color Archives - Solamente

Creatively speaking, this has been a very different year. Many of my creative friends have shared that the sense of concern and isolation has slowed their creative energy.

As much as I wanted to get to my own bench and work with wire, most of my creative energy kept going to my new love: quilting. I decided not to fight it. This year, even with everything going on, I started four quilts and finished two.

I’d love to celebrate with you in photos the various colorful projects I did do, rather than dwell on the untouched wire projects. Enjoy!

The Colorwash Quilt

This quilt style, Colorwash by Wanda Hanson, was a fun color challenge for me on so many levels — and I loved it. The technique is wild! First you lay out the squares to create a gradient like you see on the design board above. It requires using muddy colors I don’t usually like, but I love the overall effect of the colors washing together.

Once I liked the arrangement (you spend a lot of time tweaking, moving the squares until it is just right), the next step was to stack the colors in order and clip them together. The strategy is to sew the color squares together by rows with links of thread to connect them; the ultimate in chained piecing. This is as far as I’ve taken the project. Since the designer’s advice was to do it in one sitting, I am patiently waiting for a free afternoon.

The Christmas Quilt

I made this lap quilt for myself to feel more festive around my favorite time of year. Bonus? It has holiday puns like “fleece Navidad” and “jingle owl the way” because laughter is the best medicine. With the border added, this is nearly done — it just needs binding!

Quilt with dark green christmas trees, red presents with bows, and cute animals wearing santa hats

Susan’s Quilt

Now that this quilt is in her hands, I can finally share photos without spoiling the surprise! This quilt uses printed fabric featuring birds’ nests, eggs, and butterflies. In the middle are panels of complimentary-color, freeform “Melanie style” blocks.

A scrappy quilt

This one is still in the works; it’s made from pieces and scraps from another project that had colors I love. My creative question was: How tiny can you go before a piece of fabric becomes unusable? These triangle squares and piano key blocks are making me stretch my imagination!

Watercolor Stichin’ Therapy Quilt

This is my most recent project and might really be my favorite. Like the Colorwash quilt, the blocks feature color gradients. The Watercolor designs can be found in the artist’s generous tutorials on her inspiring blog, stitchintherapy.blogspot.com. The difference is that for this design I can choose colors I love (no need for the muddy ones), and these botanical prints are gorgeous.

There’s a system to making the blocks more efficiently too which involves sewing long, narrow strips together and then cutting them into sections.

Watercolor Quilt with floral botanical prints

There’s a bit of an art to deciding where to place the fabric in order to get that blended-together look. It’s especially challenging because a single print can contain light and dark elements. To test it, I used the black-and-white filter on my camera to see the gradient.

The creative bonus of 2020

With no live shows for artists or the bead community this year, I found myself connecting more with people online in a new way. It has been delightful to get to know some of the bead makers I’ve collected and highlight their online efforts and shows as well. Steph and Kerri’s online show inspired me. I got to chatting with Tammy Mercier — whose animal beads I love — and made a fun connection.

At shows, the focus is usually about seeing it all. This year, I’ve noticed that I’ve felt more in touch than I would be at a show — messaging back and forth with people, watching their work develop over the course of the year. Our common interests around art brings us together in this year of connecting electronically.

A surprisingly creative year

Between quilting and encouraging my creative friends, that’s where my energy has been, so that is where I went. It has been the kind of year where it’s better not to force things and instead follow the creative energy where it leads.

It’s not where I expected to go, but I’m really grateful this year has been so rich with connections, blessings, and color. I’m wishing you a serene holiday season and a bright new year!

Making time for making art

Creating beautiful, colorful things brings me joy. If your life is like mine, you can get to the end of a busy year and wonder if you got anything accomplished. 2019 was such a whirlwind! Even when the schedule has been hectic, I still found time for making art and using color in fiber, cloth, and especially wire and beads.

As this year draws to a close, I wanted to share some of my favorite creative endeavors and highlight projects that appeared even amid occasional chaos.

Advanced wire techniques

In January, I taught a class on how to take wire embellishments to a new level. In the image below (the sample I created during the class), note the techniques of using pearls, scrolls, rhinestones, and wire-wrapped wire to add interest, volume, and sparkle. My focus was on teaching techniques rather than creating a specific project, so the resulting creations from the class were as unique and fun as each participant.

Recognition for my art

At Chris M. Sorenson Gallery this year, my piece “B Illuminated” was a particularly fun challenge and won second place in their Love of Letters show.

This year, I was invited to participate in the Fresno Art Museum gift shop. They requested that I bring my showstoppers, and it was exciting to display some of my high-end, fine art pieces in support of this local location! (I love this gorgeous “older” work featuring dragons by Robin Poff and a pocket watch works along with the hand forged wire and interesting beads).

Fiber and fabric

Attempting this complicated shawl made me one grumpy knitter, but after it was lovingly blocked by a more experienced knitter (Help Me Meg!), it now looks great. It’s such a great feeling when items move out of a project bag and into my closet to wear!

One of my biggest accomplishments this year was completing a quilt. After rediscovering my love for beautiful fabrics in a local quilting class, I got really motivated to finish a quilt for my own home.

Like a lot of creative people, I often work best when I have uninterrupted time and space. Well, I took the quilt project with me on vacation to Pacific Grove with a dear friend for company, determined to attempt a new and easier method of binding. We worked away on our respective projects, cheering each other on. Now it’s bound and on my bed! I call the back “technicolor zebra.” Every time I make my bed, this colorful quilt makes me smile.

A trove of wire art pendants

As the holiday season approached, I felt a new wave of inspiration to create with wire and my stockpile of beautiful, fun, and festive lampwork focal beads. In a matter of weeks, I created over 60 pendants for three local galleries to display.

Stretching my skills and local visibility

By far the piece of which I’m most proud this year was my entry for Celebrate Agriculture with the Arts. Since orange groves line nearly every road in the San Joaquin Valley, this piece celebrates our local farms. Entitled “Central Valley Slice“, my necklace uses stunning slices of lemon and orange forged from glass, that somehow look juicy. If you’re interested, this piece is now for sale ($395).

It’s always good to pause to celebrate life’s accomplishments. I wish you a bright holiday season and a colorful new year!

2020: A (Surprisingly) Creative Year