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I have a large selection of new and classic quilt, art, and creativity books for sale.  The prices are very low. There are also some magazines (Expression and painting), and some computer-related books.  More computer books are coming (Illustrator, InDesign, not sure what else).

The link is on the left for Mid-Summer Sale, but you can also click here to get there.

Email me for the latest list … the summer sale page is no longer up to date.  Email me at gloriahansen@mac.com.

On The Sketchbook Challenge blog, you’ll find: Special Guest Sketchbook Profile: Gloria Hansen! Sue Bleiweiss is the brainchild behind the challenge, and I’m pleased to be among the talented artists that she interviewed.  Here are some of the images from my sketchbooks, and I invite you to her blog to read the interview.

Some of my journals and sketchbooks

Buddy, from one of my sketchbooks

A book with digital print outs and notes for possible future projects.

These are some of the digital stitched samples and notes from my "It's Time" piece.

Another book with digital prints of ideas that may or may not go into future work.

Notes, painted fabric clippings, and a mock up from a piece made in 1995.

The Sketchbook Challenge blog has a wealth of fun information — artist interviews, challenges, tutorials, projects.  It’s such a fun site that of course any publisher would be happy to snag Sue to submit a manuscript.  And I am thrilled to learn that it’s happened.  Sue will have a book coming out within a year featuring her work (and the other of other online friends) and more.  It’s sure to be a best seller, and I’ll be the first in line to purchase it!

Kevan Lunney from the Fiber Revolution group came up with a concept a few years back called “art concentrated” (or AC) which basically means a small piece of art that is framed and then sold at Fiber Revolution group shows.  I’ve been fortunate in that the pieces I’ve made in the past have sold, and it’s time to make some new ones.

While I was making collages for the One fundraiser, I played with some additional ideas for possible future work.  I wondered if one collage in particular would work for an AC.  I scanned it, reduced its size from 5×7 to the 4×6 AC size, and printed it on cotton fabric.

Collaged bird on left, stitched bird on right.

A close up of the collage.

A close up of the stitched piece.

I’m happy with how the print came out and the final result.  I used a bit of black acrylic paint to seal the edges rather than trying to do a teeny facing or binding.  I’ve tried both in the past, and each resulted in edges I didn’t like – wavy or whatever.  Using acrylic paint on the edge keeps everything flat and true to size.

I’m going to try this with some other collages I’ve made.

Here are two other ACs that I made.  The one on the left is a digital design printed on fabric.  The one on the left is from a piece of fabric that I painted and digitally printed a month or so ago (it’s somewhere lower on the blog posts).  I like how the paint is sort of crumbling off in places.  I’d like to incorporate more of that type of paint crumbing off in larger work.

I keep hoping that the smaller pieces will kick my butt into gear to make some larger work, as I am hungry to do some new large work.  Instead, I joined a gym.  What does a gym have to do with creating new art work, you wonder?  Nothing.  But every once in the while that kind of thing happens — I’ll want to do one thing and will then end up doing something totally unrelated.  For example, I’ll need to work on my taxes and suddenly I’ll decide it’s time to wash the kitchen floor.  So, the gym.  I decided that since I work from home, and work often gets stressful, that I would leave my home and work out.  It’s not that there isn’t workout equipment here, because one side of the basement is loaded with Rich’s stuff.  But it’s not the same. I decided that physically leaving the house and working out would be a good way to let off steam.  I imagined I’d come back refreshed and invigorated and raring to go.

Originally it was a no-brainer.  I was going to Gold’s because it’s about a mile and a breath away.  If I make the traffic light, it’s probably two minutes from my home.  In the summer I could walk there.  I imagined I could go there, work out for 45 minutes, and be home — all in less than an hour.  However, Rich pointed out that there is a very large new gym about 5 miles away,  a straight ride on a 55 mph zone road.  He said, “Let’s go check it out.”  We did.  He loved the place.  “It’s double the size, better equipment, more equipment, it’s brighter, it’s cleaner, open floor plan, two floors.”  Then we were told that any member is able to give a free guest pass to anyone during the time the member is working out.  Rich’s face brightened.  “So I can go with her anytime for free?”  Yes.  I reminded him he has equipment in the basement.  He didn’t care; he liked the idea that he could also go.  I told him I didn’t care how big the gym was or how much equipment it had.  Gold’s has what I need, and it also has T’ai Chi classes (something I did many years ago and would like to do again).  Still, Rich’s face was lit up. “This place is great!”  And, the place is less money, and there was some special (I’m always skeptical of the “unadvertised special”) going on so that there was no enrollment fee.  Thus, about 1/3+ less money.  In the end, I joined the second gym.  Yes, totally sucker punched.  And if he read these works (nope, he never reads my blog; I don’t think he’s even seen my website), his mouth would drop and he would probably have his feelings hurt.  But I was sucker punched.

