Monday, April 30, 2012



Please join us for an artist reception from 6PM-9PM on May 4th.  Photos, paintings and ceramics by
Janis Madias will be on exhibit throughout the month of May.

Janis Madias will be exhibiting at the Starring Gallery
Paintngs, Pottery and Photographs
118 W. Main St. in Northville  48167
the month of May  reception 1st Friday


Thursday, April 26, 2012

Call for Entry



This summer, Edsel & Eleanor Ford House will play host to a celebration of imagination and inspiration with its second annual Fairy Tale Exhibit and Festival, Once Upon a Time: Grimmly Inspired. The family-friendly festivities highlight the 200th anniversary of the Grimm Brothers’ first published fairy tale.
The centerpiece of this year’s fairy tale exhibit will be a juried art competition for teens and adults. To commemorate the more than 200 stories published by Jacob and Wilhlem Grimm, Ford House is putting the call out for two-dimensional, three dimensional, digital and video artwork submissions that will be displayed at the estate from July 28 through Nov. 2. In addition to the juried entries, the exhibit will also feature reproductions of historic Grimm Brothers fairy tale art from the collection of the Detroit Public Library and offer an overview of the history of the Brothers Grimm.
For registration details and more information, click the picture below.

Upcoming Events:

Plant Adaptation Up Close
April 14, 2012
A plant exhibit like you've never seen before.Learn more...
Wild Wednesday Walk
April 25, 2012
What Happens at Night? Learn more...
Purely Visual: a photographic journey into two Jens Jensen landscapes
April 28, 2012
Join us for this day-long photography workshop Learn more...




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Questions or comments can be directed to the editor, Ann Fitzpatrick, at info@fordhouse.org
Edsel & Eleanor Ford House | 1100 Lake Shore Road, Grosse Pointe Shores, MI 48236 | (313) 884-4222


Tuesday, April 24, 2012

SALE!

This post is especially for members who attended the Golden Artists Colors presentation. Utrecht is having a two day sale, today and tomorrow only.  It is in-store and on-line and 25% off your non-sale purchase. For on-line, use code 86608. For store purchases you need to print the following notice.
Apparently they carry a line of the Golden Products.

There is an Utrecht store on Woodward in the Wayne State area, west  side. You have to drive through an arch and the store will be on the right. Good luck, whether you shop on-line or at the store!

Susie

Coupon:


Monday, April 23, 2012

Indigo and Fabric Manipulation Workshop


Another SDA Michigan Workshop! For SDA members only.

We will have an indigo dyeing workshop on June 9th at 10:30 a.m. until we, or the vats are exhausted! It will be held out of doors in Susie Krage’s yard at 1731 Seminole St, Detroit, 48214. Rain date, June 16.
The teachers will be Susie Krage and Susan Trovillion. We will make as many vats as needed for those who participate, but the vats will be small (5 gallon buckets), so please limit your fabric size to fat quarters (22 “ X 18”). The workshop is to learn about indigo vats and fabric manipulation, not to make yardage.
There will be tables set up under a canopy for preparing/manipulating the fabric. If you prefer, and you know how, you may prepare your fabric before hand. If you would rather dye plain not manipulated fabric, that is fine, but this is a great opportunity to do some clamping, pole wrapping or stitching prior to dyeing. If you don’t know how, there will be help and instruction.
Some manipulating tools will be available for general use. If you have clamps, shapes for clamping, poles, or other items you are willing to share, please bring them along.
To sign up: Please send your check for $35, to Susie Krage. Include your e-mail  address and telephone number so if there are any changes, you can be notified. There will be no refunds after the sign-up deadline of May 25th. If you find you are unable to attend, you may find a substitute. For the sake of full disclosure, we are adding $10 to workshop fees that will be put in a fund for SDA Michigan expenses and exhibition costs. No one will be considered enrolled until their check has arrived.
Sign up DEADLINE is May 25, 2012.
Make checks out to Susie Krage with "Indigo Workshop" in the memo line.
Send to: Susie Krage, 1731 Seminole St., Detroit, MI  48214
Supply list: Please label all of your tools if you wish to take them home with you.
Wear old clothes and shoes. A waterproof apron is a good idea. This is a messy process.
Fabric: any natural cellulose fabric; cotton, linen, hemp, rayon, bamboo and silk
Scissors
Thimble (if you use one)
Sewing needles  fine enough to not leave holes, but with a big eye
Tools for manipulating fabric if you have them (poles no larger than 3” in diameter)
Long gloves, the type you use for dishwashing
Bag lunch
Drink(s)

Golden Products Presentation


Yesterday, Sunday, April 22nd, a large group of surface designers trouped to my studio to hear a presentation by Golden Products Working Artist Valerie Allen and her able assistant, Karen. Few of the attendees had worked with Golden Products, so for most of us, the information was new and exciting. Besides talking about the products used by acrylic artists and their possible adaptation to fiber, Valerie, shared with us the making of “skins”, printing on them, as well as techniques for printing on aluminum  foil. And while I was lamenting that aluminum foil only comes in silver. Someone piped up that it comes in other metallic colors. Buy it in scrap booking stores or in a bakery supply store. Apparently the bakery product is crinkled. 
The Golden metallics are amazing! They come in a wide range of colors and are brilliant. There is even one with tiny particles of stainless steel. The interference paints were also stunning. When painted on a black ground, they shimmer and you see two colors, similar to silks with different colors of warp and weft. 
Valerie left us with our heads spinning and new ideas and product possibilities. She packed her presentation with so much information that it was a good thing that she left us with a big packet of written information and color charts. I look forward to lots of experimentation and some new techniques. 
Susie

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Exhibition Review: Krawczyk & Lams

Friday was the opening of the exhibition Ragged Layers by SDA members Lynn Krawczyk and Jackie Lams at the Huron Valley Center for the Arts (HVCA). Both artists work similarly with torn fabric and frayed edges, but the similarity ends there.

