Artist Trading Cards: Stephanie Brothers

Meet Stephanie:

I consider myself a crafter not an artist as I tend to adapt ideas rather than invent them. I love to work with paper and cloth.  I stamp and punch (paper), embroider and  sew costumes for the grands and little gifts for family.  Mostly I just like to explore at this time.  I vacillate from project to project because so many things excite me.  Embroidery is my first fibre love and I am currently working on 3 blackwork projects in an attempt to learn the technique.  My most recent projects were a hanky embroidered with “In a war someone has to die” for an art installation in Europe and making fascinator hats with my 8 and 10 year old grand daughters ( I absolutely recommend this activity).

Her Card:

ATC: Front

Stephanie explains:

well I had seen a stamped teabag and decided that I wanted to do a variation on that which included some hand stitching cause that’s who I am.  I already had a collection of dried empty tea bags that I knew would be useful some day (don’t even try to see into my “craft” room).  I searched my stamps for a “vintage” image and settled on the corset. 

Then I chose a background card colour and went to my thread and lace stashes to find something to coordinate.   I chose a medium dark brown ink to stamp the image.  The thread is perle cotton and the “lace” some scraps from a piece that I cut the beads off.  I glued the “lace” in place after lacing the corsette.  The background was looking too stark and the teabag was starting to look French so I stamped the background with French words in a brown to match the corsette.  I then decided the teabag needed a little something more so I sprayed it with a neutral coloured glimmer mist.  Once the teabag was glued on to the background I felt there needed to be some movement from the background to the corsette and it being Valentines I chose to sprinkle small hearts punched out of scraps of card. 

Stephanie’s card turned out beautifully but I still asked her if she would do anything differently if she were to do it again.

She responded:

It’s my first art card and I am pleased with it, infact I wouldn’t change a thing.

Artist Trading Cards: Linda Coe

Meet Linda Coe

Linda Coe

Linda participated in the VGFA Artist Trading Card night.

She has a wonderful website that details her passion for fibre art. She has been a fibre artist for over 30 years, and creates textile art, wearable art, and mixed media.

Her inspiration:

Linda explained to me that the most difficult part of creating an ATC is the concept.  She says that she needed to find “a creative solution that could be done fairly quickly, but one that is interesting.”

She explains her card:

I chose to create a dye painting based upon a photo I took of the Smoke Bush outside my studio window. I shot it last fall when the sun was filtering through the leaves turning them rust, maroon and olive colours.

The artwork is painted on natural linen (hence a more subdued tonal range). The painting is done in layers as one would do with water colour paints–lighter under painting, then deeper layers of colour are added–, but the work also includes a number of print making techniques using dye thickened with sodium alginate.

Her Card:

ATC: Front

Some members, including Linda experimented with making one large piece and cutting it into pieces making each ATC.

She says

To keep the cutting to a minimum, I ganged the card backs 20-up on a tabloid (11″ x 17″ sheet and used spray adhesive to adhere them to the fabric. I designed the card back so the linen background would blend allowing for a butt cut. The individual cards were cut apart with a heavy duty mat knife.

ATC: back

Collaboration, Innovation & Fusion: Talk by Sylvia Olsen

 

Responsive conversations: First Woman out of the sky works with hands; like Wonder Woman with her lariat.

Kids raised in heaps of yarn; will become fusioned in the yarn with dragon wings.

Sweaters are the stories of both the wearer & the maker; Sylvia’s hand knit linen dress reflects innovation in three colour Cowichan knitting…. Man in Mary Maxim relates its parental heritage ….Y tells history of red Yorkshire Cowichan….Happy member of audience tells story of making linen skirt.

There’ll always be a Cowichan!

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Sylvia Olsen Presentation about her life & her book “Working with Wool, A Coast Salish Legacy & the Cowichan Sweater”, at the yarn shop Baaad Anna’s on Hastings St. on Friday, April 20, 2012….. Evening ended with Anna’s Superb Rainbow Cake.

Reviewed by Y (Betty Ruth Emmons)