WOW!

This is the coolest thing!  My kickstarter.com project has just passed 50% funding and there are 25 hours to go!  A HUGE thank you going out to:

Kim Scales

Vonda Burke

Clayton

Bekki Fahrer

Tony LaFienza

Dawn Wampler

Joel Wasinger

Jackie Kunkel

Angela Newcomb

& Sara

These dream makers have touched my heart by supporting this project and I have been SO touched by their generous hearts!

And look at this beautiful pair of rainbows from the storm on the 15th.  

I sure had fun taking a break from my work to enjoy these!  I took LOTS of photos that evening!

Have you seen my project yet?  Please surf on over and watch the video.

When I first saw it the rainbow was complete from side to side, then the second rainbow started to shine and the other end of it vanished.  Here's the last photo before it vanished altogether:

And thanks so much!!

Light and Beauty to each of you,

-Carmen Rose

Kickstarter.com Project entitled: "Whole, a broken heart, a vibrant hope."

A "WHOLE" big Thank You!

I'm so pleased to thank Steve Betz and Nikki Ross for being backers #11 and #12 for my kickstarter.com project.  Only 70 hours to go before the project ends.  Yeah, I'm feeling the suspense of whether or not the project will be funded!  LOL!

This display window for the show went up Saturday afternoon. Here are four of my 12x12 art quilts with some art glass.  The top one is "Buttoned" the second is "Set Aside."  The third is "In Pieces" and the forth is one of my personal favorites.  I titled it "Neglect."

It's really fun to have my work in the window, but since these works are so personally expressive it does make me feel a tad vulnerable.

Cloths pins in the branches hold notes that read: "A broken heart" and "A vibrant hope." 

Lower in the window the sign on the ped reads:

* * *

C A R M E N   R O S E

Whole

"An exhibit of art quilts, washed, framed and embelished.

Hand glazed art glass, found, glazed and fired.

An exhibit with a broken heart and a vibrant hope."

* * *

I hope this brings people in the gallery to have a closer look!
My Kickstarter.com project where this exhibit was born.

Still dreaming big dreams,

-Carmen Rose

The Opening

We had the opening reception Friday evening for the start of the "Whole" exhibit. It will be up May and June and will continue to evolve.

As you can see, it's not complete (see my sketch) but I do like the way it looks.

My artist friends and I put together a colorful table of goodies.  I was so pleased with how it turned out!  I made cupcakes and a lime mint punch.

Trio Jazz joined us, love their sound!

It was a delightful evening.  The live music, candles and flowers were a nice touch.  It was lovely to see my friends and family come out.  We also had a lot of guests through that I didn't know.  It was fun to meet people and enjoy their reaction to my work.

The exhibit is up two months, I still have a chance to complete the vision I set out with.  If you'd like to help me reach that goal, please pledge today at Kickstarter.com.  Just go to the kickstarter.com website and enter "whole" and my sketch should pop right up.  I've heard from one person that their pledge didn't go through. So if you pledged but didn't enter your information on Amazon to pay, and if your name is not on the "backers" tab, then your pledge didn't go through.  There are only these last 10 days left.  Please join with others around the country to make this dream a reality and take home a piece of the whole.  And thank you.

Here's to music, candles, flowers and.... COLOR!  (of course!)

Whole, a broken heart, a vibrant hope.

Happy Creating,

-Carmen Rose

Hurry Up!

The previous display in the gallery came down ahead of schedule and I was scrambling to get SOMETHING up. So... the "Whole" exhibit will begin with just these pieces.

And plus, my lovely camera doesn't always open it's eye all the way and so my friend snapped this cool shot. I love it!

The display isn't at all what I planned, but this part of the exhibit is in place for now until I can get the rest finished. And it's a good thing because it looks so different in a sketch than it does in person. I think I will need to spread it all out a bit more, it is a lot of color in a space that feels smaller than I remember... even though I had the measurements. So I suppose I'll tweak the plan to fit the space a bit better.

