Grape Cluster Necklace Press #2

This necklace can now be found on the Artbeads.com Facebook fan page as well as their blog.  They've done a beautiful job presenting it.  I'm really amazed at the response this necklace is getting.  Thank you all so much! 

Here is the text that goes with the photo that I wrote for their blog:
"In recent travels I came across a beautiful leaf that really captured my attention, it was from a merlot grapevine. I immediately wanted to make a jewelry design with a flowing grape cluster with a grape leaf or leaves. When I saw the copper maple leaf on the Artbeads.com website, I hoped I could make it look more merlot than maple. When I added copper curls and chain, and round amethyst and jade beads plus hand made lampwork beads from Artbeads.com for grapes. I made some other round beads from polymer clay to bring out the copper along with the greens and hues of purple. It took a while to structure the piece and I worked into the night, but I am very pleased with how it turned out."

 I have entered this necklace in the "What Inspires You" contest and later on in November they will open up the entries to everyone.  Then you can vote for the design you like the best. 

Happy Creating,
-Carmen Rose

Hand Dyed Wearables

I wanted to share some photos of the new skirts, scarves and handbags that came from Studio B.  I've moved to a new house since making these, so once I get settled into my new digs I'll be showing you new stuff.  Stay tuned, but first:  The SKIRTS!

Each of these color sets features a long skirt, a short skirt both in Rayon.  Then there is a silk scarf and a matching small purse in cotton.  The different fibers take the colors slightly differently, which makes some interesting effects.  This first one I call "Spring" and it's a combo of turquoise and lime graded platter dyed.

I call this set "bluebird."  Now the colors don't really match a bluebird, but that was the inspiration for the combination of colors.

This set reminds me of the sky at dusk, so I've named this colorway "Dusk."

My Mom loves to wear lavender and a pale lime green together and it's a charming combination.  These colors aren't quite true on my monitor but maybe it looks ok on yours.  I call this set "Violet Blossom."

This is one example where the silk and the rayon took the color differently, very little of the black actually came through on the scarf but they'd still be beautiful worn together.  I call this one "Smoked Fuchsia."  The name is inspired by one of my new favorite spices: Smoked Paprika.

Another example of the difference between rayon and silk, one took the black as more charcoal and the other one went brown.  Very interesting.  I call this one "Cool Strata" and the short skirt is sold.

This is a favorite color combination, I call it "Spice" just because it's vivid and vibrant and that's what spice does to food.  Now I'm wishing I'd just called it "Vibrant" but the tags are already made.

I call this one "Blaze" because it reminds me a bit of a forest fire with a smokey sky.  It's orange, red into purple with charcoal gray.

I call it "Autumn" of course, I really love how that olive turned out on the Rayon, on the silk it went more taupe.

This one is "Jasper" with the graded strata of chocolate and olive.  The purse is sold.


There are more but I sold parts from them before proper photos were taken.  A while back I dyed up some skirts for the "Art of a Woman" project and I wear many of those skirts still.  It is not uncommon for me to get stopped by a stranger to compliment my skirt.  And a number of my friends encouraged me to make them available for sale.  So, I have and I'm really pleased with the response so far.  They are now in a local gallery, I sold two skirts and two scarves when I took in samples for approval.  Then as I was putting them on the display rack a short skirt sold and since then a bag sold.  It's been less than a week since they've been in the gallery, we will see how it goes.

I think "Bluebird" is my favorite, which one is yours?

Happy Creating,
Carmen Rose

Jacob's Ladder Series Continued

The Jacob's Ladder series continues... this time turned on it's ear. This pair has been on the design wall a while but I've just finished up the one on the right. The other was in an earlier post.

I suppose I got a little carried away making "ladders" but they are a little like Pringles.  Can't make just one, can't eat just one... completely addictive!

I wrapped it around a 36 x 12 canvas that is about an inch deep. 

And I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Put it together with some of the other quilts from the study and they seem happy together..

I have no idea what to title this one either, it's in the "Jacob's Ladder" series but turning it on it's side kind of changed the ladder into a slightly more architectural look.  

"Untitled in Blue"

hand dyed cotton, hand dyed white on whites and batik

fused and machine quilted

12 x 36

$450 framed

Happy Creating

-Carmen Rose 

Roses & Dreams

I'm back to work in the mornings, I manage property for a gentlemen who owns a bunch of property here in town. I was hungry this morning when I came home, so I ran by Food Lion to pick up a few things. I picked up some eggs and veggies for quiche and a chicken for the slow cooker... and I walked by the flower case as I often do. I usually stop and enjoy the flowers for a bit then keep on moving. This time the pink roses seemed to have my name on them... (Carmen Rose... ha ha ha!) so they came home with me.

