Who we are

It is a pretty well known fact that artists aren't making much money for the hours we put into our work.  We have to love what we do or we'd go back to what we did before because it no doubt was more lucrative than making art.  The following is a list of what some of our members did before they started making art.  Come see us in Studio 18 in the Torpedo Factory Art Center and see if you can relate the former (and sometimes current) jobs with the Art.

Zita Simitus--Chief Psychologist of the Army

Joanne Bast--taught zoology, biology, botany, human anatomy and physiology at              the college level.

Carol Bodin--computer systems designer

Mickey Kunkle--mortgage loan officer

Jeanne Bohlen--physics major who ended up in a number of libraries--public,  for              profit business, non profit organizations.

Lynda Prioleau--still working as a meeting and conference planner

Cindy Grisdela--financial journalist

Eileeen Doughty--cartographer supervising a number of people some of whom were           deaf so she had to learn sign language

Claudia Levy--reporter and editor at Washington Post

Betty Ladd--computer programmer (now office manager at architecture firm)

Ruth Blau--technical writer/editor

Merle Thompson--professor of English Literature

Clara Graves--freelance graphic designer

Roz Houseknecht--swim instructor both then and part-time now

Kay Collins--art teacher, business owner, sex education counselor, and lots more--             very varied jobs

Fran Spaeder--30+ years at the CIA in information technology

Larry Novak--systems engineer and software project manager--scientific and                           engineering applications

Anne Sanderoff-Walker--registered x-ray technologist and used CT scans when                    they were fairly new

Diane Mularz--currently employed as software systems engineer

Debra Lee--managed programs to integrate technology with business systems

Conferences and why we go to them

As artists we spend a lot of time alone in our studios.  We all love what we do but the reality is that much of our time is spent by ourselves.  As humans we also like to spend time with like minded individuals and groups.  This is where conferences come into the picture.  Equate going to a conference to being in the best play group in the world where you get candy all the time and no one takes your crayons.  You get to talk all day about what interests you the most and no one is bored by your conversations.  Then there is the aspect that all of your new found friends are full of ideas and want to hear your ideas.   What could be more fun than that.  You come home full of new ideas and way more plans than any sane person could carry out in a reasonable time.  But some of those ideas become reality and that's the best part of all.

Here are two pictures that Floris Flam took when she attended the Quilt/Surface design symposium.  The first is the design that Floris chose when the teacher said that each person should choose a neutral three or four letter word and the second is what happened to the letters "CITY" when they were modified by the hand and mind of the artist.

 

Many of the chosen fabrics were hand dyed by Floris and some of them were done by a technique using oatmeal as a resist.  More about that later.

A new "cloth"

There is more than one way to view/ use "cloth". This is a pin that my good friend Irene made in a class she took from Marilyn Moore. I believe that Marilyn started her art journey as a basket maker. I became aware of her work a few years ago at the Smithsonian Craft show--one of the most prestigious in the country. She makes and teaches jewelry and containers using woven metal cloth.

The "cloth" is colored using a torch instead of dyes but after that it is handled the same way as fabric--sewing (wire not thread), shaping (pliers not starch like liquids), etc. By thinking way outside the "fiber" box our members can come up with some very creative ideas of what constitutes "fiber and fiber techniques".



This is a piece of woven metal mesh (very fine weave) colored by gently heating with a creme brûlée type torch. It was then shaped, hemmed and embellished with pearls and crystals. A pretty pin in the making.

Location:Bead and Button Milwaukee WI

More from Bead and Button

I clicked on the wrong button while posting so now I'll try to upload a couple more pictures taken at the show.  this is a picture of an award winning piece of bead work.  It is called off-loom bead weaving when done like this.  Each bead is picked up individually and sewn into the next bead in a pattern (though it can also be done randomly).  Pretty amazing to see.  This is a life size piece

Reminds me of crocheted doilies like my Grandmother used to make.

 

 

This is a vendor who sells the frames (and yarn and beads) to make knitted purses.  This was all the rage around the turn of the last century.  The purses are elegant and not for the faint of heart knitter.  It involves stringing hundred of beads and knitting with very small thread on very thin needles.  But isn't the result worth it.  Gorgeous.