In the mean time... there is lots of work to do and I feel like I'm coming down with the plague. So... a bit of rest and hopefully I can get back at it tomorrow.

Only 14 days to go, are you the sort of person who helps make miracles happen? If so, check out my kickstarter.com project. Your pledge would be greatly appreciated.

Happy Creating
-Carmen Rose

More pieces of the Whole

Here's a fun one, I haven't finished the quilting on this one yet but I like it so far.

And what about this one?  Another cheerful little confection!

 Here are some of them on the design wall together:

I've finished up a pair of purple 12x12's.  This pair has hand dyed white on whites, hand marbled fabric, and some commercial batiks.  Machine pieced, machine quilted.

And after they go through the laundry they are nicely crinkled up, then framed on 12x12 canvas stretchers.

And the second one in the pair:

I added some storm tossed pieces to these, the purple in the shells seems to go nicely with the purples in the pair.

A particularly interesting shell for this one:

And a row of five shells for this one:

It's all about the details in this series.  I am having so much fun making these, does it show?

Like these?  Then pledge here.

Happy Creating,

-Carmen Rose

Dragonfly

I wanted to post another of the series before I go and bury myself in the studio again this afternoon.  This one is a 9x9 piece in pink, purple and a sagey green.  The main square is hand marbled fabric and the rest are hand dyed white on white, hand dyeds or commercial batik.  The color is a little off on this first image.

I quilted it and set it through the laundry, framed it up to 9x9 and added a lovely little forgotten dragonfly from my jewelry box.  I'm really enjoying adding an expressive little detail to each quilt.  The dragonfly has a little sparkle and the tail moves. 

My heart goes out to those in storm flattened areas.  I was there after Katrina, I remember what that was like.  Then to see such amazing damage again, it simply blows my mind.  My love to all of you in the South East today, I hope you and yours are safe and sound.

I'm working on this series of quilts for an exhibit called "Whole."  Each quilt has a found object piece included representing different aspects of my life in the last year.  Some pieces have included items from the junk yard, puzzle pieces, scrabble tiles, broken china and now a forgotten dragonfly from my jewelry box.  These bits and pieces are a little unexpected in my work but express my broken and discarded condition as my divorce nears completion. 

I was shaken by images of the storm torn parts of my homeland, as we all are.  Here the power went off and on a few times during the night and a tree nearby was down this morning.  We had no tornadoes in this area, just high winds.  The images of great loss that I saw this morning on the news reverberated with my own losses of the last year.  My home on the golf course, my dogs, my sense of security, my losses were by my own choice, theirs were not.  So as I continue to incorporate broken and discarded images into my work, I'll do so with a prayer for those who lost everything in the storm last night. 

I just updated the Kickstarter.com project with this note

"Dear friends, in light of the brokenness caused by the storms last night, I will be donating 10% of the project total to a disaster relief charity at the successful close of this project.  Please pray with me for peace, protection and provision for our friends in the South-East United States today.  Thank you, -Carmen Rose"

Another piece of the "Whole" exhibit.

I was going to try to spread these out some over the next few days, but I couldn't resist showing more photos today!

Here is one of the 9x9's of the exhibit.  It started with a very drippy piece of hand dyed fabric from ages ago.  I'm really dipping into the stash these days, never know what you'll find in there!

I quilted it up, threw it in the laundry.  When it came out I framed it up and added the little key, and this is how it looks now. 

These silly little elements of this exhibit are SO FUN TO MAKE!  For some reason it looks downright edible to me, I think I'm  hungry for Popsicles and cupcakes now! 

Want it?

A $75 pledge and it's yours.

Kickstart me!

