Asilomar Conference

Oh, what fun we had!! My friend Lorraine and I went to Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, Ca for the Empty Spools seminar last week. WoW!! I had class with Gloria Loughman from Australia, I love her work and have all her books. It was a 5 day class on painted landscapes. We made a sample from her pattern which I'll put at the end of the post. Then we painted sky fabric, mine is dull blue, gray, white, for a moody Oregon seascape. Many of the student works were beautiful sunsets, with bright colors. Cutting the fabric into various widths, from 3/4" to 2". we then rearranged them to get a blend of colors. We could do them vertical, horizontal or diagonal. I chose diagonal to give it a rainy coastal feel.

The water is painted in a darker, more intense color, I added some green to the ocean, and painted the fabric dry instead of wet. I wanted it more streaky, not as blended. My design is from a photo I took from the South Jetty beach at Bandon, Oregon. The rock formations are very distinctive to me, and brings back many good memories of trips with my husband. The second photos of the trees on the rocks is from Bastendorf beach, I added a few trees to my design, but haven't made them yet. I worked hard on the sketch, especially the "pointy" middle rock. Trying to make it skinnier, shorter, chunks out of the side, anything to make it look less phallic. I finally decided to make it gray and hope it would fade into the background more. ha ha ha.

Gloria's technique adds a black edge to each section of rock, put together with Steam a Seam 2, then on black fabric and trimmed to 1/8". I did NOT like the Steam a Seam, it is too sticky, and thick, two layers was ok to stitch through, but more, like the rocks, and my needle gummed up, and my thread broke. I need a stronger thread too. It also gummed up our scissors and rotary cutters, and my needle threader on the sewing machine is screwed up too.

So far, so good, I added some sand fabrics and some cheesecloth at the bottom. I have more stitching to do on the cheesecloth and more to add at the bottom edge of all the rocks. Also some waves splashing up. The bits of white will add a much needed brightness to the design. I've also started adding some trees to the top left rocks and a single stunted tree on the big rock in the water. I can't wait to get this finished.

My practice piece with a fat quarter of Gloria's hand dyed fabric, we picked the piece from a brown paper bag, so could not choose the colors we liked. The ocean area is a bit of green hand dyed shibori fabric I brought with me.

I made a second piece while I waited for people to catch up. I thought I would do my Bandon seascape with a horizontal background, so wanted to play with that orientation. I will add a larger rock to the bottom right and some sailboats to the water.

This pic is all the student practice pieces, while we learned her technique. Notice the horizontal, vertical and diagonals. Also, the man in class had to be different and added a palm tree to his, he was from Hawaii.

My friend made this beetle in Susan Carlson's class. I will not post anymore student work, as many people were picky about people taking pics of their work. We had a fabulous time. The beach was beautiful, the food great, and we toured all the class rooms at the end of the week. Seeing all the fabulous work was fascinating, and being able to talk to all the teachers. I will definitely use this technique again, it adds a lot of interest to what could be a boring piece of blue sky.

The wildflowers on the dunes were in full bloom. I will be linking this to Nina Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" click here see what other talented textile artists are doing this week.