More from Bead and Button

This has been my month to blog and since I was going to be in Milwaukee at the Bead and Button show, I decided to blog about the cross over in media.  It has amazed me that in the seven years, I've attended this show (the largest consumer bead show in the world) that so many of the things a fiber oriented artist is drawn to have appeared at what used to be a mostly bead show.  It was easy to get lots of pictures but I forgot to take pictures of the beads for the most part.  

Brick Stitched Beadwork continued

Because of the stiffness and stability of brick stitched beadwork structures, brick stitch is often used to create beadwork sculptures and vessels. The following freestanding figures are created by Gladys Seaward in brick stitch. Gladys states that she uses but is not limited to brick and peyote stitching and especially likes combining the various beadwork stitches in a single piece. Note the ease with which the brick stitched beads change both sizes and linear directions.

3 Dimensional Figure "Emergence" in brick stitch by Gladys Seaward

"Impaired Dancer" also brick stitch by Gladys Seaward

"Fantasy Goddess" by Gladys Seaward

"When U Wish" also by Gladys Seaward

The following are 2 Dimensional figures in brick stitch by Joanne Strehle Bast. Note that the original "bead ladders" with which brick stitch is started can be bent into any shape and used to "draw" the figures. The direction of design lines can be changed at any time by throwing another bead ladder and stitching off of the new line. Changing bead sizes also help indicate which limbs and/or torsos are in the fore and which are behind.

Charleston and Swing dance couples by Joanne Bast

Disco Dancers with their disco ball

Positioning the 3 sets of dancers into the desired composition

Filling in the background to produce the final 19"x 12" piece of beadwork "Clubbing the Night Away". Note the contrast of the straight lines of beads that the brick stitch produces within the figures and around the frame with the more amorphous background stitching. This helps the figures stand out from the background.

The final project involves photographing the beadwork and reducing it to the size of a playing card, the three sets of nightclub dancers from three different eras representing the Six of Clubs.

So we now come to the end of the month. I have been delighted to be the Potomac Fiberarts Gallery blogger for November. I will now pass the baton on the another member to continue for December. I will return as the blogger for the month of April.

The gallery is filled with fantastic fiber gifts. The Torpedo Factory (105 N. Union Street, Alexandria, VA 22314) of which we are a part will celebrate a Holiday Open House December 2 from 6-9PM in addition to our regular hours. Please visit. Joanne

Beadwork in Brick Stitch

Continuing along in my discussion of stitched beadwork as a fiber technique to be found in the Potomac Fiberarts Gallery is brick stitch. Brick stitch is an off loom form of beadweaving done with a threaded needle and involves picking up beads, one at a time, with the needle and stitching into the thread bridge that connects two previously attached beads. The threaded needle then passes up through the new bead snugging the bead down on top of the crack between the two beads of the previous row like brick in a wall.

This produces a flat piece of beadwork with a flat top and bottom row and staggered sides. Patterns may be produced by varying colors to create horizontal lines and diagonals but not verticals.

If you turn brick stitch on its side, it appears to mimic peyote stitch and visa versa. However, the stitches are not interchangeable. Peyote stitch involves stringing beads along in a straight line, interlacing into the line below while in brick stitch, the thread changes direction doubling back on itself with each additional bead. As a result, peyote stitch is more flexible that brick stitch and more appropriate for things that drape while brick stitch is used for vessels and structures that need to have more body.

The following sculpture is a peyote stitched one of mine: USA Duffle Bag I:

It is the first in a series, where the second was done in brick stitch. The brick stitched one is much stiffer as brick stitch contains more thread per bead as well as having the thread pull in two directions each stitch. The lettering (USA) had to be done differently due to the different handling of horizontal vs vertical lines. In addition, the colors of the peyote stitched bag appear brighter as the thread is almost completely hidden within the beads. In the brick stitched version, thread can be seen peeking out between the rows of beads, dulling the colors, but assisting in blending.

USA Duffel Bag I; peyote stitch:

USA Duffel Bag II; brick stitch:

These are necklaces of mine (Joanne Strehle Bast) where I used flat brick stitch to support artist fused glass pieces. Note, however in the back views, that the small rolls through which the strung cord is threaded are peyote stitch--peyote rolls better.

