Archive for the ‘marbled fabrics’ Category

As I start doing more marketing and trying to develop more income from my art, I thought I would look back on where I’ve been. Sixteen years ago in the combo bathroom/laundry area on Sleepy Hollow in Vermont, Dean did the first marbling bath. We were so excited with those first few pieces – all of which have since long gone as remnants. We tried some of our first selling to quilt shops (first flyer was copied, color was bad – we knew so little!), and I was using the pieces in quilts with just black. In fact, the first quilt with the marbled pieces was an Attic Window design – learned about 45-degree angles the hard way!

We kept experimenting, with Dean learning about sewing and selvages and straight of grain, and my wondering in amazement how he worked so freely with color. We moved from our small pink hospital pan to a turkey baster tray, and then to a cat litter-sized tray. We discovered that we needed to be able to do fat-quarter sized pieces if we were going to reach the quilt market, but nothing was big enough.

We moved to Tucson, and we had a kitchen counter that was longer, so we tried rigging up a longer tray to try some scarves – mediocre at best. That led to one of our decisions to buy a house. We ordered a plexiglass tray, built a fold-up marbling bench in the garage, had a set-tub put in, and really started learning our craft. We tried all kinds of fabrics – nylon washed right off, satin had to be the cheaper kind, polys marbled wonderfully – despite what people would say about the fabric. We tried all kinds of new combs and patterns, with the idea that if we could perfect the marbling on white cotton, we were really getting somewhere.

We joined our first guild (Wearable Arts Guild of Southern Arizona – made my first garments) and did demonstrations for the local Bernina Sewing Center. Didn’t know enough about marketing at the time to realize we should have had lots of little pieces to sell! Did a “Round-Up” with Bernina and made $150 on small pieces – we thought it was huge. Tried getting a distributor and selling some patterns – lots of interest, but what we found was a misunderstanding about what marbling is – and isn’t. It’s not dyeing fabric. We still are educating people.

Eventually we stumbled into the kinds of combs we needed and started creating more of the traditional patterns. We framed a few pieces and realized we had another great idea here, and we ended up selling some of our lager pieces as framed art, now in a lot of offices and businesses in Tucson.

Then came the idea of a web page….$3000??? You must be joking……

I spent over an hour at Barnes and Noble on Saturday, reading Art Calendar and looking for marketing opportunities. One thing led to another and I discovered this viral marketing information that is pretty amazing. I am spending time processing how I can use this in marbling, realizing full well we need to get a video completed to go up on YouTube. There are other marbling videos available, and I have used them to explain to the kids what it is that I do.

I got a lot of other ideas on upcoming shows, and I need to research these. It is interesting that within two years (the last time I needed slides to enter a show), the technology has changed so much that now you just need good jpgs or a CD to send. Makes life much easier.

On trademarks, I got a new domain name for our work, and now I am looking into protecting that name as part of what we have started to do. This will be the summer that I do lots of work on the art and business of marbling. I am drafting the new website, as well as researching more information about marbling. I WILL be productive!

I am working on applying for an “emerging artist” grant. I determined last weekend that I would make this an extremely productive art summer, as I really would like to not only create more art, but also make some money while doing it. So as I was preparing this application, I came upon my past successes.

“Fish Follies,” juried show, Cordova Art Museum, Cordova, Alaska. “Whales” (digital marbled art); “Swimming Upstream” (digital marbled art), with Suzan Drury, June 2008. I THINK I FORGOT TO BRAG ABOUT THIS!!!!!

“Art of the Sixth Extinction,” WomanKraft Gallery, Tucson, AZ. “Pond;” “Road Not Taken;” “Mandala 1: Core;” “Nature 4: Alaskan Waters.” February 2005. Fiber art.

“Expressions in Textiles” juried show, New Haven, CT, August 2004. “Nature 1: Rock Garden.” Fiber art.

“Fish Follies,” juried show, Cordova, Alaska, August 2004. “Nature 4: Alaskan Waters.” Fiber art.

“Fabric of Legacies” juried show, Fort Collins, CO, July 2004. “Mandala 1: Core.” Fiber art.

Leandro Fabrics Gallery, Tucson, AZ, May 2004, September 2004

Textures Gallery and Studio, Scottsdale, Arizona, November 2004. Solo show.

My World in Black and White, online exhibition, 2003-2004. “Black and White with a Hint.” Fiber art.

My World in Black and White, Ontario Museum of Art and History, California, 2003 – 2004. “Black and White with a Hint.” Fiber art.

Schullenberger Gallery, Jericho, Vermont. Artists’ Showcase, December 2003

There is a gap, and those are the years when the marbling just went to hell – couldn’t marble for anything, and we even had trouble with remnants for eBay. But we are back, and going in different directions. So here’s to adding more to the list!

Last night I was working with one piece and came up with an incredible background (if I do say so myself). Sent it to Suzan, because I just couldn’t get the pot working, but I loved the background. One thing I am discovering is the need for a stronger story in the fabric, through shapes or other pictures. I don’t have much of a picture library, but Suzan managed to create some amazing stuff. The other thing I am discovering is the need for the fabric to show through as an integral part of the piece – so you can see the marbling background. Here’s the original background:

That said, here’s what Suzan did with the pot:

Certainly interesting, but this is where I realized I want to fabric design to be a stronger part of the piece.

