Melanie Testa's Blog, page 17

12+

I have been and will be answering questions and responding to comments within the comments section of the blog. I hope this creates a sense of community and exchange. Also: The 30 Lines 30 Days challenge now has an open Flickr Group, please join and upload your photos if you are participating. It has been a lot of fun to do this with you. Thank you!

Check out Kristen, and Suzanne O!

Blogging everyday is a challenge! But, I am up for it.

Todays lines are patterns. Maybe this is what the splotch in yesterday's post looks like under magnification! Ha!

I have uploaded a new Ruling Pen video and I hope it will answer some questions that have been popping up in the comments section of the blog. Jeannie asked if certain paints work better. No. Using paint or dye in the ruling pen is about obtaining the correct consistency. The paint (substitute dye if you are using that), should flow easily in your palette, should not drip out of the ruling pens beak and should create a consistent line when draw on cloth or paper.

I hope the video helps.

The Ruling Pen is about consistency. Purposefully mix some paint too thin, make a line, add a tiny bit more paint, make another line-until you get it right! What could go wrong? You have ugly lines? Who cares? This is how we learn.

As for other doings at Studio Melly, I received a package from Annika today. Annika knit and beaded these yummy wrist warmers and was going to sell them at a craft fair when I snapped them up! Love 'em! I was on my way out when I saw her package. I literally, ripped them open, ignored the note, left the packaging, put them on and went on my way! I have wanted a pair of beaded wrist warmers for a very long time and am so happy to support Annika's creative journey. I have, of course, come to my senses, read the beautiful note (on a hand made card) and taken time to enjoy the manner in which she packaged them for shipping. Big sigh.

Silent 11

Go here and here.

I will answer questions, respond to comments and more, tomorrow.

Day 10+ a whole lotta fun.

Today, although I had a full day, I made my lines early. There was a drip of water that somehow got onto the cloth in the upper right of the square, so I outlined it. This made me think of tree bark, so I kept it up. I like getting my lines done early.

These last two days have been a bit different here at Melly's studio nook. I have had two lovely women come to take private lessons. One flew all the way from San Diego and is a groupy of our very own Jane LaFazio.

Gab and her sister Lucy (a fellow New Yorker) came for a two day class on Inspired Journaling every-single-day!

Gabriela is committed to her creative journey and tells me she looks forward to classes with Jane. She also studies art elsewhere and it was fun to see some of the pieces she is working on, and the excitement on her face when she talks about it. The fun part for me is that Gab likes to draw. She has no fear of the pen and paper. That is yum, in my book.

Here Gab works on the exchange and elaboration of collage, she completed and expanded upon what we glued onto the page. Her color mixing skills were spot on.

Lucy seemed ready and available for the whole deal. Lucy is a painter, from the sound of it. The two women had large Moleskine watercolor journals and Lucy was confident filling both sides of the spread (though I did suggest keeping it small and manageable for the day). It was a gas watching the two talk, engage with the process and learn.

Here they show their favorite-ist page of the two days.

Action!

I will post my lines later in the day, adding to this post (did you see Post #8?). In the meantime, Arrow dipped into the nip this morning.

Messy, Messy, Stop

This is my second post of the day.

Diana Trout is an author and artist. She wrote Journal Spilling: Mixed-Media Techniques for Free Expression and boy is her book expressive. There is permissive freedom, experimentation and exuberance on every page. Diana knows how to get the creativity out and onto the page! If you have any trepidation about opening a journal and expressing yourself artistically on its pages, I suggest you go check out Diana's book.

Last week Diana called me through Skype, so I was able to watch her wake up and we talked about journaling and our styles. I think we journal for much different reasons and I will say some words about my approach and hope that she does too.

I journal to capture thoughts, ideas and moments of my life in an artistic manner. I call what I do, the book I keep, an artist's journal and I hope that either an aspect of the page or the page itself will inspire further works of art either within the pages of the journal or on cloth, my chosen medium. I choose to paint full spreads, both sides of the paper because these books are for my own use as an artist, I do not have aspirations of selling or framing my pages-I do this as a library of imagery by and for myself.

I can be found paging through my books when I am feeling creatively dull. I also rely on the blank page in times of quiet, coffee shop journaling is the epitome of sheer joy in my world. When fiber creativity eludes me, I open the pages of my journal and get to work, it keeps me creatively focused and open to my self.

So Diana challenged me to be Messy and Intuitive. I think intuitive come easily to me, Messy? Not so much. Diana also challenged me to use words and not cover them up. In describing this challenge she suggested something similar to Nudge #8, 'Nudges' are her weekly challenges (a brilliant concept that you should try)-check them out!

So here goes.

This is one of the last pages in my journal and had notes on it. Alex, a 4 year old that I know, made the green cat stamp on the left part of the page. The two hand stamps on the right side of the page were made by me and were on the page prior to this challenge. I wanted to keep them, so worked around them, rather than covering them up.