Brick stitch may be done flat, in a circle, in a tube, or freeform. Gladys Seaward creates a necklace of circular brick stitching.

I also used circular brick stitch to form the base of the Butterfly brooch.

"Summer Kite Vessel" By Joanne Bast is a container sculpture whose bottom begins with circular brick stitch then continues up the sides in a tubular brick stitch. Note the use of diagonal lines in the design.

While peyote stitch is begun by stringing a sequence of beads on a thread so that the beads are arranged hole to hole, brick stitch is begun by constructing what is called a "bead ladder". In a bead ladder, the beads are arranged standing upright like little soldiers, side to side with a thread bridge extending from the top of one bead hole to the top of the next and the bottom of each bead hole to the bottom of the next. This produces a bead snake that can be bent into any shape and fixed in that bent position by increasing and/or decreasing in the adjacent rows. This makes brick stitch especially useful in producing leaves and flowers with an organic feel as in the leaf earrings, ladybug brooch and starfish necklace by Joanne Bast.

Continuing further in this flexibility of line that brick stitch allows is Joanne Bast's "Tap Soul" where beads are actually stitched to wired taps. Each letter in the words STEP_STAMP_STOMP begins with a separate bead ladder which is squished into letter shape and then fixed in place by shaping the adjacent rows of brick stitch.

"Ode to Hundertwasser", also by Joanne Bast consists of brick stitching surrounding a rock to create a sculpture that derives motifs from the paintings of Hundertwasser. Note the shaping of the curving lines and the use of different sized beads to taper the lines.

Another of the advantages of brick stitch is the ease with which different sized beads may be incorporated together. In peyote stitch, each new bead must fit into the space between two existing beads-larger beads may be squeezed in, but their is a limit to how big. Brick stitch has no such limit as can be seen in Joanne Bast's unfinished "Shadows of the Shaman" figure where very large beads are incorporated along with very small beads to shape the petroglyphic inspired figure.

Figures in brick stitch are a special fondness of mine. Swingtime is a brooch.

The African Dancers are ornaments that hang.

I have also done several dancing couples including Charleston, Swing and Disco. I will refer you to my own blog archives of Dec 2009 for these. Older archives follow their construction in detail.

Finally I would like to include some pictures done in brick stitch. First is "Starry Night" after the painting by Van Gogh. Note the energy that the changing direction of design lines gives. The picture would be less dynamic if gridded into peyote stitching or loomed work.

Second is "Coral Sea" where fish and corals are pictured in brick stitch. The tendrils wrapping around the plexi armature are constructed of more flexible peyote stitch. Changing back and forth from one beadwork stitch to another allows me to use each stitch to its best advantage.

I will end today with an unfinished piece "No Where Is An Island", my most ambitious piece so far inspired by a trip to the Figi Islands combined with a 1996 Israeli rocket response attack meant for Hezobolah targets that hit a refugee camp under the control of UN soldiers from Figi. It struck me that even what most people consider a secluded island paradise is not unaffected by events halfway around the world. This is the top half of the piece, the bottom segways into peaceful tropical scenes. I have chosen brick stitch for this scene as I feel that it will give me the freedom of expression as well as the functional stability of a large piece of work. Joanne

More Peyote Stitched Jewelry

Peyote stitch is a very versatile beadwork stitch that can result in vastly different looking items of jewelry as handled by different fiber artists. Peyote stitch can be done flat, in a circle, in a tube, or in a variety of freeform manners.

Flat peyote stitch by Potomac Fiberarts Gallery member Mickey Kunkle is used to connect and/or surround resin elements to form a bracelet and a pair of necklaces.

Circular peyote stitch forms bezels for semiprecious gem elements in a necklace by Mickey Kunkle and a brooch by Gladys Seaward.

Joanne Bast uses tubular peyote stitching in a red necklace followed by tubular earrings by Joanne Bast and Emma Bednar.

A pair of earrings by Mickey Kunkle uses triangular peyote stitch.

My favorite of all is peyote stitch used in a freeform manner. No two examples turn out the same. Freeform bracelet, earrings and necklaces by Gladys Seaward:

Freeform Peyote stitch earrings and necklaces by Zoya Gutina evidence a very different style from Gladys.

Finally, some sculptural freeform peyote by Joanne Bast.