Photos from NC Botanical Gardens Exhibition

The gallery at the NC Botanical Gardens is in the Education Building and is very light and bright. Just right for showcasing artwork that is nature inspired.

Photo 1. This is the right wall of the gallery. Love the panel that helps showcase select pieces.


The exhibition, Seed Play, features my recent series begun in 2004. With the exception of the smaller pieces on the back wall, all the work is inspired by tree seeds and berries.

The photographer - me - is not professional, but I hope you can tell something about the work and the exhibition. All of the work can be seen professionally photographed on my website at www.nancygcook.com .


Photo 2. This is the back panel. I framed seven of my smaller works that are hung as a group on the back wall.

Photo 3. Left wall as you enter the gallery.

Photo 4. Mimosa Dancing and Sourwood Festoons
These are the two seminal pieces for the series. Did not realize that I was doing a series when they were created. They are the only two that have any free motion quilting on them. All the others are quilted using a straight stitch.

Photo 5. Rhoddy Rhythms and Summer Split

Photo 6. Ankle Twister and Juniperus

Photo 7. Late Summer Dawn and Beauty of a Berry

Photo 8. Rose Has Got Some Hips II is the top center piece, and that sold early.

Pine Cone is at the middle of left column and it sold early as well.

It is always a thrill when people love my work, and when they love it well enough to want to take it home to share their lives, it is doubly rewarding.

This show is up through February 27 and they have a great photography show up now and will have another interesting educational exhibit on native plants up before mine is pulled.

Please let me know if you enjoyed this and I will try to post other exhibition photos.

Nancy

Creative Quilting with Beads - Now in Paperback

Lark Books has published the popular Creative Quilting with Beads as an affordable paperback book.

There is a nice review of quilting basics for the non-quilter and then 20 + projects of varying complexity. A number of them would make lovely gifts.

The book concludes with a gallery of photos of related work by other artists. In total, this book is loaded with eye candy that makes my fingers itch to play with beads again.

One project that I liked particularly well was done by Larkin Jean Van Horn, pg 68-71, is called Jewels of Our Past. Full directions are given for making the pieced background and directions for creating the backing of the beaded applique and attaching them to the background are given. It would have been nice to give a bit more information about the beading design but the photos provide plenty of inspiration. The applique idea could be used to create button covers or a lovely broach.


One of the pieces from the gallery section that I particularly liked was by Lisa Binkley, pg 114, called Seedlings. I loved the subject matter and the use of face beads as sections of the cone!





This is a book that warrants being in a personal library for both the eye candy appeal as well as the inspirational projects.

If you would like a chance at winning this book, leave a comment here -- and your contact information - on my blog and I will draw a name on February 20 and send a copy of the book to a lucky someone.

Nancy

Four Ways to Win with Foto/Fiber 2012

Four Ways to Win with Foto/Fiber 2012

A quick reminder that Foto/Fiber 2012, a fundraiser for the American Cancer
Society, opens tomorrow, February 15, at 10 a.m. Central.

I am honored to be part of this event and hope you will support our efforts.

There are 4 ways to win with this fundraiser - one of which is that 100%
of the funds are donated directly to the American Cancer Society through
Fiberart For A Cause. The other three are detailed here today:

http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/blog/archives/7355

The photos above are details of the 2 packets that I have donated.

Nancy

Tools of My Trade

Winter Robins' Feast is coming along. Here are some of the tools I use.

First creating a design based on my photographs and actual specimens, I apply the design to the fabric with inks. Here are the variety of inks that I use. I really like the little 1" square ink pads and the Fabrico markers that have two different points to them. The small round tubes allow me to apply light inking with some subtlety.




























Before quilting I pull a variety of threads to use. Some will be used, and others may be added.

















My utility knife is wonderfully comfortable in my hand and gets a lot of use in cutting my stencils. I use the back of a cutting mat as the knife will destroy the top of the mat an not heal. It was created by a local artist of wood.


Here is the quilt in a puddle under my new Pfaff. Quilting around the motifs goes slowly. If you look closely you can see one of the quilted berries that is not inked. I call these "ghost" motifs.

A Google Finding

Googling my name today I found the following linkage. Somewhat old photograph used of Pelton's Rose-Gentian, but really appreciated being covered. Here is the link.


Do you Google your name periodically? What do you find?

Nancy

Handcrafted: A Juried Exhibition of Ceramics, Fiber, Glass, Metal, Wood

The Maria V. Howard Arts Center at the Imperial Centre for the Arts and Sciences in Rocky Mount, NC, opened its Handcrafted: A Juried Exhibition of Ceramics, Fiber, Glass, Metal, Wood, an established national juried craft exhibition attracting a variety of traditional, mixed, and new craft media from across the United States on Sunday. The exhibition will run through May 20, 2012.

I am thrilled to have a several pieces in the show. DH and I saw the Handcrafted exhibition last year and were very impressed with the quality of fine craft exhibited. I decided then to enter the competition for this year, knowing that it would be tough but worth it.

The arts center is acquiring a very fine collection of fine art and craft. Some lucky person was awarded Best of Show and a Purchase Award on Sunday. Wish we could have been there to see it.

The three pieces below are in the exhibition.

Teasel Twilight


Poke Weed Berries


Mossy-Cup Oak

If you are near Rocky Mount, NC I hope you can see art work and enjoy the delightful venue. It is about 45 minutes east of Raleigh, NC.

And if you do get there, please let me know what you think.

Nancy

Winter Robins Feast

I am one of the SAQA artists selected to create a piece for the Seasonal Palette Exhibition due to open at Houston. Each of us submitted ideas and photos of four pieces of our work. Mockingbird's Larder was one of the pieces I submitted and that was the one they asked me to use in creating a new piece for the exhibition.

Our dear friend, George Weir, is taking a photography course and needed subjects for portraits and took the photograph above of me working on Winter Robins Feast. Part of my process is to cut stencils from freezer paper to apply my designs onto the fabric. Often I must cut the stencil while the freezer paper is on the fabric. Below my right hand is a small cutting mat that is between the paper and the fabric.In the photo above, most of the piece is covered with freezer paper except for berries that are being inked.

In much of the US, the arrival of robins marks the spring. Here in Charlotte the robins come in droves to stay for the winter. The mockingbird will find a favorite berry bush and guard it until the berries ripen waiting for the right moment to feast. All too often a flock of robins or cedar waxwings will descend and in a day or two will strip the tree clean of berries. No wonder the mockingbird is such an aggressive creature!

Nancy