A Fine Time, with Mary Ruth Smith

The Texas Federation of Fiber Artists happened this end-of-February in Kerrville. I had a great time at the events in Kerrville that I attended. (And a wonderful time during the open studio at El Cielo on Friday, with special guest artists Robin Early, Sarah Burke and Mary Lance.)

Tops on the list: Mary Ruth Smith's stitching class. Just to hear her stories and her approach to her meticulous and amazing work was worth the price of admission to the entire conference. (Mary Ruth says take photos, but not of her face...)

Let the photos inspire:

 

 The piece above is layers of French knots -- Mary Ruth says it takes aabout 2 hours to stitch one square inch, about 200 hours in each of the pieces in this series (and she is FAST).

Mary Ruth says that she works with stitch in three ways: to construct fabric (as with the French knot piece above), to embellish and to draw. Some pieces use one approach, others several. She most often uses only one kind of stitch in a piece -- ie, thousands of seed stitches, thousands of cross stitches or thousands of those knots. Looking at her work, I noticed that quite a few also had maybe two different stitches -- one constructing the surface and one embellishing it.

I've been stitching (by hand) ever since the weekend, and have these observations:

Hand stitiching for me is quite meditative. I think I can give up yoga (no, not really... the shoulders say otherwise).

It takes a LONG TIME. Hand Stitch is the "slow craft" that calls to me. I get antsy with some tedious chores, but not hand-stitching.

I can travel with hand stitch projects -- even walking the Camino this summer, I should be able to carry along something!

I like black thread and the black lines that stitching with it makes. A lot. 

The overlay idea (putting a very sheer black fabric over ones first layer of stitch) is a novel and interesting way to play with value and to tie together bits of small appliqued fabrics -- it serves to hold down all the little threads and edges without fusing or satin stitching the entire edge. Mary Ruth used to buy her sheer Japanese made chiffon scarves at WalMart, but they no longer seem to carry them. She finds them now at (http://www.meinketoy.com/) Meinke Toy. HOWEVER, I think I found a substitute yesterday at the local wholesale florist -- in San Antonio at Travis Wholesale Florist. It's a very sheer, very transparent length of fabric sold as a decor sheer. $6 for a whole lot of cloth. I'm sending a piece to Mary Ruth immediately!

Another great source she shared for yarns, sari strips and paper yarn, perfect for couching: Darn Good Yarn.

She also likes to color her fabric before stitching sometimes with scraps of disperse dye painted papers. These dyes, for polyester and other synthetic fabrics only, are similar to the Crayola fabric iron on dye crayons. She now uses a product from ProChem called Prosperse Dyes. Here's a helpful YouTube with textile artist Mary Gamester that illustrates several ways to use this kind of product. And a helpful one-page sample from a book by Carolyn Dahl.

The picture directly below on the left shows at the bottom of the picture an interesting and simple way to mount these stitched and stretched art works. Mary Ruth stretches her muslin or other fabric around standard sized stretcher boards. When the work is finished, she may remove it and wrap it around another display board, then she nails a smaller by one inch covered stretcher bars onto the back of the piece with the art stretched around it. This gets the hanging hardware, (ie a 13" by 13" art piece is backed with a 12" by 12" stretcher boards stretched with plain muslin).

Update on Monday, March 19, 2012 at 08:10PM by Susie Monday

Just saw this great post from Leslie Jenison about the Mary Ruth Smith workshop -- she has even more pics and details at http://leslietuckerjenison.blogspot.com/2012/03/mary-ruth-smith-workshop.html

The Workshop of the Mind

How does your mind work? And what might it look like? Answering these two questions can give any (creative) person (and we are all creative) interesting insight into his or her process of invention, collection and creation.

 Led by my colleague, Dr. Cynthia Herbert, we traveled the road of looking at one's mind at a recent workshop at Ballet Austin. Attending were about 18 arts educators from diverse arts organizations (and/or interests) who took our New World Kids training. This exercise takes adult through a very personal image/collage/sculpture making process based on what currently is known about how the mind perceives, uses and stores information -- and how each of us differently uses that information to create new "products." Products can be as complex as full-blown works or art, as business plans, as research designs -- or as simple as a room arrangement, a lesson plan, a travel plan, a meal.