I tried them in my white pitcher but they were too tall and straggly looking so I cut them a little shorter and tried out this small pitcher. My grandmother used to do some ceramics, the kind where you buy the ware, glaze it then take it back to be fired. The little pitcher is one she glazed, white with little blue speckles. It seemed fitting somehow to remember Nannie and enjoy my roses.

I'm really struggling to get anything done right now. I picked out a few fabrics inspired by this vase and fused them to the wonder-under... but there it sits. My recovery seemed so rapid at first. Now I'm struggling with the lack of energy and even some unexpected pain. I suppose I should take it a little more easy but I have a one person show coming up at the end of the month (Yes, only TEN DAYS!  EEEEK!) and I really need to be in production for that. I feel the *need* to get back to work... but struggling to find the motivation and energy.

I did manage to pop the chicken into the slow cooker and make three quiches today though. I haven't felt like eating or cooking and I'm getting tired of cooking for one. So, now I can pop a slice of ultra healthy tofu, bacon and veggie quiche in the oven in the morning and have an excellent breakfast with no fuss. Yeah, tofu and bacon... healthy and unhealthy... that's just crazy, but really, it works. I also put in spinach, red peppers, mushrooms, fresh pineapple and extra sharp cheddar cheese. I forgot to put in the onions and the salt and pepper. Oh well.

I am giving some thought to what is next for me. Now that I have chosen to be child-free instead of becoming an adoptive mom, I can be more career focused again. I felt like my life was on hold for those two years that we gave to the process. I'm giving some thought to getting a job or opening a gallery, or or or... I'm spending some time just holding the question "what do I want?" It's a bit like considering what I'd want said of me at my funeral, what kind of mark would I like to leave? What do I want to be known for? I can chose, life is not lived entirely accidentally.

There is an element of "how am I going to make a living?" in my dreaming at this point as well. My friend says that when someone asks him what he does for a living, he wants to be able to respond that he doesn't work, he plays. I've had seasons of my life where my work brought me so much satisfaction that I didn't consider it work at all. I'd like to find that zone once more. So I'm taking some time for consideration, healing, and dreaming. And perhaps some of the answers I seek will present themselves. It's difficult to be at rest in this uncertainty when I get impatient, but I will walk in the light I'm given. And time will tell.

Happy Creating,
-Carmen Rose

Oops! Fix that one Quick!

I'm working on a little quilt on canvas stretchers inspired by the amazing Melody Johnson.  Check out her blog if you haven't already!  Only problem was, when I stood back to take a look at this lil bugga... all I saw was a great big swastica.  Crimeny!  

Sooo... I looked at it for a bit and decided it needed more flowers.  And so I made some flower type things, took another step back and decided that it was in dire need of buttons!

  So I added buttons and a little bit of hand work.  Sewing through canvas isn't all that easy so I didn't do much of that.  But check out how this looks fused to a gallery style 12 x 12 canvas.  I'm lovin Melody's canvas idea and I'm tickled by how the extra flowers add texture.

It turns out to be a relentlessly cheerful little floral thingi.  Do you think the swastika is gone enough?  I still see it but it's better than it was.  Oh, and I'm still getting used to machine quilting on my (new to me) antique Singer sewing machine, I'll get the hang of that one of these days.  This was a very interesting experiment, I'll do this again sometime!

Taking a look back at 2009... Textiles!

I spent a while the other evening looking back at the year, giving some thought to the water under the bridge. Some of my favorite moments along the way include the winter months at the beginning of 2009, I was buried in my textile studio exploring the world of art quilting in a whole new way. I remember a visit to a local quilt shop where I saw a calendar on their wall, I snatched it right off its hook because I’d never seen such quilts before. I was completely taken with a quilt by Kathy York and I came home and googled her name and found her blog, which led me to a world of blogging quilters that I never knew existed. I fell in love with the aesthetic of Simply Robin, her art quilts are rich in color and design excellence.  I also discovered the amazing Melody Johnson, who has become a real source of inspiration on many fronts! I love her work, and I ever bought a painting from her this year.  I drooled over one and a friend of mine wondered aloud how a piece of my soul ended up on her canvas!  That painting is now one of my treasures in my home!  With inspiration from Melody, I began to dye my own cottons, linens and silks and that’s addictive! I’d dyed fabrics before but never with Procion dyes, and that opened up a brave new world! (Add dying textiles to my list of art media that I work in! Score!) I also learned to make a kind of bread that takes 18 hours to raise and is baked in an oven with steam - Yum! I even tried knitting a sock, inspired by Melody, but that’s rather dismal since I never finished and it’s a little wretched looking, but it was fun! Te he! I’d fused fabric for banners for years, but I’d always preferred piecing when working with quilts, but my latest quilt was entirely fused! I'm tellin ya, I could get used to that! I have learned SO much from this amazing group of phenomenal artists (too many to mention, just check out the blogs I follow!) and they are among the best treasures of my year! Oh, and in there somewhere a representative of Hoffman saw my blog and sent me a couple yards of some DELICIOUS batik! That was fun! I have created more quilts in 2009 than ever before, and even between all the other production work and the other media that I work in, working with fabric was a personal favorite. And when (if) I get my kitchen makeover complete, I hope to spend some quality time in my quilt studio again, the ideas are brewing and it's that time of year again. Plus the wood stove is going full tilt, and I love being in the toasty studio with my fabrics!  Here are some photos from my latest batch of hand dyed fabrics. I was going for the most difficult color to dye of them all: PURPLE!

