Expanding layers

Now my experiment is getting really interesting. Last night I painted two pieces of cloth with EXP binder. EXP binder is a kind of paint that expands when you gently float iron on the back. It's magic! And you can't control it all the way - so chance's got a chance! :-)

The samples I painted yesterday evening were quite good, except that the cloth shrank quite much. One would probably could strecht it back and sew it, but I wasn't satified. So today I strechted a piece of silk organza over an embroidery frame and when the binder was dry, I ironed carefully not to touch the cloth. And surprise! I managed to achieve the same structure without shrinking my cloth!

Her is how the organza layer looks like with the EXP binder painted and expanded (the white rubber like texture):


In the pictures above you can se the difference it makes to paint with broad and thin brushes... The first retains the feather lightness of the brushstrokes. The latter adds so much binder that the texture of the brushes disapear, leaving instead the binders own texture.

While I waited for the binder to dry, I sew the three layers of forest I made yesterday together. When the binder was dry and expanded with the ironing process, I painted the rubber layer with pastel tones as you can see above. The I cut the pieces I wanted to use and sew them to the forest background. And her is how it looks like:



The EXP binder is quite sensitive, so using the sewing machine damaged a little of the structure. So I stopped and decided to hand quilt it. That would be really nice, I think! I can't wait to start quilting! :-)

Layers of forest

It's just so exciting to try something new. It's challenging and it pushes you forward. And today was another chapter in my adventure painting cloth!

The motif I chose is very well known to me. Last year I worked with forest as a theme. That was when I used a soldering iron to melt polyester and other synthetic materials. But since the gases released in the burning process are carcinogenic, I decided to drop this technique. I wondered whether or not painting would bring the same transparency and delicacy I achieved with the melting process. But the first result is promissing:




The picture above is the final result. I startede with painting a background on cotton...



..... Then I laid a piece of fine silk organza on top and painted some trees. ...



... Finally I laid another layer of organza and painted some pink pine trees.


Tomorrow I'll try another binder, EXP, which adds texture to the cloth. I'm excited to se what it will do to my pine trees. But I think I'll sew the three layers with nylon thread before I use the EXP binder... Keep tuned! News are coming soon!

Explaining Photo Screen

It seems I forgot that most people aren't artists! I realize I've used a very technical language, and that wasn't very reader friendly! Sorry, folks!

Luyckily I've got some good friends who are very curious and asked med a lot of questions about the process. So her i a short explanation... after these pictures:









The first thing is to have a nice black and white photo printed on paper. At www.spektrumtextil.dk they have a machine called Thermofax, which makes a special photocopy of my picture to a transparent piece of cloth, which then is pulled over a frame.

The first picture shows the two frames and one of my paper prints.

Once I have my frame, I put some paint on it, and then I use a flat thing called a squeegee to push the paint over the frame. The paint goes through the motive to the cloth underneath. Then I lift the frame, and voila! Her is a brand new print of my motive!

So when I was talking about printing, it had nothing to do with computer printers, but the simple old fashioned meaning of the word: with paint and my own hand... One might say I'm going backwards on technology... :-) I'd rather say I'm using the best of all technoloogies. I use the computer to prepare my image, but the most vivid artistic expression is much nearer when it's me that's controling the paint... :-)

Photo Screen

I did it! I finally did it! I went to Copenhagen last week and visited a shop that specializes in paint and dyes for textiles, which are not harmful to the environment or to my health. They also have the technology to make thermofax frames for printing.



So I found a couple of my best nature pictures and prepared it for the thermofax copy with Paint Shop Pro. I made it black and white, then Addet a lot of contrast and light. Finally I printed it on paper - this is what I gave them at the shop, and a day later they sent me two frames. And wow! It looks great!


So today, efter using some time in the last few days to blend colors and binders, I finally did it! I printed on cloth! First I made a background using an watercolor binder. Then I printed the first layer with green and the second, with another motive, in neon pink.


Tomorrow I'll try some other stuff on this surface! A lot of fun is coming up! I can hardly wait!

Unconventional parking or lack of excitement?

Ok. It's winter her in Denmark. And we do have a lot of snow... But what's really going on?

Our drive way has been filled with ice and snow for over a month. So I always use the back gear to drive in, so I won't stuck fast in the snow piles when I drive off to work the next day. Today I was coming home from a quick tur to the neighbour town, when I suddenly realized I had reared into the wrong drive way. It was actually not a drive way, but the tiny snowy lane to my neighbours by the lake. To make things worse, there was a sign right behind my car. Oh-oh, I thought, not another one! Last fall I managed to run a traffic sign down midt in a sleepy drive throu town nearby...

I tried to turn away from the sign, but the wheels wouldn't find any stand in the snow. The car slid down. I managed to turn it, so I didn't bump into the sign. Full stop. Check all mirrows... Sigh! Nothing happened. Not yet anyway. But the sign was only a few millimeter from the car! I felt helpless! If I tried anything at all, I'd certainly dammage the car... I called for help. A couple of hours later my car was safe and unscrached back on the road thanks to the car helpline!

As I sit her and think about it, I wonder what really is behind my moment of distraction, which lead to the "unconventional parking" a few meters from home. Why did I make that mistake? Why am I so light headed? Is it just one of those moments of human nature's failure, or is it something else?