Happy Creating,

-Carmen Rose

Puzzling

This is the second piece in the "Whole" series. It consists of hand marbled fabric I made ages ago, some hand dyed white on white, hand dyed fabrics and commercial batik.  I think it's fun to see how different they look flat like this when the piecing is done:

Then after I've quilted them and run them through the laundry to get that cool laundered texture, then framed them up on canvas stretchers. This one is on a 6x6 canvas stretcher.

And of course it doesn't stop there, this one has three puzzle pieces added to complete it. Isn't this fun?

I sure think so.

I've been really struggling with my sewing machines. The Necchi acts like it's clutch is slipping, I just took it BACK to the repair shop to try and see if they can get it fixed this time.

The Singer drops stitches like a drunk co-ed even though I got it back from the repair shop on Friday. However, the problem is very erratic. I never know when it is going to happen but I can't use it for quilting when I can't get a happy seam out of it.

I just got my third machine back from the repair guy today and this one works. I hesitate to even mention that it works because it may decide to quit on me also. We shall see.

So far I've spent more $$$ on repairing sewing machines than I had budgeted for fabric for this project. I do hope that at least one of the four will stay working long enough for me to finish up this project in time for the art opening.

Have you seen my project at Kickstarter.com? I really love the whole concept of kickstarter and have my eye on a few projects that are happening there. A friend of mine is an inventor and I hope to bring one of his projects to Kickstarter.com. I also know of an artist killed in Iraq who documented the people and war in Iraq through his photography while serving in a medical mission there. His voice, his vision... is one that should be seen even though he is no longer with us. I hope to host a kickstarter project to see an exhibit of his work come together as well. So many ideas, so little time. I hope you'll check out my project and consider buying one or more of my quilted textile and found object pieces like the one in this blog post. Or perhaps one of my cool enameled keys, those are just SO COOL!

Happy Creating,
-Carmen Rose

Kickstarting a new project

I'm very pleased to announce my brand new "Kickstarter.com" project.  If you haven't heard of Kickstarter.com yet, check it out, it's an excellent way to fund and follow creativity.  I am pleased with how the video turned out, even with an audio malfunction on my little flip cam.  Surf on over to see my project and watch the video with me in it.  If you like the project, please share the information with your friends.  Thanks!

Happy Creating!
-Carmen Rose

Tease!

Oh, alright....

Here is another teaser:

This should be fun.

My project has been approved by Kickstarter.com and I'll be going live as soon as possible.  

Here are some teasers:

 I love old skeleton keys.  These are the ones I keep by my front door in case I ever lose my keyring. 

 I put these marvelous old keys in the kiln with enamel powder just to see what would happen.  

I love how they turned out!

Just a photo of three canvas sizes.  6x6, 9x9 and 12x12. 

Check back for more information in the coming days!

(and wish me luck!)

Happy Creating,

-Carmen Rose

Once around the block in Spring

 "Once around the block in Spring"

 Hand dyed cottons, machine pieced and quilted, washed for texture.

Stretched on a 12x12 frame.  $75

email me

Quilt Design

I am enjoying a bit of time in the quilt studio from time to time.  It doesn't seem like I get nearly as much time there as I'd like, but when I get the chance... I sure do enjoy it!

When I saw this image of a stained glass window, I knew I had to try it in fabric.

So I played a bit with the drawing to explore some other color options.

You'd think it would be a simple exercise to put this one together in no time flat?

Not so much!

But I am pleased with how the pieced top turned out!

Hand dyed cottons and un-dyed white.

Happy creating,

Carmen Rose

Facebook

Are you on facebook?  Then drop by my facebook fan page to see some of the latest photos.  I haven't gotten the blog posts written yet, so go over there for the sneak peak at the things coming out of Studio Nine these days.

Rock On

The good folks at Bargain Shop at 1910 West Beverley Street in Staunton sold me two antique rockers, gave me a great deal.  I'm working on this for the Roberta Web Child Care Center fund raiser Rock-a-thon scheduled for mid December.
 