I like dying white on white commercial fabrics, the white printing on the fabric takes the dye differently than the body of the fabric, creating any number of cool effects. 

A little more white on white.

These are all squares of gradient tones, and each was folded in half when I dyed it creating roughly 20 x 42 inch pieces of fabric that are like photo copies or mirror images... that was a fun experiment!

A closer look at one of the dyed tonal pieces.  The process is simple.  I put the fabric out on the kitchen counter on a trash bag.  Fill the squeeze bottle with dye solution and squeeze some on the prepared fabric, add a little water or dye and then squeeze out the solution on the next row and continue on like that.  One can make various gradations of the same color, light and dark blue for example, and one can morph from one color to the next like I did above.  My lines show but if you don't want them to it's possible to do it more gradually!  I <3 color!

This large chunk of fabric turned out looking like I tie dyed it, but that design was entirely accidental.  A few shades of purple went into the can along with the fabric, and it was dramatically forgotten for a day or two and then washed.  Don't ask me to repeat that color, it was just the last of all the purple dyes just thrown into one can along with some fabric.

I've got a bunch of these fabric chunks in a wild combination of blue, purple and fuchsia and everything along the way in between. 

Oh, and a few more of these white on white pieces, the more pastel ones to the left and the darker majenta purple ones on the right.

Yay for the color PURPLE!

Happy dying, Happy New Year

"For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne."

Updates

I don't know how I got into this project tonight, but I did.  I just finished making some updates to my website.  I added a slideshow of hand dyed scarves to the "Textiles" page.  I also created a "Dichroic Glass" page, which is a new art media for me this year.  I've had the kiln for years, but I didn't use it.  That brings the website up to date on 12 of the art media I work in, though I must say, I am really only working in about five to seven media this month or at any given time.  I like the variety, it works for me.  And I have the space to have a variety of different studios in my home, at least for now.

Check out my new Textiles page.

Now the art quilts and hand dyed silk scarves are side by side on the Textiles page.

Check out the new Dichroic Glass page on my website.

I also added a "follow me on Twitter" button, for all of you micro-bloggers.

Hand Dyed Scarves

Over the last few days I've been working on dying some scarves for the Christmas season. These are just so yummy!

Cut Velvet scarves, 82% Rayon, 18% Silk, Size: 14x72 inches plus fringe unless otherwise noted.
From the left: Crimson Swirl, Golden Bouquet, Lemon Lime Stripe and Color Blend Leaves. $45 each.
From left: Turquoise Blue leaves, Cerulean Blue Stripes, Jade Green Stripes (and Color Blend Leaves, same as above.) $45 each
These are kind of cool, the design is one color and the background is different. The left scarf is 10x49 and olive/cranberry - $37. The right scarf is a combination of olive and chocolate brown in 14x72 with fringes - $45.
These four scarves are 100% silk, soft and yum yum yummy! The small one is 7x52, $29 without fringe. The left is a color blend of fuchsia, purple, blue and cerulean blue. The next one is fuchsia, orange and purple. The last one is orange, yellow and lime green. The right three are all 14x72 for $45 each. This is my favorite size for a great scarf. I often wear these this time of year wrapped around my neck with both ends free in front, it's a great way to add a splash of color and warmth to any outfit this time of year.

In the old days I would dye up a bunch of these, make earrings to match and I sold LOTS of them for gifts. A great scarf with matching earrings is really a great gift! It is nice to have a great selection to choose from when I leave the house in the morning, these are so fun to wear!

