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

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

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

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

Delightful Mess!

The first phase of glazing is finished, and THERE ARE SOME LOVELY DRIPS!

Can't wait to do the next layer! I think that's my favorite part!

Squee!

Happy Creating,

-Carmen Rose

Freedom Quilt 7 ~ Finishing up the Ironing

The ironing is finally finished! I'm glad to, cause after 40 yards I was getting tired of that!

I have 80 fat quarters, a zillion 3.5 inch strips and then all these lovely chunks!

 

I can't wait to see what comes of all this!

Thing is... I just realized I have ten more yards of cotton... and there are still come colors that didn't quite come through in this...

I'm considering a whole new round of dying! LOL!

(I may need more than 40 days!)

Happy Creating!

-Carmen Rose

Freedom Quilt 3 ~ Hand Dying Fabric

It's day three of the Freedom Quilt project, it's time to dye some cotton, ya'll! And I'm pretty excited, I always love this part!  Playing with color is my thang!  I started by mixing dyes, dying small samples to see if I could manage to get the colors I was looking for.  I was working with primary colors though I did use some orange, and I also mixed up some black for adding some tonality to colors.  It's not easy to tell if the colors are off at this stage, but once they come out of the dryer there is no doubt.  There is a learning curve!!

I started out with the first ten containers.

Then closed them, made some changes to each bottle of dye and then added dye to the second set of ten.

This is why I call it hand dying... because even with gloves, I will certainly turn colors!

Forty containers, forty yards. 

All that glorious color hidden in there...

No idea which ones are going to work out beautifully and which ones I'm not going to like...

Forty containers of infinite possibility.

Before long I'll send these through the wash and begin to see how they turned out.  Anticipation is part of the fun!  Day three of the freedom quilt is complete.

Happy Creating,

Carmen Rose

Pottery Treasures

I didn't really mean to take a week off from blogging... it just kind of happened.  So maybe I'll try to catch up a bit.  Let me introduce you to a marvelous potter I met today.  Her name is Mary Tuttle and now I'm kicking myself for not taking a photo of this vibrant creature, she was SO fun!  She is from Buffalo Gap, VA.  I'd met her work a while back, fell in love nearly instantly.  I had no intention of buying anything, I was just scouting out a shop to see what the product mix was when I stumbled upon pottery done in colors that made me happy.  Anyone who knows me will be able to affirm that color is indeed the truest love of my life.  Before I knew it I was buying these:

This adorable little weed vase... which prompted a quick walk around my yard and the golf course next door for a few weeds, etc...

Buttercups are oddly pleasing... for a weed!

And this little bitty pitcher, it's got little dents on each side for perfect pouring.  Oh, it pleases me!

I've thought it might be nice to have a spoon rest for years.  Order appeals to me but I never found one that was remotely aesthetically pleasing until I saw this one:

And it is perfect for holding my favorite stirring spoons!

So these three pieces were my impulse purchase a while back.

Imagine my delight when I wandered into a booth at "Art in the Park" and found the same work... and thus... the artist her fine self!  Tickle me PINK!

That's how this little wall vase came to be mine... (perfect home for small measuring spoons!

And this one is perfect for my nutmeg grater!  I told Mary I love pottery but don't collect much because many potters work in such somber earthy colors.  She laughed and said if something comes out of her kiln in a somber color it's a mistake!  Is it any wonder I kept shopping?!

A small mixing bowl with two pour spouts... and a little salsa bowl (which is actually sporting some blueberries at the moment.) 

 

I really like the two little pocket vases on the kitchen cabinets, and you can see the tiny little weed vase and pitcher on the window sill.  The bright reds/oranges and purples in the glazes works beautifully with all the other color in my kitchen.

Speaking of color, a friend of mine wrote this little blurb about me:

Carmen Rose, known for her passion for color, whether in glass painting and fusing, silk scarf dyeing, or art quilts, is going to splash OASIS gallery with a special exhibit. She has worked in many media, but an eye for color is her signature. 

It's not the first time I've been billed as having some sort of a special relationship with color, I guess sometimes I forget that not everyone loves color like I do. I think that's why the work of potter Mary Tuttle delights me so!  Mary doesn't have a website, facebook page or even a twitter account... she's a phone person.  (I hate phones!)  She spends her time in the studio.  And though I'd love to be able to go somewhere and look at photos of her work or drop her an email to say that it was nice to meet her... I think she's got her priorities right.  It's good to be reminded that the studio is still the place where art happens.  And who wouldn't want to play in the dirt for a living?!

Happy Creating

(And happy stumbling across cool artsy type people)

-Carmen Rose

Why hello there!

I do love it when the critters visit me in my solitary work!

This handsome fella comes by, and sometimes his girlfriend visits.

I caught them smooching a while back, my friend told me later I should have told them to "get a tree!" =)

Yes, you are beautiful!

Happy Bird Watching,
-Carmen Rose

Featured Artist Display May/June

I'm the featured artist at Oasis Gallery in Harrisonburg, Virginia for the months of May and June.  I've shown lots of pieces of the display, here's your chance to get back and take a look at the whole thing.

There are art quilts on the wall, some framed and some unframed.

Hanging on the wall I also have colorful hand dyed scarves in a variety of styles, cut velvet, cut satin and lovely silk scarves in a rich variety of colors.

And lots and lots of glazed art glass!

I'm pleased with how it all came together!

Happy Colors, Happy Creating,

Carmen Rose

Jacob's Ladder Study

Here are more in my "Jacob's Ladder" series. This is a shot of one of them in the featured artist display currently up May/June at the Oasis Gallery in Harrisonburg.

This is the pair of them, though one of them has some frame damage so I need to figure out how to handle that.

I do love these frames though, they are perfect for small art quilts!

Here they are up close and personal (pre-quilting)

I love the hand dyed fabrics, these pieces just had such cool pattern!

Jacob's Ladder Study 1 & 2

Hand dyed cotton, batik

Fused and Machine Quilted

6.5 x 6.5 framed to 17 x 17

$198 each, framed

Happy Creating,

Carmen Rose

The Confections

These little art quilts are my current favorites!

And I love how they look in the frames! 

It gives them a dimensional look that I really like!

And I think they look nice with the rest of the display.

Sometimes I can't believe my luck at working with color.  I love the movement, the give and take of interacting with color.  I am a full tilt addict, I can never seem to get enough!

They are:

Confection 1 & 2

Hand dyed & hand painted cotton

Fused & machine quilted

6.5 x 6.5 framed to 15 x 15

$245 each, framed

Happy Colors,

-Carmen Rose