Redefined

How I protect my artwork from damage

Right now, almost all my work is back in the house again, so I am going to spend a few days making storage cases for some of the more vulnerable and newer artworks. This practice started a few years ago, when I made a piece called Forest Floor. I realized it was going to get damaged and dusty, so I spent a lot of time making a custom storage case for it.
The light spot on top is where my cat barfed on it recently. Did I mention she was bulemic? I will probably make a vinyl outer cover to protect the case even better, but I guess I didn't do it fast enough. You can't see in these pictures, but there are a lot of handles sewn onto the case. It's so bulky that my short little arms have trouble carrying this piece without them. I also attached extra handles so I can hold onto the case in just the right places to make it easier to slide the artwork in and out. All the flaps close with Velcro.

The next two pictures show the custom storage case for Transformed. A pre-quilted and very colorful fabric is used for the outer case. I printed a picture of the piece plus my contact information on fabric and sewed it onto the flap for easy identification. Another piece I made around the same time, Triangulated, has a similar case.

Open the outer case and you will find the artwork's components.  The wood pieces are nestled safely and warmly in their own sweet and soft fleece fabric bags. Twill tape is sewed on the the flap area so the flaps can be tied down.

The round "roller" parts are simply placed in old pillowcases and rolled up. Someday, maybe I'll make something a little more customized, but I got lazy by this point in the construction.

My cat hasn't barfed on this case yet. I wonder what's holding her back?

Announcing my second blog

I invite you to visit my new blog, called Amazing Stuff about Color and Fabric. It is written more like a book than a blog, so please read the introduction that will explain it better. I still have some cosmetic changes to make, like a more interesting banner at the top of the page and a link back to my main blog (this one), but that will come with time.

http://wernerstudio.typepad.com/color

Once you get to the new blog, you can subscribe by using the Feedblitz icon in the righthand column. As I publish each new entry, the entire contents of that entry will be sent to your email, so you don't need to visit the blog all the time.

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I am enjoying writing it!

Creating a color run

I got tired of working on Evolved and put it away for the moment. It's such a time-consuming project that I have to stop working on it periodically and do something else for a while. Here's what I did this weekend.

Many of my projects are composed of long, skinny quilts that use color gradations along the length and I thought you might be interested in how I create them. This time, I cut 4-1/2" widths and 2" widths from each fabric. The narrower strips are typically used in my bindings.

This is what I call a color run. I usually begin by pulling hand dyed fabrics from my stash and placing them in the order I want them. I don't always use all the colors. If you notice, there is no purple represented here. Once I have created the "first draft" using hand dyes, I go into my stash of commercial fabrics and use them to fill in the gaps. The prints add a lot of interest and helps me to use up the ton of commercial fabric I own. I have to admit that I bought a few fabrics this weekend and it's been so long since I went into the local quilt shops that they barely remember me anymore. The face is familiar, but...

You might notice that I start and end with a black-background fabric. A closer inspection shows that the leftmost fabric is actually an extremely dark green and the one at the right is an extremely dark red. By taking the color run from dark to light and back to dark again, I can still make the colors flow into one another if I want to make the piece twice as long by joining the ends. I also make sure there is at least on white fabric somewhere in the run for sparkle, which can be seen here between the greens and blues. If I had wanted to, I could have taken the middle of the yellow section all the way to white, but chose not to

What do I plan to make with this? I'm not quite sure yet, but I have a couple of ideas. I just needed to get back to bright fabrics for a little while to feed my color addiction. No matter what I make, I know that it will look good, because if they look right on the design wall when displayed this way, then they look good if they are mixed up, too.

How I make my fiber sculptures

I've created several artworks that incorporate fiber sculptures. The sculptures look exactly like they are made of metal, but when you touch them, you discover that they don't feel cold. Right now, I'm making a tactile sample for an exhibit at the Columbus Museum of Art (OH), where I will have two works on exhibit this summer, Knitted and Transformed. Using the sample I am making, I will show you how I made the "metal rollers" for Transformed.

I frequently use foam pool noodles as filler, because they are both lightweight, which reduces shipping costs, and chemically inert, so they will not deteriorate and "gas out" as they age. I have also used other materials, like aluminum foil, to create my basic shape.