More Painted Glass

I'm really pleased with how this set of wine glasses came out, set of six for $90. I had two and one set is already gone.
Two bubble bowls: 5 inch: $19, and the small 3 3/4 inch: $18
More bubble bowls and a bubble vase. The 8 inch one with the neck: $24, 5 inch bubble bowl: $19, and the small bubble bowl: 3 3/4 inch: $18
A series of tulip vases in cool colors: Large 10 inch: $42, Med 7 inch: $29, Sm Med 5 3/4 inch: $24, Small 4 1/2 inch: $19
I'm behind on blogging the things coming out of studio B, but I'll catch up soon enough. Happy Creating! -Carmen Rose

Mini Quilts *updated to include prices*

Mini Quilt, hand dyed fabrics, batik and commercial cotton,
Machine quilted, 8x6 inches
Available unframed $33
~~~
Mini Quilt, hand dyed fabrics, batik and commercial cotton
machine quilted, 6.75x8.5 inches
Not For Sale - this one is framed and hanging in my bathroom =)
~~~
Mini Quilt, batik and hand dyed cotton
machine quilted, 8.5 x 5.5 inches
Now framed to 17.5 x 14.5 inches behind glass. $84.
~~~
Mini Quilt, hand dyed cotton and batik
machine quilted, 6.5 x 4.75 inches
Unframed $21
~~~
Mini Quilt, hand dyed cotton, batik
machine quilted, 6x6 inches
Now framed in a killer floating frame for $185.
~~~
Mini Quilt, commercial fabric, hand dyed cotton, batik
Machine quilted, 5x6 inches
Now framed in a shadow box frame plus some crystal and glass embelishments. $99
~~~
Mini Quilt, hand dyed cotton, batik
machine quilted, 4.5 x 7.5 inches
Unframed $23
~~~
Mini Quilt, batik, hand dyed cotton
machine quilted, 4.75 x 5.25 inches
Framed and behind glass to 13.5 square for $69
~~~
Mini Quilt, batik and hand dyed cotton
machine quilted, 3.75 x 4.75 inches
Framed in an 8x10 shadow box table top frame, no hanging hardware, $45
~~~
Mini Quilt, batik, hand dyed cotton
machine quilted, 3.25 x 4.5 inches
Unframed $10
I picture these framed behind glass, I think they'd look great that way. So here they are until I have a chance to go frame shopping. Perfect for a small spot in the home that needs a small splash of color!

Fresh From the Fire.

Two tack fused pendants in oranges and red with a little dichroic glass. There was another cool star shaped one but it broke. Tsk tsk These are $20 each.
This is an ornament I made for my Mom whose favorite color is lavender. It's crushed lavender glass, clear and dichroic glass tack fused so that it keeps it's texture. Then I grind off all the sharp edges so that it doesn't hurt anyone. I like how it turned out! *Not for sale.*
Plus, I made a number of new kiln shelves to fit my kiln and they turned out beautifully!

Dichroic and Millefiori Glass Pendants

Help me out here, kids! Mamma needs a new kitchen floor, sooo… I’m having a Kiln Sale! Yaaaay! These 20 pendants are hot out of the kiln and available for $20 each. Shipping is $5 for one or all, so stuff the box. These are fused glass pendants with a combination of dichroic glass and some also have Millefiori glass accents. These are the first of many, kiln work is FUN! Sorry the photos are so bad, you’ll have to take my word for it that these are much more fun in person than they are in the photographs. Dichroic glass does a little dance in the light that makes it really fun to wear.
1. Glass pendant with glued silver plated bail. Turquoise
2. Glass pendant with glued silver plated bail. Long slender cobalt and turquoise.
3. Glass pendant with glued silver plated bail. Pink
4. Glass pendant with glued silver plated bail. Earthly gold and reds
5. Glass pendant with glued silver plated bail. Tangerine bliss.
6. Glass pendant with glued silver plated bail. Earthy amber.
7. Glass pendant with glued silver plated bail. Millifiori and Tangerine
8. Glass pendant with glued silver plated bail. Turquoise and Cobalt.
9. Glass do-nut pendant on satin cord. Cobalt and turquoise with millefiori flowers.
10. Glass do-nut pendant on satin cord. Turquoise
11. Glass do-nut pendant on satin cord. Tack fused turquoise
12. Glass do-nut pendant on satin cord. Turquoise dichroic
13. Glass do-nut pendant on satin cord. Amber and Green
14. Glass do-nut pendant on satin cord. Pink with millefiori flowers
15. Glass do-nut pendant on satin cord. Rainbow
16. Glass do-nut pendant on satin cord. Blazing golds through rich reds
17. Glass do-nut pendant on satin cord. Rectangle earth tones
18. Glass do-nut pendant on satin cord. Rectangle Blue and rich reds
19. Glass do-nut pendant with wire wrapped bail, copper wire with red coating. Amber & red.
20. Glass do-nut pendant with wire wrapped bail in red covered copper wire. Red, orange and clear glass

Email me