I want to” in it and then refining it to make it much more declaratory. The end result was this:
 

I make art about the Place Between. By this I mean the place between both physical borders between countries and the experiential boundaries between peoples. I  create pieces about the physical movement from one culture to another, stopping short of assimilation, and also about the attitudinal movement from one culture to the other culture stopping short of colonisation.  My Art  deals with  the loss of homeland and the gaining of new experiences. It is about the conflict zone, the place where tension exists, where resolution and accommodation must be found. I am interested in the hybridity and trans-nationality created when cultural fusion occurs and in the disconnection and disturbance when it does not. I am concerned with the macro events of forced migration for political or economic reasons and the micro experiences of relocation. I explore personal histories and narratives to illuminate global truths and to examine the tension between concepts of diversity and cultural authenticity. In doing this I pay particular focus to the experiences of women, the functioning of cohesive religious groupings and the social justice issues which cause or are caused by clashes or culture or expectation.

Now that sounded rather ambitious to me. It felt like me yes, but a me way, way, way into the future. Except there was a little feeling that I had probably started down the road a bit with some of my Twelve by Twelve quilts. So I looked back at both my Theme and my Colourplay galleries. Out of 24 quilts only two did not deal with the issues of conflict between expectations or cultures in some way, albeit that some were more obvious than others. Of the two that did not they both dealt with movement – one swimming and the other a physical moving house.

I was truly amazed!

So now I now that I have an overarching theme that I understand and can articulate to myself, and visualise thanks to my little chart, I have to narrow it down so that I can put it into individual quilts I need to start focusing on a recognisable visual langauge in which to consitently portray my interests.

I will spare you the narrowing process which involved more journalling and the distraction of making Wordle pictures.
I know there are may way in which I can deal with the overaching theme and many potential series with sub series to come. However, I had to remember I was not choosing my life’s oevre. I was picking a topic to focus on for an eight week class. So, I have decided to do portraits of Camila Batmanghelidjh ( whch is ironic as I still have to google her to get the spelling right!) As a Persian refugee with disabilties from a wealthy family now working with violent and disadvantaged children in deprived areas of London I think many aspects of her life illustrate the themes I have set out. And I had been thinking of basing a quilt on her for a show about Women and social Change I had been invited to submit for so my coursework can operate as preparatory work that that bigger quilt too. 

This is a quick ( less than four hours in total) twelve inch test quilt I made. It is sloppy in places because I wanted it to be like a sketchbook page to start me off and i was testing out working with ink and neolcolour crayons for the first time. It was very useful to have a springing off point and I learned that the brand of supposedly water resistant marker I used was not anything of the sort!

Really, it doesn’t matter what I pick for this course. I just have to pick something to work with to learn the lessons Lisa has to give. There is certainly a freeing feeling already. I have tons of other ideas but they are laid to sleep quietly for a while. Eight weeks seems like a time I can manage to keep them sedated and I don’t resent being without their company for that time. Although I do feel a bit of fear now I have told you my plans in case I cannot follow through.

I cannot imagine that I will do portraits of the same woman for more than a few months but I can see that portraits of women in general could keep me going for a very long time, especially as I intend to use this course to focus on the backgrounds. The idea of a series is that somethings stay constant ( for me, the person, the method of drawing her, the size of the quilt) and others change – in this case, the background, which I will change to tell different aspects of her story. That seems to be a formula with enough structure to enable me to find my visual language ( to steal a phrase from Commited to Cloth) and broad enough to keep me intererested. It is of course a natural development from my fledgling African Ladies. ( If one’s geography is bad enough to consider Persia as being in Africa!)

And now I have publically declared my intention it so I hope you will keep me accountable in not wandering down side roads! And will hold my hand when I get scared that I am wasting time or doing bad work or being a silly pretentious artist-wannabe or when any other number of fears arise.

So, now I have worked out what I am doing, I had better go and actually do it!

Write soon and tell me what you are up to,

Love, Helen.



















* Its an analogy. I would never hunt a Polar bear. They are too cute and I indentify too much with their big bottoms.

Studio Filofax

 Dear Diane,
I cannot believe it has been so long since I posted here. You know there has been illness and a holiday, but really - how can those two events,both of which gave me time away from the day job be an excuse? We were talking about rituals to get us started in creativity and so I have applied one to blogging and am at the very table at which this blog was conceived in Cafe Boc Boc with tea and doughnut, trying to do better!

There has just been a little girl at the ice cream counter whose attitude to life sums up creativity ( and female guile) well. Her father ordered her a single scoop of icecream and told her to choose her flavour.
"Pink Mint"
"The pink is strawberry and the mint is green. Which do you want."
"Pink Mint"
"The mint is green."
"But I do pink." In this she was telling the truth, judging by her pink trainers and pink trousers and pink backpack.
" Don't be silly. Which do you want."
"Pink Mint!"
The father rolled his eyes at the waitress. "Give her a scoop of strawberry."
The girl put her hands on her hips. "With one of green too. I'll mix it up in the pot. Pink Mint."