The phone rang, and I talked to my dear friend, Mette. She had an interesting theory: maybe I'm lacking excitement. Life is good right now in many ways. And I was used to beeing challenged all the time. So when things are calm, I might unconsciously attract situations or even create them, where something unexpectet happens and messes up with my plans...

That was a very much to the point observation! :-) But is it true? A little soulsearching brings me back to a nagging feeling that's been with me since last summer. I've been so busy that I haven't had time to work with my art. And that's been creating this huge frustration inside me. So, that might be my 'lack of excitement'.

For it is exciting to start a new art piece, to play with my textiles and coulors not knowing what they will turn into... It's in a way risky - I have to move pass my confort zone, I have to dare my "sensible" self and give in to my "sensitive" side.

So my new year's wish is to get excitement back in my life, through my art, through expressing myself. And hopefully that will keep me grounded, so I won't turn into wrong lanes or make ill choices...

Happy New Year, everyone! :-)

My sacred inspiration spot

Last week I found my sacred place in the forest behind my garden. The lawn ends up in a wall of bushes and small trees, where birds eat the seeds we spread for them in winter time. I've sometimes wondered what was behind the bushes. In spring time, some of the higher trees were filled with flowers, and later on, with fruits. But that remained an unaccessible place for me until last week.


We've just had some snow, and I'm always thrilled to try and walk there, where my feet sink deep into it. Suddenly I discovered a path with small footprints on it. Certainly a fason. I followed the path and a second later I was in a magical spot: the tree branches and bushes evolved to a net above me, where soft balls and rools og snow lay gently. I looked around and discovered more paths, but since I'm not as short as the animals that use them, I couldn't get further that where my sight could reach.



The light sky, behind the forest on the other side of the stream, filled the room with atmosphere. I felt myself in peace and deeply grateful for being alive. A part of me was awaked and my creativity boomed with ideas...




Since then I've been itching to do something creative, artistic, involving that side of me I reached in my sacred spot in the woods... I'm looking forward to it!

5 years as an artist

Amazing! It's already five years ago I decided to take the big step and become an artist. Become is probably not the right word. I've always been an artist, being creative, using my fantasy, finding beauty in every day things and studying shape, colour and light everywhere.

But to dare call myself an artist, to stand by what I make and show it to others - that demanded courage. Could I call myself an artist? Would I like to be called an artist? What does it mean to be an artist? Will people look down at me because I'm an artist, or idealize me? I soon discovered that my biggest hurdles were my own prejudice and expectations to what an artist is.

For instance I grew up in Brazil, in a very conservative environment - even though my mother always encouraged med to be artistic and creative. I realised I expected to be identified with the worst image of an artist: the drunken person, who is so chaotic and desoriented that nobody can trust and who ends up dying in the gutters, poor and sick.

Once I identified the image of an artist I possessed, I started to work towards changing it. For instance, I contacted the Danish Artist Union and became a member. I discovered that many artist are quite organized and reliable people. Artists in Denmark work hard to be seen as workers and tax payers. This is great!

I had to decide on a media in order to concentrate my activities and expenses in one direction. Painting ended up being too expensive (paint spots ended everywhere, on the floor, on the ceiling, on my clothes...) and space demanding. Back in 2005 I lived in a 60 square meter appartment in Copenhagen, with my boyfriend. Ceramics was neither a possibility and photography was again too expensive...

But then I had to make a birthday gift to my good friend, Mette. I had just read something about free machine embroidery in a book and I decided to try it. My old sewing machine, which was probably buildt in the sixties, could only sew straight and zigzag. I managed to sink the feeddogs, but the machinery just wouldn't work right: every 30 seconds the tread broke! I was getting mad! At last I decided to try sewing zigzag with the feeddogs on and gently moving the piece the way I wanted. That went better. The result proved to be good and my friend was really happy for my gift, which I called "Mette's sun" - see the picture above.

I was so happy with the result! I enjoyed the process and the only thing I needed was to continue working with it. But I needed a new machine. My then boyfriend had a very kind mother, Merete, who was once a weaver. She had a Bernina she wanted to lend me. I grew so fond of free machine stiching that I decided that this was going to be my media as an artist.

In Portuguese there's a saying: "Uma andorinha só não faz verão", in a literate translation it says: "A single swallow makes no summer". It means that you need a network in order to make things happen. So I googled and searched and read a lot of stuff on the net, in books and magazines. I discovered a whole world of art quilters and joined SAQA - Studio Art Quilts Associates as soon as I could. What a wonderful world full of gentle ladies and creative souls!

My first exhibit happened in an art gallery in Frederiksberg, in Copenhagen, in Debember 2005 I mananed to make 20 art quilts in 9 months! That was a record I haven't managed to achieve again yet!

Becoming an artist had it's consequences. For instance I moved away from my then boyfriend and out of Copenhagen in May 2006. I moved to the woods in the country side and that's been the best for me, no doubt. Adjusting to a new environment took time and energy, but nevertheless I managed to exhibit several places, hold open studio days and develop my identity as an artist in the public eye with strong PR work. I was soon selling many os my pieces and now I've got this luxury problem that I'm almost out of art work, while exhibition places still show interest in my art work... :-) Not bad!

Two years efter moving to the country side, I met my soul mate, Michael, and we got married this year. As I experience this great energy of consolidation and grounding, I finally feel I'm getting into a period which is clearly more introvert, where I need to and want to work with my art in depth. And I look forward to it!