I'll be leading the same activity in my play and imagination workshop later this summer at El Cielo Studio, and also a parents' version at my weeklong course on creativity for your kids at the Southwest School in August. (There is also a Southwest School of Art weekend course there for teachers on teaching fiber arts, but we will start with this mind=picture activity.) 

PLAY, ART AND ATTENTION

July 29-31

Making time to play with odd-ball materials; learning to focus upon artful tasks at hand -- sounds like opposite sides of the coin? At this exploratory and full-of-play weekend, we’ll explore the relationship between the time, play, art and focus. Where does time management intersect with open-hearted fun? Expect bubbles, playdough, sparklers, jello, yoga and seeing the world from new angles and attitudes. Fee $165, including most supplies and meals. (For details, email me through the contact form on the sidebar).

special parent class

on raising creative kids

9-955|CREATIVITY & YOUR KIDS

Susie Monday

Mon – Fri, Aug 1 – 5 | 9:00am – 12:00pm 

Tuition: $140 (Members: $125) | 5 sessions

Discover more about your child’s learning. Explore their world of creativity, and find ways to stimulate and enhance it. With artist-educator Susie Monday, co-author of New World Kids: The Parent’s Guide to Creative Thinking as your guide, find out how to support, direct, and defend your child’s creative thinking at home and in their school setting. Hands-on activities, handouts, problem-solving, and an interdisciplinary approach characterize this invaluable class for the parents of creative kids.

sAug 1 – 5 | 9:00am – 12:00pm Tuition: $140 (Members: $125) | 5 sessions

But here's one little taste that might provide insight (this is actually the final part of the 2 hour experience).

Think of a metaphor or analogy for your mind at work on a creative project, big or small. For example -" my mind is like a bee hive with bees and different tasks buzzing and communicating," or My mind is an assembly line where sensory input goes in at one end, gets organized and reshaped and comes out the other," or "My mind is story telling stage with lots of storytellers taking turns."

Now create a model or drawing of that analogy or idea! This is even more fun in a group, because you will be amazed at the diversity of ideas and of their expresssion.

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Memorial for 72 Killed on the Border

Before I left this week for El Salvador, I participated in a memorial/action to honor the 72 workers from Central and South America who were killed by Mexican narcocartel thugs when they refused to join the cartel as drug mules and enforcers. The demonstration was at Northwest Vista College and was designed to educate the college students, staff and faculty about the impact of U.S. actions on the lives of others 

Here is a link to an online story in this week's Vista Voice, the college e-newspaper.

72 Dead; Migrant Memorial Takes Place at NVC The Vista Voice An observer, Susie Monday, said the memorial also sheds some light on those victims who have died as a result of the demand for drugs in the US "The primary ...

And on to the City

I arrived in Houston last night to present two lectures and a one-day workshop for the Houston Fiber Artists, HAFA. Great reception and hospitality so far, and I'm off to the second lecture in a few minutes. The Friday workshop has given me the opportunity to jump back into my planning for my online course test -- yes, it really is coming. On Friday I'll do the "live" version of Words on the Surface, and next week I'll launch the on-line version. So if you missed the Houston workshop, stay tuned for sign-up info about the course coming soon. My test pilot group will receive first dibs on enrollment, since I'll keep it at 15 max for this first venture online.

If you haven't added yourself to my test pilot group, please send me a note through the sidebar email form or just directly. I'll put you in the notification group. Words on the Surface will include creativity exercises and writing, collage, mixed media printing, stamp-making and fabric stamping, sun printing,  ink jet printing and maybe a couple of other techniques -- in a 6 lesson format with one lesson a week. I hope to include video and slide shows, and a lot of links to online resources and examples.

P.S. The completion of the Youth Ambassadors program at Selah and then at Say Si was a great success. The kids are now at Tapatio Springs, for their final wrapup with Georgetown University staff and their mentors, in liu of traveling back to Washingon, DC. An impossible journey given the snow!

J. David Bamberger speaks to the Youth Ambassadors group about his amazing journey to restore habitat in the Texas Hill Country, entreating them to do the same in their own countries -- both for the land's sake and for the economic potential in such activity.