To create this page, I globbed on some white gesso, smoothing it out in a thick layer over the page. I pressed some leaves left over from this post into and scribbled over the gesso then heat gunned the lot. I rubbed Caran d'Ache into the textured gesso, wetting drying and rubbing some more.

All that brown made me nervous, so I moved over to the left side of the page where there was some bright, cheerful yellow and I wrote about fear of Messiness.

This portion of the page was just yellow at that point. I took liberties and circled the pertinent words in the paragraph in pencil and used a stump to feather the lead out.

When I get to serious journaling, there are no holds barred- so out came the Crap! Border stamps had thier day on the page. Leaves, checkers, dashes, zig zags. Stamp pox be darned! If you feel compelled to make them, so too should you use them.

This is one of the first stamps I ever made. It is probably 15 years old, is carved speedy cut and is inspired by henna'd hands. See the Mess? Scribbles, dribbles, flecks?

This is a two color stamp made in Pat's Faux Screen Print technique. do you see those dark red penned triangles? That sort of quick unstudied line is hard for me to accept, but I did it in the hope of embracing the Messy and Intuitive aspect of the challenge.

Then I checked out the entire page and felt I needed to lighten and brighten up all that brown and began dotting some white and gold, swiped some blues into the page and continued to play and Intuit.

I don't know if I pass the Messy test (I know it wasn't a test). My Friend Pamela said, 'That is very messy, for you.' See that qualifier? For you. Hm.

Here are some other pages that I perceive as Messy.

And on this page I challenged myself to draw messy, not studied or realistic but with quick abandon. This pages imagery kept me thinking about The 20 and is a Common Grackle. This last is a reminder of the manner in which I tend to use my journal.

My challenge to Diana? Use Negative Space. Perhaps some paper Frisket? Maybe some fruit, but it was open to interpretation.

What do you think?

Day 8

Today will have two posts, line first.

This mornings lines are inspired by the end papers I glued into my next journal, photos soon, as it is drying.

I have been checking out your lines and samples, and am happy I finally figured out the Flickr group thing. Please join and show us your lines.

On to your questions and thoughts about the Ruling Pen.

Kristen (who has some great [Houston] commentary on her blog) emailed me with this statement:

I'm using Golden Liquid Acrylic and thinning it a bit with water. I do this in a little tray each day when I'm ready for the exercise and so each day it takes a while to get the fluidity just right -- more often than not, I leave it too thick and so you can see that my lines are a little "crumbly" looking and sit a bit too much on top of the fabric. Too much water and it blobs and bleeds too much. I suspect the answer is to take teh time to mix up a larger batch that is "just right" and store it in a bottle so I don't have to reinvent the wheel each day...

My response to this was:

I mix as I go. The paint should look smooth, have a consistency of heavy cream and should just about to drip off the brush when you hold it above your palette. The consistency is the hardest part of using this pen. But really, once you get it, it will be a cinch. Perhaps spending a bit of time in front of the pen and just playing with paint consistency is in order. When you put the paint in the pen, it should not appear to drip out of the 'beak', it should stay snug weather or not you use the dial to open or close the 'beak'. The paint will appear to stretch but will stay put. Nor should you have to open the 'beak' wide in compensation for the thickness of the paint, that just means the paint is too thick.

Cheryl is using thickened dye on soda soaked cloth. My first suggestion to you Cheryl, iron the cloth quickly and with assurance. Learn to do this when working with thickened dye, it is essential.

All of the above suggestions having to do with paint apply to dye. The consistency remains the same no matter the medium.

Using the ruling pen with ink is problematic for a few reasons. The first and major question would be, why do it?

We have such a plethora of pens that work on cloth, that using a ruling pen with ink on cloth is redundant.

Liquid ink is made to be used on paper which has sizing and finishes specifically formulated to hold and maintain the fluidity of ink, cloth does not have these same treatments and has the woven texture to boot.

Learn the needs of the Ruling Pen, this exercise is perfect for it-at the end of the 30 day period, you will be able to use a ruling pen on cloth, will be able to write and draw on cloth with fine lines. Dye and paint alike can be used to make lines on cloth. Using dye or paint in the ruling pen is about consistency. Once you 'get it', you won't think twice about it. Allow yourself the time.

Sevenses

Today I made my lines while listening to Land of Sea. It was enjoyable. I didn't have a plan but then contrast piped its little head up. So perhaps this is a wind blown tree, a long crazy road in the night time. No idea. But it is fun, I like it.

If you are using a ruling pen and have questions about its use, today is your day to comment and ask questions. Tomorrow I will answer all in a post (perhaps with video).