Lams work displayed mostly somber colors occasionally lit up with a few brighter or lighter areas.  Some work included sections from old quilts that she altered by adding pieces of her own fabrics or by silk screening images, text and hand stitching. The pieces were quiet and invited a closer look to see the detail and subtle colorations. 


   Jacqueline Lams with her work...........    

    

detail


By contrast, Krawczyk's work was exuberant with bright colors and multiple layers of hand screened and stitched fabric. Many pieces were completed with found objects, buttons and contrasting bold stitching.

Lynn Krawczyk with her work



detail

If you haven't been, I encourage you to do so. It is worth the trip! You won't be disappointed!
Susie Krage

HVCA is located at 205 W. Livingston  Road in Highland, Michigan (48357). 
248-889-8660  www.huronvalleyarts.org


Sunday, April 1, 2012

Felting Workshops from two international teachers


Dawn Edwards is hosting two incredible workshops for felt artists - Fantastic Felt Inspired by the Natural and Built Environment by Nicola Brown of Ireland and Seamless Felt Jackets by Charity van der Meer's of the Netherlands. This is a great opportunity to learn from these outstanding felt artists!

Details about the class are listed below. Dawn has full supply lists and lodging suggestions. If you would like to register, contact Dawn directly at dawn@feltsoright.com

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Fantastic Felt Inspired by the Natural and Built Environment by Nicola Brown


When: Friday May 25 & Saturday May 26 from 10am-5pm

Where: First Presbyterian Church
             303 E. Bridge St.
             Plainwell, MI 49080

Cost: $270 plus your materials (Lodging and meals are not included.)

Skill level: Basic felting skills are an advantage but beginners are welcome!

Lunch: Please bring a sack lunch to class. There are also restaurants close by. Coffee/tea will be provided.

Class description: Let the shapes, forms, colours, patterns, textures and structures of the natural and built environment fire your imagination! During this two-day workshop, participants will design and create their own unique and beautiful wearable, functional or decorative pieces of felt using nature and the man made landscape for inspiration. Some participants may choose to create a purely decorative art piece such as a complex vessel, sculpture or wall hanging while others may decide to design and felt some wearable art or interior accent, possibly a bag, some jewellery, some nuno felt or maybe a framed landscape or table runner.

There will be time to experiment and discover techniques or materials over the two days that you may 
have never considered using in your felting before. Nicola will be bringing some of her favourite mohair off cuts for everyone to try out and will share with participants how she is currently using free machine embroidery selectively to accentuate design elements in some of her new bags and framed landscapes. She’ll also demonstrate the use of an electric sander during some stages of the felting process and speak about the possibilities of fulling nuno-felt using the tumble dryer, Nicola doesn’t use a sander all the time herself but sometimes it can really help with certain tasks and it is definitely useful to know when this might apply. The tumble dryer technique is wonderful for difficult to felt fabrics and to eliminate all the traditional rubbing and rolling, it’s not for everyone but it is fantastic to speed up the process especially if you have a bad back or other health issues so again, another technique that can be handy to know about!

Participants are encouraged to bring along treasured bits and bobs from their stash, buttons, beads, scraps of vintage fabric, shells, stones, glass nuggets etc., these all make wonderful inclusions in felt and help to personalize and create a truly unique work of art! We will have access to a sewing machine during the workshop but if you have your own machine with a free machine embroidery foot please bring it along and some threads too if you have space in your car. We won’t have access to a tumble dryer at the venue but if participants would like to try this technique during the workshop they are free to lay out a large nuno wrap during day one and get it to the stage where they can bring it home with them and finish it using their own dryer that evening. Nicola will clearly explain the steps to take and it should be possible to full the pieces and have them finished to show off on day two!



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Seamless Felt Jackets by Charity van der Meer




When: July 10, 11 & 12

Where: Scout House / American Legion Hall
             410 E. Orleans St.
             Ostego, MI 49078

Cost: $425 plus your materials (Lodging and meals are not included.)

Skill level: Advanced level workshop for experienced feltmakers. (This does not mean you have to be an expert but some felting experience is necessary give the complexity of the class.)

Lunch: Please bring a sack lunch to class. There are also restaurants close by. Coffee/tea will be provided.

Class descriptionIn this workshop Charity will be teaching how to make garments in one piece using fine merino on silk (Nuno technique). This workshop is for making fashionable and creative jackets. It is for felters who enjoy playing with textures using different materials to create structure and layers.

We will work with silk fabrics, merino, Wensleydale, knitted pieces, etc., and we will make use of different felting techniques to create surface textures.

You will be making pieces of art and unique garments that come into full expression when worn. These will be days full of surprises.

We will be aiming at felting a very textured, creative nuno-felted Spring/Summer coat. In this course you get to work with all kinds of fibers, and raw wool to create the textures to your own liking.

This is a great opportunity to create your new fashionable jacket/coat, and also to learn how to make garments using felt.

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Hope to see you there!!!


Golden Artist Program

Twenty-five members have signed up for the Golden Artist Program on April  22nd. Although this was not stated before, we are going to ask for a $5.00 donation for this unique program. The money will go into a fund for a future SDA Michigan exhibition. We, as a group, have no funds with which to function and need to raise our own.  Your SDA Michigan team is working to secure a venue for an exhibit. Once we do, further plans will be announced. Meanwhile, if you would like to help, please contact Susie, Jean or Susan with your thoughts and ideas.

Susie
skrage2@att.net