It’s great while I’m there, but I haven’t yet learned how not to calculate in my mind the time wasted from 1.3 miles to 5.1 miles as I drive past Gold’s.  Yes, I calculated the miles and the minutes. So much for getting rid of stress.  And that place is loaded with young people which only hammers home me being over 50  (note to self, get there earlier in the day while school is still in session).  It’s almost depressing to the point of making me want to wolf down a full package of Stella Dora Breakfast Treats.  And when I get home, I’m tired!  And I’m sore.  Yet, I’m keeping my eyes open for any specials at Gold’s.  Will I actually waste money on a second membership because I don’t want to drive a few more miles?  Am I nuts?  Yet somehow in my strange manner of thought process, I think that would have a very positive effect on my personal artwork.  “You belong to two gyms and you’re still not in shape?”  Correct. I don’t have time for a gym, I am concentrating on my artwork.  Hmmm …

Here are more watercolor papers that I painted with left over dye from snow dyeing last week.  The dye still works great on paper.   I may do a few more sheets, but it’s really time that I stop making materials and start making art.  I easily divert myself and then realize time is going by and I need some focus.

While cleaning up my dye/paint area, I saw a lot of interesting looking dried up paper towels in the trash.  I started pulling them out.

I started weeding through them, as some of the towels look good.  Oh my gosh, I’ve now been reduced to picking my own garbage for paper towels.

Can you believe that I actually ironed some of these to keep?  At times I think I’ve lost my mind.  Even so, look at that turquoise/blue sheet.  That color is popping.  It seems I should be able to do something with it other than it sitting in a pile.  My friend Beryl makes fabric paper.  I suspect I can try her method and use paper towels in place of other papers.  Maybe I’ll bring it all over her house and play.

I also did make a 12″ quilted square for a quilt being made for a friend as a surprise, a birthday surprise of sorts.  I want to show it here because it came out pretty, but I’ll wait just in case she reads this blog and figures it out!  At least I got some stitching finished and am not just confined to pushing pixels all day and ironing paper towels at night.  I need to get out more.

I generally use paint on watercolor papers.  However, I had so much dye left over when snow dyeing, that I couldn’t bear to put it all down the drain.  Instead, I poured a lot into jars to create a pile of watercolor papers to use in future projects.  Prior to putting dye onto the paper, and I’ve no idea if this is necessary,  I first sponged on a bit of soda ash solution onto the paper.  In the past, however, I’ve also used dye to paint on paper without soda ash.  Once that paper was dry and I later wet it, nothing happened, such as the dye running in any way.  If anyone is familiar with dyeing on paper, let me know if using soda ash on the paper is necessary.  It may not be.

I decided to use some of the papers into a journal. This is a single signature book.

The inside front cover.

A fold out spread.

Another fold out spread.

The inside back.

I also put together another journal using multiple signatures of watercolor paper that I inkjet printed onto.  I’ll get those pictures up tomorrow.

As an aside, another snow dyed piece of fabric.

Nancy Breland of Pennington, NJ provided a set of detailed instructions on snow dyeing to ProChem.  You can find the instructions here.  After reading through them, I realized I needed something to raise my fabric up so that when the snow melted, the fabric wouldn’t be sitting in a pool of water/dye.  Rather than going to the store, I looked around the house and found some aluminum trays.  I cut some holes in them, inverted them, and put them into a plastic container with those containers into another. The photo above shows one tray right side up, but I later inverted it.

Nancy gave instructions for adding urea to the water with the dye powder.  I had some handy, so I used it.

I mixed my dyes using a heavy duty respirator. It was too cold outside for me to work.

Nancy also described a method of mixing the snow with the dye is a bowl rather than just pouring it on, although pouring it onto the snow also works.

There was a lot of dye that went all over my work table, despite me trying to be tidy. I decided to soak it into watercolor paper to later use in some other project.

Here's the snow as it is starting to melt.