One thing you mentioned last time was that we should post about our creativity notebooks. Ho, ho! I think when you suggested that, it was before we both rediscovered Filofaxes. (Should I explain to readers how our Inner Eighties- Professional discovered the Philofaxy blog and asscoaited links, burst forth into the shops and how we now both own multiple new beautiful leather binders and spend time on SKYPE discussing leather flexibility, paper inserts and top tabs? Whats that? It makes us look obsessive? Ok. I won't mention that in public then.)

Except to say that part of my illness recovery has been to set up my Cherry Classic A5 Filofax ( bought for a song from Amazon warehouse because the box - but not the product - was damaged) as my studio Filofax. Using it has quickly become just the starting ritual I was looking for. My eagerness and excitement about creative possibilities can at times turn into a stumbling block. Where to start? Where to focus my energies? How to absorb all the information? How to be realistic about what I can achieve in the time available? Applying the business like organised side of my personality to my creative life has turned out to be both fun (in the stationery- nerd sense of the word) and practical.
Want to see where I am so far?

First of all I blinged the cream dividers that came with the Filofax. As my primary source of inspiration is Africa, I stuck in some eyecandy on the front and back of each divider. I am using Ivy stickers which are just the right size for the tabs to label them, rather than the recommended permenent marker, all the better for being able to easily swap their order in the future. The extra tabs are Post It Index tabs (why do they cost so much?!). Tucked in the front pocket are some L shaped pieces for card for use as 'viewfinders' to isolate parts of a picture for design purposes.

Right at the front is my activity section. I find it useful to track how much time I spend on various activities. This is both motivating, given I set a varying weekly target for studio hours and also educational as it help me better estimate how long a task takes and so to plan better for the future in terms of what I can commit to. None of the Filofax diary inserts were perfect for this so I Printed out these monthly sheets and simply use plain paper to record my activities, summing up at the end of the week and transferring total to the diary. I guess once you have worked in a law firm where time recording is king,  the habit never goes away! This sheet is more detailed than usual as I am at home for a full day.

My first tab is Finances. Here I manage my ( generous) monthly budget for quilting supplies and it is also useful for tax purposes to have a detailed record of how much things cost so I can calculate the  profit element of a quilt. I use the preprinted Filofax expense sheets but I am not going to show you the incriminating evidence thereon!!

Next the Learning tab. There are so many techniques in which I am interested but not yet proficient that I can get quite excited-dizzy with the options. So I have set out clearly my ' personal learning plans' i.e a list of goals with realistic target dates. I have top tabs for each section, currently, Photoshop Express, Working in a Series classes, Surface Design and Portrait making. each section has a yellow sheet setting out my goals, the resources, I have or need to acquire and the aimed for completion dates and how I define completion. I also list the steps I need to take to achieve each goal.  Blue pages in each section contain notes.

I have a tab for Calls for entries.I do save full details and entry forms electronically on Evernote, but it is very useful to have a summary here for planning purposes. However, I find it helpful to have a visual overview of the year so I can see entry dates and when quilts are to be delivered ( and therefore finished!). Filofax do make a year planner but there is very little room to write on it so I made these templates myself using Word. I have the same template with the self imposed target dates for my personal learning plan too.
Behind the next tab 'Forms' I keep entry forms and labels for current shows.  Need to buy a top opening envelope insert for this section. The 'Pattern' Tab is for when I write kit patterns for The African Fabric Shop or for magazines and is a space for me to jot down the steps I took making a quilt ready to be turned into coherent instructions.

 'Articles' is a tab with a list if ideas for magazine articles.  The 'Quilts' tab is ironically empty as this is a new set up, but will contain a sheet for each quilt with a photo, and records of size, cost and time to make it, where it has been shown etc. 'Travel' is for quilt show related travel bookings and tickets.

I have an ' Inspiration tab' but that is empty at the moment.Not because I am not currently inspired but because I am using Pinterest and my Cuban Filofax together with a traditional notebook for my current themes. I may use this tab. I may ditch it. Lets see. That's the wonderful thing about a Filofax system - the flexibility. Finally, the 'Website tab' has notes on my website settings and blog topic ideas.  There is nothing behind the alphabetical tabs yet but I intend to use them as catch all area for notes and clippings : G for Galleries, E for El Anatsui and so on.

So, thats the business end of my system. Then comes the Brown Cuban sketchbook Filofax and its companions Chocolate Classic and the traditional notebook. But I think I will save those for another day! Now its your turn to show me yours!

love,
Helen