Then Suzan did some mind-blowing manipulations:


And some even better stuff:


And finally, the piece de resistance….Marbled Canyon….

It’s a nice, lazy Saturday, and I am cleaning and sorting, and generally playing with Photoshop. This time a year ago I was probably into week four of the first Photoshop class. What a difference a year makes! Thanks to MyJanee
I have been able to zoom with my Photoshop skills. Her courses gave me a strong set of basics, so when I started getting creative, I had already learned a lot.

There are a lot of questions now that need answers, now that Suzan and I have developed a body of work in digital marbling. I need to think about the website, and that needs to be done soon, as Eric Maisel’s blog writings are going to start happening in March, and I want our site ready for additional traffic.

Things to do:
1 – plan the new pages
2 – go back and review Cafe Press to see what has to be done for prints
3 – decide on framing possibilities
4 – decide on pricing of prints and originals
5 – continue to produce new work
6 – revise digital portfolio for submission to new galleries
7 – decide on some new galleries – anything available in Tucson?

That should keep us busy for a while.

It does feel good to get back to doing work with Photoshop – pretty productive weekend, and I still continue to learn lots. I have been experimenting with additional shapes in the library – definitely need to add more. But this is a great way to work with layers and see how everything interacts together. This piece has as its original, the same piece from the purple flower below, but this time tinted with a yellow hue. In this one, Spring, you can see the original shape I used on its own layer.

I tried to do more to get this idea of spring/summer across, without making the shape look too much like a Photoshop shape.

Then I just started playing around till I got what I’m calling “Asian Fantasy.”

Here are two other iterations (that seems to be my word for the day!!) –

We are headed to Phoenix for our first monthly artist date to create some new digital work. Suzan’s coming down from Sedona – not a great day for traveling – cold and windy on our end – will be worse coming down to Camp Verde and then Black Canyon City.

Last night I did some more work. I like the circles effect – I am interested now in adding additional shapes to pieces and see what happens with them. You can see the initial fabric in the background on this one.

I started applying some gradients and using masks more.

I am particularly fond of the copper gradient – seems to work really well on the marbled fabrics.

I don’t know what I did, but every now and then I get a really interesting effect with one final gradient…..

So I’m talking about what we’re doing, and if you have been following the blog, you know how this has been progressing. What follows is a sample from one piece – we have been saving pieces as we like them, even while we continue playing around with more filters and such. This one reminds me of a cold winter morning looking through ice crystals as the sun is rising.

Now here’s the original piece of fabric – can’t even tell the design is from this piece.

Here are two more variations of the same fabric – Rebirth and Rock Candy.

We spent yesterday setting up to marble (which always takes so long, with pretreating and actually setting up the liquid bath), but then today we got to play – marbled about 6 yards of fabrics, and once again everything went really well. It is so nice to be back in the large tray again – we actually feel like we are creating art again, not just little pieces to sell. Yet again today we were talking about how much of a void there was in our artistic lives when we couldn’t create large pieces of fabric. When you define your art this way for over 14 years, it really is distressing to lose the skills.

Especially nice is the fact that we are working with other fabrics. Tried some larger heavy-weight silk that worked wonderfully, as well as some faux suede pieces, and the velveteen also worked. I still need to treat the velveteen to soften it up, but overall extremely pleased. Still haven’t been able to do the chiffon again – those people who bought that two years ago certainly have one-of-a-kind pieces!

We want to marble more often now that things are working again. It is SO GOOD to be creating fabric again! We even are revisiting marketing and revving up the business end because we are turning out really great fabric. The disadvantage is that our bodies have changed enough that we can no longer go for six hours straight, not including clean-up. There was a time four years ago when we could do 60 fat quarters in a day. Can’t do that any more, and we also discovered we don’t like turning out fabric that way – we would just as soon do a smaller amount and have a chance to play on each of the pieces.

We are still looking for a particular fabric that we used for so many of our art pieces – we used a poly-satin that kind of worked, but not to the detail we would like. I found an old piece that we’ll use in checking around fabric stores. All the really great pieces are from bridal fabrics, so we just have to shop around for those.

This piece that I’ve scanned shows the incredible detail you can get on the poly fabrics.

Then I started playing with some of the new tools from the Photoshop lessons. This next is with the Shadows and Highlights adjustment. I particularly like the neon effect on the orange.

This next is playing around with the eye dropper tool and the white space. Each gives a different feel, which is why I have wanted to learn Photoshop for so long. I want to be able to take a really great piece of fabric and use it to create lots of other images, so the particular piece doesn’t have a short shelf life till someone buys it.

And finally – the joy of playing with filters in Photoshop! Take a look at what happens with the emboss filter with the same piece! Reminds me of maps of the Continental Shelf.

All in all, a great way to spend a day off from school (Rodeo days here in the Old Pueblo)!