And here is the finished fabric (I only did three pieces) and some of the water color paper.

a close-up of one area of the piece below

the second piece - it's soft, but pretty

This and the one under it are three views of the same fabric. I had some large blotches in places from where the fabric fell into the pool of dye beneath the pan.

Luckily this piece is large - 60 by about a yard - so the waste isn't too bad.

one side of the watercolor paper

the other side

one side of the watercolor paper

the other side of the watercolor paper

All in all, not bad.  I’m off to San Francisco for Photoshop World where the weather is predicted to be in the mid-60s and sunny.  Here it’s very, very cold and snowy.  When I get home, and if there is more snow, I’ll give it another try.  This time I’ll raise the fabric higher.

Snow dyeing is becoming very popular, especially with all of the snow we had last winter and now this winter. This YouTube video is from ProChem, the east coast’s best supplier of dyes and related supplies. In NJ, we just had a fresh batch of snow. Hmmm … do I really need to do this? Will I really give it a try tomorrow? Hmmm …

This past Saturday I gave two lectures to the Empire Quilt Guild that meets at FIT in NYC.

Trekking in on a very cold day.

I was surprised by how many people made it on such a cold day.

My first talk was the evolution of my artwork - an expanded "art of being an artist."

The second lecture was on understanding the digital image.

Chatting with Benedicte Caneill and Katharina Litchman

I took along some quilts to show.

Luckily there was interest in my book, and I sold several.

I enjoyed meeting Mary Butler, a lovely woman who is the program director of the Guild, and other members who made me feel very welcomed.  Katharina Litchman made a special trip to meet me, which was very flattering.  And my friend Benedicte was there, and it’s always great getting to spend some time with her.  At one point after the lecture, a person came up to me and gave me a big hug saying, “Thank you.  I get it.  It finally makes sense.”  Her happiness was an added bonus to my very good afternoon (albeit a cold one!).

I finished my collages to donate to One Cause: One Wednesday: One Hundred Collages, an online fundraiser that Virginia Spiegel has organized for the American Cancer Society.   The event happens February 16, 2011.  Each collage is 5×7 and will be mounted on 140 lb watercolor paper.  Here is my small contribution:

Solitude

Hand painted Japanese papers and a print of an altered photo collaged onto cotton duck.  The image is then painted again.

Three Birds

The base for this piece is a stack of papers sewn together and painted. The next layer is a digital image inkjet printed onto thin Lutrador that I then heat distressed.  The next layer are various papers collaged on fabric and over painted.  The next is from a photograph I took outside the History Museum in London.  I recolored and printed the bird three times onto fabric and then stitched them into place.

Light Decay

The bottom layer is a stack of papers sewn together and painted.  The next layer has hand painted papers, fabric, and a digital design printed on thin strips of metal.  The next image has the same design printed on thin Lutrador which is heat distressed.  The top layer is another piece of inkjet printed metal.

Lost

This piece began as some photos that I printed and collaged onto hand painted fabric.  I then photographed that image and digitally changed the colors.  I printed it that new image onto fabric and printed it again onto paper.  Both are collaged and stitched together with sheers.  I then added more paint and sealed the edges with black gesso.  I like how the original collage is nearly totally obscured.   This is a small version of a larger series of work.

I also did another set of collages that are not part of the fundraiser.  However, I thought I’d also share them.

Yearning

Time

Contemplation

Each of these collages are based on photographs that I’ve taken.   At some point I may use one as part of a journal cover or as a starting point for something larger.  Or not.

The Journey - ©Gloria Hanse 2010

This is the last “large” (for me) piece that I completed for 2010.  It measures around 56″ in height.  It’s a digital collage and painting that’s printed on silk fabric using archival HDR Ultrachrome inkjet ink.  In some areas, I also added some additional color with pencil and paint.  It’s something I highly doubt I’ll enter into any type of traditional quilt show as I doubt it would be accepted.

This piece is very personal, and I’ve been working with the imagery on and off for a couple years.  In this small image, it’s hard to see some of what is happening.  I have another version of it that I may make this coming year.  We’ll see.

I had endoscopic surgery last week to remove my gallbladder.  It was a bit more difficult than I thought, although far better than traditional surgery.  Today I was finally able to get back to some me time (well, aside from all of the me time sleeping and working limited hours each day).  While I am still taking it slow, I am trying to get my collages finished for the One Cause fundraiser.  While the fundraiser doesn’t happen until February, work is due January 1st.  The pressure is on!

