Wow! What a Party ! Waterworks Visual Arts Center Opening Reception

The staff and volunteers at Waterworks threw a great reception for the five artists. Each gallery was sensitively curated to showcase very different art work at its best. This was my largest solo show to date and the first time with my name on the wall. It felt like a whole new level in the exhibition world. Pinch me, I must be dreaming.

The three walls for my gallery are below. Photos taken after the crowds left. People were still asking questions and getting a chance to talk long after the stated hour of 8 PM was over- the signs of people enjoying themselves and appreciating the great hospitality. As DH said, "Hard to beat country ham biscuits and wine".














Highlights were the warmth and genuine enthusiasm for the art and the well admired director, Ann Scott Clement. These are art lovers who are enthusiatic and interested in talking to the artists. What a joy to share my art with them.

The exquisite wood carved birds of Dan Abernathy were a thrill to see up close. His gallery was constantly busy with admirers.

Another highlight was the awarding of a $1000 scholarship to a local high school artist to attend UNCC.

Trena McNabb's work was fascinating to study. Her collages have many layers, including actual plants, leaves, flowers.

Holden McCurry's work was definitely evocative of the Southwest prickly pear cactus.

And Michelle Heinz provided a counterpoint to the realism and abstracts with Slogans.

This was a wonderful reception, well attended, and with great warmth and hospitality. Salisbury takes real pride in this jewel of an arts center and can feel very justified in its pride.

The exhibition runs through August 13, so if you are in the neighborhood, it is well worth seeing-- if I do say so myself.

Nancy

Seed stitches opens tomorrow night

Really excited about the opening of In the Details at Waterworks Visual Arts Center in Salisbury NC Friday night 6-8 pm.

Each of five galleries will solo an artist with distinctly different work.

Read more information here.

Nancy

SAQA Donation Quilt Underway

I decided to use the maple seeds for my 12" x 12" donation to the SAQA Auction so I reworked the original design seen in the previous post, cropped the seeds closely and squared the design up. But still wondering what color to make the seeds.
Sunday after church we stopped by the Fresh Market for some dessert supplies and I found these wonderful red and green maple seeds. My color scheme is now at hand. Put a few Hypericum blossoms with the maple and popped them into one of Mom's little blue bottles for a small arrangement for the studio. If I can just refrain from tipping over the bottle and getting water on stuff, it will be a delight to have.
I finished inking the design on Tuesday. Want to take it with me on Thursday morning to the SAQA Visioning Conference. Anyone want to make bets?

Nancy

Designs from Passion

I found wonderful little group of maple seeds in my driveway last week. Knowing that I was planning to do a maple seed quilt again, I brought them into the studio. The sketch below is my first trial at a design. I always sketch with pencil and a fat eraser at hand. I found the different sizes of the "wings" intriguing. I will probably change the color when I do the inking of the design.



Any suggestions for color? I am going to work on a salmon colored piece of hand dyed fabric.

Nancy

Creating Glass Beads - book Review

This book is a bit off the track for my fiber art friends. However, many of us love beautiful and interesting beads, so take a look. Jeri Warhaftig has written a delightful book on creating those quirky beads that so many of us love to use. Lark Crafts and Warhaftig are to be congratulated on the publication of this all too seldom found book. It is a book, not for the rank beginner or the coffee table, but one for the ambitious novice and intermediate glass bead maker. The type of book that is too rarely found in any craft area. It is well designed and laid out for ease of use and reference as a technique-driven book that will take the ambitious novice many strides forward in learning about tools and techniques that are building blocks to creating in one's own style.




There is an opening chapter on tools, safety and how to use the book. Then 10 chapters that are individual projects and four appendices on specific techniques like mirroring with silver and working with resin. The project are each laid out with the same structure covering what the session will teach, tools and materials and specific illustrated instructions. My favorite parts of the book were the work done by testers and the examples they did with the techniques and how they branched off from the basic instructions to make their own work. If you are interested in how to make those fancy beads, this book is a delight. ISBN: 978-1-60059-582-0 HC, 144 pages, $24.95

Nancy

Mountain Scenery

I mentioned in an earlier post that my friend Holly Wilkes creates amazing tapestries of mountain scenes. She lives up in the mountains and wakes every morning to fabulous views of mist, sunrises and nature unfolding in front of her. As a result, her work breathes with the mountain air and is awash in glorious colors. She captures the unfolding imagery beautifully. In the image here, you can see that she has a really good feel for creating depth in her work.

Readying Quilts for Delivery to Waterworks Visual Arts Center

In taking quilts to trunk shows and delivering them for exhibition venues, I needed a way to wrap them that would be easy to handle by non-quilt enthusiasts and preferably would help use up some of my large stash of fabrics that I no longer use.

Here is what I came up with.

Your comments would be appreciated. How do you wrap for delivery and studio storage?


First, I create a two-sided cover from a one yard (or 1 1/2 yard) by the width of the fabric with two fabrics sewn back to back. Before sewing the fabrics together, I add a label to one of the longer sides. I use either a business card or create a label with my name and contact information on it. The label is sewn onto the cover inside of vinyl so it is permanent and indicates a bit of what is inside.

I pillowcase the two fabrics, and sew around the case, leaving an opening near the label to turn the case inside out. Once the cover is turned right side out, I machine sew the opening closed. I created long ties the length of the fabric. I put the ties on the end of the cover with the label and sew them on at their middles with some space between the label and the ties, so they can be tied around the bundle of quilts. I sew the ties on with a rectangle with an X in the middle for security over time.


When ready to use, I wrap the quilts one at a time, face out, around a swim noodle, being careful not to get creases into the face of the quilts. Then the cover is wrapped around them and tied with a bow.


Since I have multiple bundles of quilts to deliver, I took a 4 x 6 inch card and wrote the names of each quilt inside on the card, cut a hole into the card and slipped it onto one of the ties of the bundle before tying it. That should make it easier on the curator in hanging the show to know which quilts are in each bundle. I will also group the slats for each bundle together as well.

Here is another bundle ready to go.

And here are the five bundles with 17 quilts inside, 3-4 quilts in each bundle.

I am delivering the quilts tomorrow and am really getting excited about the exhibition that opens May 21 with an artists reception on Friday night May 27 in Salisbury NC. Hope you can come.

Do you have other techniques for storing and/or packaging for transporting your art work? Please let us know.

Nancy