TEXTILES: Color Your World with Beautiful Fabric

Wow! I am so pleased that I will be teaching TEXTILES: Color Your World with Beautiful Fabric at the Dougherty Art Center in Austin Tx this coming fall. Our goal is to provide an enriching and rewarding experience for each student working with textiles. We will cover a wide array of dyeing techniques ranging from low to high water immersion dyeing, shibori, graduated dyes, screen printing and dye painting. We will also learn how to make stencils and stamps to create unique designs. This class is geared for all levels. If you've ever wondered how artists create depth, glorious color and amazing visual texture on fabric, this class is for you! Students will learn basic dye surface design techniques from dyeing to discharge, stamping to silkscreening in a small class setting. No prior experience is needed, only a desire to have fun and create! The studio is equipped with dye, paint and tools to make your ideas a reality. Please remember to sign up early and register as soon as possible because these classes have a maximum of 6 students to ensure ample space and quality one on one instruction. The first six week session runs from September 11-October 16, 2012 at 6-9 p.m. The second session will commence on October 30th and continue through December 4th. Classes will be held each Tuesday night from 6-9 p.m. For more information, please visit http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Parks/Dougherty/textiles_fall_2012.pdf or call the Dougherty Art Center at

512-974-4040

Floral Mosaic Series: Creating with Shiva PaintSticks and 3D Acrylic Paints

 Hello, this month, I have been asked to make a few donation quilts for events happening around Austin in the next couple of months. The first in this series (top left corner), Floral Mosaic I will head to the Austin Area Quilt Guild Capital of Texas Show on September 14-16. 2012 at the Palmer Events Center located at 900 Barton Springs Road in Austin, Texas. For more information, please visit http://www.aaqg.org/show2012/ . Floral Mosaic II (top right corner) will be available for purchase at the Austin Fiber Artists Fashion Fusion Show on

Sat, Sept. 29th at the Balcones Country Club located at 8600 Balcones Club Drive in Austin, TX. For more information, please visit http://austinfiberartists.org/blog/fashion-fusion-2012-press-release.html . The final two pieces, Floral Mosaic III and IV will head south to the Stardust located at 11940 Manchaca Rd in Austin, TX where it will be auctioned for my dear friend, JoJo Wyrick to help with a heart transplant.

I have not dabbled too much in abstract this year and so I felt that this was an opportune time to do so. This series was created by employing Shiva Paintsticks on rubbings and applying them to a dark rich chocolate cotton cloth. They were allowed to cure for 5 days before I applied a mosaic like texture of dots and designs with 3Dimensional acrylic paint. The pieces were then heat set with an iron, layered, stitched and applied to a painted 8X10 canvas. I really enjoyed creating this series and hope they find their way to new homes to benefit some pretty cool causes in the Austin community. If you are in the area, please check out these events. Each promises to be filled with lots of activities and fun. Hope to see you there! 

Applying Color and Design to Cloth, Presentation and Trunk Show

Hello, I would like to invite you to the Austin Fiber Artist August monthly meeting. I am so jazzed that I have been asked to be the monthly speaker on Wednesday, August 15th from 7-9 p.m. The event will be held at Holy Cross Lutheran Church located at 4622 South Lamar in Austin, Texas. Show & Tell begins at 6:45 pm, followed by the business meeting at 7:00 pm with a program following. Visitors are welcome. For more information, please visit http://austinfiberartists.org/meetings . The presentation, Applying Color and Design to Cloth will discuss ways to create fabric with a variety of mediums. This is so important because often times, we are looking for that perfect fabric to incorporate into a piece. After much searching, we often find ourselves in need of that elusive fabric. The truth is we CAN create our own unique, one of a kind, piece of cloth and it is much easier than we might think. Painting, dyeing and inking on cloth can be a lot of fun and the design process is quite rewarding. Lecture will include different ways to add both color and design by painting, dyeing, inking, stamping and stencilling on various mediums. This presentation will include a trunk show with examples of how to incorporate newly created cloth into finished pieces. If you are in the neighborhood, please stop by. We would love to see you!