I returned to the digital images I printed early December, which you can see a couple posts down.

The original print.

This is a version of the design that I digitally printed onto thin Lutrador.  My goal for this collage was to work with it and possibly some of the digital prints I did on metal.

I placed the print onto a piece of fabric that I first dyed and then airbrushed with fabric paint.  I made this fabric some years back, and it’s been sitting in my stash.  Using a heat tool, I burned away sections of the print that is stitched onto the fabric.

While I like the look, knowing that I’d have other elements on top, I decided to add a bit of bright neon yellow/green paint for added punch.  I dry brushed it onto the Lutrador and let dry.

Next up I started experimenting with some printed metal pieces (it’s the same design) along with a copper mesh.

Then I placed a piece of watercolor paper that I painted a bright color (also from my stash) underneath a piece of yellow/green spun poly.  On top of that are some Tyvec cloth pieces that I painted and heated to get a rounded blob shape.

I then tried a longer piece of printed metal, the spun poly, and tyvec.  Still not there.

I added another piece of printed metal and further rearranged things until I got the above.  While it’s not the final collage, it’s close.  I did a slight rearrange and added some copper mesh to hold the top piece of metal in place.  I didn’t post its image because I want to first finish it.  Then, once I get permission from the fundraiser organizer that I can post, I will. The final collage will be in the 6×8″ range and mounted onto 8×10″ watercolor paper.  If it appears it needs more breathing room on the paper, I’ll cut it down a bit more.

It does feel good to be making something, even if it’s little and not finished.

Lately I feel like I’ve been stuck in neutral, trying to get some new work going.  Since I need to get collages finished for the cancer research fundraiser (more on that two posts down) by the end of the month, I decided to do some experimenting on different media to hopefully spur some ideas for future artwork and may be use some of what I make into the collages.  So, for the past few days, I’ve been giving myself a little time each night to work on some ideas.

I started with a line digital line drawing and printed it on fabric that I discharged with bleach.

I then tried some different colorways, making the color adjustments using Photoshop.

And another.

And another.
This is another try, on a larger piece of fabric.  I printed it using my Epson Stylus Pro 7900.  The printer is fussy.  If it senses one thing off, it spits out the paper.  In other words, it’s important that the bottom and sides be perfectly straight.  I’m always a bit nervous using that printer.  At times I think I should have kept my 7600.  At least with it, I didn’t worry about whether I’d break something.  However, I am hoping that eventually I come to love the printer and stop worrying about breaking it. (Did I mention my good lens was just returned from Nikon?  I dropped it – again.  My latest camera body is also at Nikon getting fixed.  And I’m on my third flash because, well, I dropped one and can’t find the other.) Initially the printer only printed about 4 inches before kicking out the paper.  I then went back to the digital file, tried to estimate how much printed, sectioned off that area, and filled it with white.  I then printed on the same piece again.  I like the overprinting.

This is the same design but printed on tyvec cloth.  On this, I added some random squiggles.

The same image again, but printed on a thin lutrador.  It’s very sheer, so I put it top of the other print and placed a piece of  watercolor paper that I painted with Procion dye in a bright yellow mix between the two.

Here’s a close-up.  I like what’s going on here and am pondering what I can do with this stuff.

I also printed several pieces of thin metal.  Some I bent up, like the one on the lower right.  I’m not sure what I’ll do with them, if anything, but my goal was to print a variety of things on different media.

Here’s the same design again, printed on a light weight lutrador.  It’s sitting on a piece of cloth tyvec that I painted with metallics.

Here are some of the cloth tyvec with metallic paint pieces, but I hit them with heat to scrunch them up.  I may over-paint them, depending on what, if anything, I end up doing with them.

This is a double print on tyvec.  The first time, the tyvec was used as a base when I printed a sheer.

At this point I’m playing around with things.  The color of the tape measure add a good splash of color, and I like some of  the sections of print have some possibilities.  I can see some of the lines being extended with hand stitching and paint.  I’m pondering all kinds of things.  Will I get any of it into a collage?  No idea.  I may end up tossing it all in a pile with other experiments.  But at least I’m doing something to get the juices going.  And, because I have a due date for the collages, I also got sidetracked and continued on with another series of designs that are still on paper and in my computer.  Will any of it be made into new artwork?  Who knows.