Susie Monday . El Cielo Studio

From a previous workshop -- Text on the Surface -- at the Navarro Campus

The enrollment just made: my independent study course at the Southwest School of Art and Craft will start Thursday. There's rooom for 3 more students -- and this is a 'design-it-yourself" opportunity, within the great facilities of the school's Navarro campus. Since the group is so small, I will even consider "newbies,"  and provide you with a hands-on primer through surface design. My plan is to spend 20 minutes or so each class with a demo of a new surface design technique or approach that's come to my attention: soy wax, rusting, stitch embellishment are three topics I've already fixed on. Here's what's in the catalog. You can register online at www.swschool.org.

The pictures speak for themselves. A fine time was had by all; everyone (including me) took away a better understanding of color and how to make it work. Can you figure out the exercises that guided the creation of these artist's postcards? (These are Val Grebe's, and the clearest of my bad photos from the end of the day! Diane Sandlin's are at the top of the blog post.Trust me , the colors were really better!)

 Small tablecloth with pomegranite print. 2006

Coming up next weekend and through October :

Courtyard Gallery, Cuero, Texas

September, 2007

Fiber Art and Fashion Show
Saturday, September 29, 2007
11:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.  

Featuring eleven top fiber artists and designers from San Antonio,
along with fused glass artist Ele Chew-Wright and Mine Creations jewelry line.
The wearable art will be seen on local ‘celebrity’ models representing
Arts, Economic Development, Education, History, Hospitality, Medicine,
Politics, Retail, and Tourism
 Reservations are recommended – seating is limited
Please call 361-275-9111 or email
courtyardgallerytx@sbcglobal.net 
 
Print this page for a 10% day of show discount throughout the gallery 
FEATURED ARTISTS
Jane Bishop
In this high-tech world, Ms. Bishop revels in the process of designing and creating textiles by hand.  Her art encompasses the use of dyed cloth, stamp art, silk-screen, stencils and drawings onto natural fibers such as silk, linen, cotton, rayon, and hemp.  These designs are then used to adorn interesting furniture pieces, including creating a “new look” with vintage furniture.
 
Dorothy Crues
 Ms. Crues wields a mean set of needles – knitting needles, that is!  She traded a career as a mathematics teacher at the University of Texas San Antonio for teaching knitting.  Many of her pieces are sold in shops around the country.
 
Sandra Edsall
Sandy lived in many countries including Greece, Singapore, and Malaysia and was able to travel extensively, experiencing a whole new world of exotic textiles and colors.  Today, she is able to continue the creative process of designing and crafting exotic wearable art ensembles that catch the eye and retain the integrity of the original fabric and tradition.
 
Angela Ehrenfried
Since 1985, Ms. Ehrenfried has taken her childhood fascination with color, light, and texture and transformed that into designing and producing beautiful pieces.  This has led her in a new direction of re-conceptualizing wardrobes.
 
Kathy Furukawa
Ms. Furukawa has been exposed to a variety of fiber arts, including weaving, papermaking, and surface design.  Her travels to Iran, Russia, Japan, and Germany have expanded her interests in multi-cultural expressions of fiber art.  Her use of interesting materials adds innovation and whimsy to her unique items of wearable art.
 
Martha K. Grant
Making art through the medium of textiles synthesizes Martha’s many loves from her career in the visual arts.  It has allowed her to indulge her passion for color, calligraphy, spiritual symbols, text patterns, painting, collage, and sewing.  Her work has become a kind of prayer and has led to an eclectic search and an ever-deepening spiritual journey.
 
Karen Heddens
Ms. Heddens has worked as a couture clothing designer for over 25 years, designing exclusively for private clients, small boutiques, and galleries.  She concentrates on creating simple, elegant garments made of fine fabrics that feel wonderful on the body and enhance the beauty of the wearer.  Her designs are worn around the world by her loyal clientele.
 
Renita Kuhn
Renita’s career as a fiber artist and designer began in Sausalito in 1982. She offers professional design and limited productions of art to wear and art accessories.  She has been highly influenced by both Asian and African design concepts.
 
Jennifer J. Martin
Jennifer “J.J” Martin is a writer, fiber artist and photographer.  Her enjoyment of interior design drew her to explore the world of fiber art and “complex cloth.”  “Complex cloth” is how a design of depth and complexity is creating by layering surface design processes like dying, painting, bleaching and foiling over one another until a pleasant result is achieved.
 
Susie Monday
In addition to serving as President of the Fiber Arts of San Antonio, Susie Monday is an artist who works in fiber, creating colorful art quilts and original fabrics for use in interiors, garments and display.  She teaches at her own El Cielo Studio as well as conferences and venues across the United States.
 
Sherry Tolar
Retirement from the world of making whimsical ceramic jewelry for wholesale markets and catalogs didn’t last long.  Sherry is back!  Her bright, colorful, handmade ceramic beads accented with fiber, glass and semi-precious stones are all one of a kind.  Her “Wild Women and Friends” sculptures are also one of a kind - in addition to being especially fun and interesting!  They are made with terra cotta clay, embellished with colorful, hand-dyed and ethnic textiles.
 

Raspberry, lime, eggplant, lemongrass -- notice how many foods give us color names -- so what would be something fun to do with that?

Friday night my new El Cielo "Field Guide to Color" workshop debuts, the first that has included a Friday night get-together pot luck. In researching exercises and approaches I found virtual rainbows of color theory, color quizes, color lore. Just a few sites I stumbled across:

www.wetcanvas.com/ArtSchool/Color/ColorTheory/
This site has lots of good information, including a 16-part series of lessons on color, most applicable to painters but with some nuggets for fiber artists.

http://www.livelygrey.com/
Very cool color blog with interactive games and other very interesting posts. Check out Igel Asselborg’s posts on saturation, hue and brightness.

http://www.rit.edu/~rkelly/html/04_cou/cou_col2.html
Artist and teacher Rob Roy Kelly  teaches a mini course on color. Good exercises from someone who studied with Albers.

http://www.sensationalcolor.com
Professional color consultant’s site with lots on verbal color lore.

http://www.sherwin-williams.com
Color Visualizer tool can be helpful way to find coordinating colors for a project, even if its not a room.

http://www.colour-experience.org/
Virtual color museum with broad scope of information

http://www.colorcube.com/play/play.htm
more cool interactive color games, there are some really challenging ones dealing with saturation and value.

What a timely investigation it's turned out to be -- I have been designing a large art quilt to send off to the FASA juroring and managed to pick myself a quite challenging color palette -- one that is using cool colors to approach and warm colors to recede -- though the green/yellows are on the cool end of the cone for that hue. Anyhow, I love the composition, but I am not sure the color values work as well as I would have liked. Doing the reading on these sites, reminded me: IT'S THE CONTRAST NOT THE COLOR. If you don't have the bones down in your compostion using value, then, making the color work is always more difficult. This piece has a ground and figure, that while they are different in hue, are very close in value, so now I wonder if it holds together. Here's a couple of details in progress only, in case I  decide to hold this one as one of those " it can't ever have been published or shown before you enter it" pieces. (How does one decide?)

And, speaking of workshops, for those of you even thinking about attending my next El Cielo workshop November 4-5 -- "Text on the Surface."  -- this weekend's event is the second one to completely fill and have a waiting list. So if you are interested,  check the description on the link and email or call. If you don't have my contact information, leave a comment and I will forward the complete brochure. We are having a fabulous time out here in the country. (And, yes, I know it is THE Quilt Festival weekend -- so come to Texas, go during the week, and let the crowds have the show on Saturday and Sunday, come to the Hill Country for the weekend -- that's what I'm going to do.)