Meet the Happy Monster, Mister FrauBrow. Made by Nina Perez. He has been settling in quit nicely since I nabbed him at Quilt Fest! You might need a Happy Monster as a Holiday Gift! eMail her!

There is a fine tradition of drawing Mister FrauBrow, I will have to upload some photos, But in the meantime, I bought a Pilot v5 and v7 yesterday, on the advice of Marcus McAllister, and I am in need to trying them out. So, I am drawing Things on my Desk. Small Things, or Things Made Small.

Now, I am off to clean up after myself. Today is a JSG day....

I leave you drenched in moss and ivy

and invite you to join the Flickr Group.

Six

I have been checking out what you guys have been up to, Cheryl acquired some cash and used it well. Ruth has been checking out a bunch of marking tools, Deborah wasn't joking when she emailed me to say she would be using post it notes and a sharpie! And we will see if Kristen continues using a ruling pen at all.

And I have been thinking about line quite a bit. Yesterday I woke up thinking a trip to an art store was in order. I was thinking I needed a pen that would write over paint, both acrylic and gouache, a pen that made fine lines, a pen that I could love! Then I woke up. I looked through my pencil box and found a radiograph in perfect working order.

For me, the difference between line and drawing is a pretty fine distinction. Or can be. But making lines is alot less intimidating for so many of us. I was reading Vivian Swifts blog again and she wrote about the difference between drawing what you see and drawing what you feel. And earlier this week Diana Trout challenged me to make a Messy and Intuitive journal page (I will upload images and talk about this on Thursday). But this brings me to thoughts on fear, line and drawing.

I can't say why we fear drawing, I suppose it has to do with judgement and self criticism. The ugly voices in our heads that niggle and complain that the thing doesn't look real, doesn't look right, is off kilter. But then we are drawn to wonky takes on familiar subjects, all at the same time.

Diana challenged me to create a Messy page, with Words. Two fear filled things... I like pretty journal pages and I like to cover up words. I can talk like nobody's business, but writing words on pages, engaging with my world and taking notes about it? To go back and read later? Um, no. Fear. But there is no real reason for that. I will not be pouring my dark inner secrets onto any visual journal page. Notes to self, small illustrations are OK. It is time to put that fear aside, I keep a separate book for when I need to write the dark stuff out. So this fear is not conducive, it is actually counter productive.

As for my need, propensity to creating Pretty journal pages? That is my thing. Giving myself permission to cover over pages that I don't like is, well, permissive. Something that was not allowed me in college and that affords me some freedom now.

So give yourself permission. Make marks, draw wonky, cover crap up. But allow yourself the process. Enable yourself to learn. Give the ruling pen a further few days. Buy a pen than works better for you, whatever it takes. But repetition is key to creating habits. Drawing, or fluidity in mark making is a good artistic habit to foster.

And hey! Did you see that I figured out how to do hierarchal commenting? Now we can talk to each other in visual harmony. Off to get a Flickr account so we can all upload photos of our trials.

Cotton Mako' 12/2 Review

A few months ago I had a revelation about thread. When I work a large scale quilt, I do it in two whole cloth layers (for the most part). Cotton is the bottom and silk organza the top most layer. I have come to love rayon embroidery threads as my main quilting thread. The sheen can't be beat and it lends the work a sumptuous, luscious look or patina.

But there is no reason why I shouldn't step out and experiment with other weights of thread, right? My thought being, if I vary the weight and type of thread, I am creating further contrast and visual appeal.

Last Quilt Fest, I stumbled on Aurifil Cotton Mako' 12/2 weight... This seemed a perfect fit for my idea. It is the heaviest cotton thread they sell and it is gorgeous.

They suggest you use 100 weight sewing machine needle and the thread holds up really well when put to the test, both my Bernina 1001 and the 440 handle this thread without incident. The white thread just under her wrist is machine stitched Cotton Mako' 12/2.

The thing about this thread is that it is a loosely plied two strands of cotton. It looks and feels beautiful, and if it withstands machine work so well, why not hand stitch with it? And in this instance it too glides like butter. This thread has a soft sheen, it maintains its loft both hand and machine stitched and it is just downright pretty.

So it both looks awesome as a hand sewing thread and it is fabulous as a machine sewn thread. But...

It hand dyes beautifully too.

If you want to know more about Aurifil Threads, check out this link.

This is my second post of the day, scroll down if you are looking to read about today's lines.

Day 4ish, really 5

Did you notice that yesterday's post was numbered improperly? I did and I changed it late in the day. Posting every day is a challenge!

Today's lines became true doodles. Not too much of one, then some of another.

Last night I watched The Point!, an animated film/musical from my childhood. The film itself is crudely drawn in the late 60's early 70's style. There were so many lines and shadings that I thought it a good idea to suggest you too watch the film, even if just for the lines! The Point! was and is a formative cultural element of my personality!