1. If using a pool noodle, I cut it to the proper length using a serrated bread knife. It cuts like buttah.

2. Wrap the noodle or basic shape smoothly in about 3 layers of blue painters tape. You'll get the best results using the type shown in the picture. The more layers of tape you apply, the stiffer the outer shell of the sculpture will be.

3. Glue a layer of black fabric all over the blue tape using watered down Elmer's Glue. Trim the fabric as needed to fit the form. You don't need to make it completely smooth, depending on the final effect you want. Make sure everything is saturated, so paint the glue both under and over the fabric. Check during the drying to be sure the sculpture isn't sticking to the table. Let dry completely. The black "crochet hook" on the right is at this stage.

4. I use hand dyed cotton batting as the outermost cover. In the picture, you can see some examples of my hand dyed batting in the background. The best batting to use is Warm & White and you don't even need to prewash before dyeing. I like to use a very dark brown or black color for simulating the look of metal. Glue the batting onto the form, trimming to fit. Use watered down glue, saturating the batting fairly thoroughly. After a minute or two, the batting will soften to the point where you can smooth the cut edges with your fingernail and move it around to some extent. Check during the drying process to make sure all areas are covered. Dry completely. The small brown tube in the same picture is at this stage.

5. Rub several colors of metallic rub-on craft waxes in splotches on the batting.

6. Paint the sculpture with several coats of a water-based shellac. I like to use a "blonde" color. The first coat will be soaked up quickly by the batting, so let it dry thoroughly before the next coat. When you are done, the sculpture will resemble aged metal, but be much lighter in weight.

The finished sample can be seen in the last picture. Now wasn't that fun? Just don't try to display this as outdoor sculpture.

How I make my quilts 3D

A couple of years ago, I received an email from a Canadian quilt guild. The workshop chair had found my website and asked if I would teach a multi-day workshop for them on how to make 3D quilts. Although I love to teach, I had to tell them no because the kind of work I do is not dependent on a particular technique or material. It can't be taught.

In my artwork, the concept is the most important thing, so the pieces can look quite different, even within the same series. Because each piece is unique, I have to invent different solutions to create the effects I want. I start with the concept and then spend a lot of time designing how I will physically execute the idea. There's at least one quilted form in each artwork, but otherwise I don't limit myself in regards to materials and techniques. In addition to artistic considerations, I also have to think about ease of shipping (size, weight, shape) and ease of installation, because they are major influences on the final design, too.

What I put inside the quilt has the most influence on the finished shape. Batting is the soft stuff you put inside of quilts to make them cuddly, but I tend to use many different materials inside the quilts, depending on the needs of the design.

When I want a soft quilt, I use Warm and White cotton batting and have even used this in my freestanding sculptures, such as Discombobulated and Melted. Sometimes, I'll even use another layer of fabric in lieu of any form of batting, if I want to cut down on bulk and weight.

Here are some of the materials I've used to make stiffer quilts.

- Extruded required a quilt that would project out from the wall horizontally for a distance before dipping to the floor. To accomplish this, I used buckram, which is a very stiff fabric that is typically used inside of baseball caps. The design required the quilt to be the stiffest at the top, so I started with four layers of buckram at that point, sandwiched between two layers of cotton batting and, of course, the two outside layers of fabric. As the quilt got further from the "extruder", it needed to droop down and touch the floor, so I removed a layer of buckram every few inches. I was left with one buckram layer by the time it reached the ground.

- I wanted to see if I could make a freestanding sculpture similar to Melted, but easier to install on site, so I made Tangled. Instead of batting, I used a very stiff, thick version of interfacing, called Peltex. This turned out to be less satisfactory than the cotton batting, so I won't use it in this fashion again.

- Plastic needlepoint canvas was used inside the "heads" in Emotional Entanglement. Yes, I hand quilted through all three layers.

- In one of my older Art Deco pieces, Simple Yet Elegant, I created a long, skinny quilt using several layers of heavy duty aluminum foil as the "batting". Silver mesh fabric was used for the outside layers. Once it was quilted and bound, the silver quilt was attached to another, much larger quilt.

If you've been following along as I made two artworks, Dispensed and Laced, I just received the photos from my photographer and I will post them here in the next few days. They are great! Be sure to check back soon.