This is the "before" photo:

I got it to the gallery and spent some time with the steel wool roughing up the surface so that the paint would stick.

I started the first coat, and let me tell ya... the guests in the gallery were not rooting for me at this stage.  There were some comments about ruining that old rocker and a little hostility from the purist crowd.  I understand, and on some level agree.  But the finish on this rocker was so bad and the bones so good... I really hoped that my work was not going to be entirely destructive.  But at that stage you just have to trust the process.  (And really, that is the part to do without an audience!)

I had chosen some commercial batiks for the fabric for the cushion and the inspiration for my color scheme came from the fabric.  Plus, I wanted to end up with something that would be the kind of thing I'd enjoy having in my home.  So I started into getting a variety of colors on the rocker. 

There is so much detail work on this rocker that it takes a really really long time to get one coat on it, much less two. 

Finally the second coat was finished:

Ready for a little detail work to bring out the features of the piece.  I blended lots of colors looking to achieve that batik fabric look. 

The gallery closed and I was ready to call it a night, so I had to stop there.  I'll be back soon to finish up the details on this one.  I made a template for the seat, so I don't know when I'll make the cushion but I believe it will bring together the whole project.  Or at least I trust that it will, we shall see.

Rock On,

Carmen Rose 

Grape Cluster Necklace Press

Artbeads.com has posted photos of my Grape Cluster Necklace on their Facebook Fan page and I've just been amazed by the kinds of comments people are posting.

What a blessing, I'm really grateful.

Happy Creating,

-Carmen Rose

Colors of Fall

Check out Pantone's Fashion color report for Fall 2010! It's a beautiful combination of colors. I'm always drawn to the purple colors, this time was no exception. "Purple Orchid" and "Chocolate Truffle" are both striking colors, as well as "Woodbine" which is a lovely rich green along with "Endive" which I interpret as a pale jade green. These colors were inspiration for new jewelry! Grape colors if you ask me!

When Artbeads.com contacted me again about making something for their Fall Design Partner's Gallery, I came upon this beautiful maple leaf and these beautiful silver lined round twist beads which I thought would be perfect for a grape cluster design. Grape leaves and maple leaves aren't the same, but close enough.

So I started with a sketch. This is a bit unusual for me, but I had some time to think about this idea until the beads came. 

I also made some polymer clay beads, they are the swirly round ones that are a combination of the "Woodbine" "Purple Orchid" and "Endive" color scheme along with some copper.

I added in some copper wire to the design.

Then I worked late into the night in Studio Nine.  And by morning I had this:

I wanted to try to show the back part also, because I like the copper chain, the different textures and the copper wire twisted into a clasp.
$295 email me at CarmenRose at comcast dot net.

A detail of those glass beads from Artbeads.com plus Amethyst, Jade, Faceted light Amethyst Crystals, Vintage Jade beads, Swarovski Pearls and other great beads from my stash.  I really think the "grape" leaf is the star of the show in this piece. 

It's structured on chain so it has lots of wonderful movement.  These are my colors.  I'm going to enjoy wearing this one! 

It's been years since I've done much by way of jewelry design even though I worked in this media professionally for quite a few years.  And much of this year I was emotionally unable to get in the studio and do the work that is closest to my heart.  I've moved my studios recently and it took considerable time to begin to set up another studio in my new home.  I finally have a jewelry design area.  More than that, I have once again felt the stirring of inspiration and I can't tell you how good that feels.  It's been a long dark season but this is a very good sign.  The creative juices are moving once more and I am grateful.

And that night after I created this piece, I just couldn't stop making jewelry.  It feels so good to be back in the flow again.  And I think I'll enter this piece in the Artbeads.com Inspiration Competition when I get a chance!

May your creative juices surprise you with a blessing this week!

-Carmen Rose

FTC disclaimer: I received some of the products shown in this blog from Artbeads.com free of charge, I have not been paid for my endorsement of these products and I am reviewing the products honestly.