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by Ariane Zurcher | Aug 28, 2016 | Art, Free Motion Quilting |
“What’s all the stitching in the background?” I typed to the artist, quilter and stitcher, Sue Spargo while taking her terrific class, Embroidering Texture and Dimension By Hand, on Craftsy. I didn’t know the world I was about to be transported to with that simple question. More ‘here‘ on Sue’s class.
A quick back track, seriously, it will be quick. This is a quilt I made when I was 15 years old for my home economics class in high school, which also included sex education and fire prevention, presumably all things that happen in the home, though not necessarily at the same time…
My First Quilt Ever When I Was Fifteen
In a previous post I wrote that I knew nothing about quilts and quilting and now this photo will show me as an unreliable narrator, but in my defense, when I found Sue Spargo’s class and saw her beautiful art, this project, made more than forty years ago, did NOT leap to mind. As you can see I got a little tired of all those circle blocks and decided to alternate with a plain white block and then in the middle just added huge rectangular pieces of dark blue (a polyester satin-like fabric, if I’m not mistaken, it was the 70’s after all) and some cotton paisley fabric top and bottom, because it was all becoming so endless and tedious. By the time I was finished with the various blocks I tied each corner with a little knot and called it a day. I think I used a polyester filling, not sure I knew the word “batting.” I do not remember particularly loving the process and I think this project may have been the reason I didn’t think much more about quilting for the next forty years!
Okay, so that was brief-ish, right?
I blogged about my first large quilting project ‘here‘ so I won’t go into all of that again, but now I’m at the quilting stage of the quilt. Quilting the quilt is a whole other beast indeed. There are some who like hand quilting and then there are those who like machine quilting and then there are those like me, who think both are amazing and want to do it ALL. Which led me to Free Motion Quilting. This is where you put the feed dogs down on your machine and guide the fabric to obtain beautiful fluid looking stitches that add a whole other layer to your quilt. But since I knew very little about FMQ I decided I needed to take another class. Christina Cameli teaches one on Craftsy called Free Motion Quilting Essentials that I love, as it’s perfect for the beginner (me) and plus, she’s lovely.
I had a quilt sandwich that I’d prepped for another class and began practicing. After a few days I decided to leap in and began quilting the first block I made (and then didn’t like the background fabric and so remade for my queen-sized Flower Pots quilt designed by Kim McLean). I designed a border to match Kim’s queen-sized border and now have a top perfect for a 30″ square pillow, which will go nicely with the queen-sized quilt.
Free Motion Quilting
I started with the center and did swirls and whirls, but ran into problems with my stitch regulator, which broke (it’s still not fixed) but I barreled ahead without it, rationalizing that people make beautiful quilts without stitch regulators all the time. This idea, people-have-been-doing-it-this-way-for-centuries, was also how I rationalized giving birth to both my children without drugs, cutting my own hair, as well as my children’s when they were small (my son may still have some trauma from that.) Then I did the sashing and each 2-inch square was a chance to practice something different, with a different colored thread and finally I began stitching the outer border in a pebble motif, which I love, love, love!
Now here’s the thing… I know people who never pull out stitches, but I’m not one of them. I can. I’ve done it. It makes me very, very uncomfortable. Kind of like fingernails scratching on a chalkboard. So after I finished the outer border, which I really like, I decided the center swirls and whirls had to go. And besides, the stitches were uneven, its all about practice and the process, which I’m thoroughly enjoying… So yeah, I pulled the whole thing out. Yup. Five hours. That’s how long it took. This is what television is for, I’ve decided. My husband watches a couple of movies and I sit beside him allowing my obsessiveness to flow.
Free of Swirls
Now back to quilting. Oh, but what fun, and it’s only just beginning!
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by Ariane Zurcher | Aug 15, 2016 | Art, ceramics, pottery |
When we began homeschooling (more on that here, here and here), one of the things Emma told us she wanted to do was take pottery classes. I found a pottery studio with a wonderful teacher who, upon seeing my obvious interest, suggested I join my daughter in learning. We began with pinch pots and working with slabs of clay that we learned to mold into various shapes.
This is one of my favorite early dishes that my daughter made. It was screaming for a pair of my earrings. Okay, not literally, her hope dish is perfect all by itself…
Plate made from a slab
Eventually we were introduced to the wheel and the fun really began!
As with anything, gaining any degree of confidence and skill requires practice. So there were lots and lots of pots being made, many of them returned to the great clay graveyard to be recycled. I decided to begin painting on the pots I was throwing and started playing with underglazes, which is a whole art in and of itself.
The first pot I painted was a collaborative effort with my talented son whose taste definitely nudges the macabre, much like his father!
As a child I was surrounded by art. My parents collected modern, pre-columbian and African art. I was used to seeing seemingly opposites side by side, so when I saw this piece, by Picasso in the Museum of Modern Art, I was particularly struck by it. It felt like home.
Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
This piece reminded me of another artist my husband and I love, Alexandra Huber.
Alexandra Huber
I began a series called “Faces.” As you can see, the underglaze can look quite different than the finished product! I found that by diluting the underglaze with water I could achieve a kind of water color look, which I like.
I love the Faces series…
While I was starting the Faces series I was also falling in love with all things quilted and began drawing little sketches of things I liked, which gave me the idea to draw them on my pots too.
And then I’d go back to my Faces…
My daughter even allowed me to paint on her pots.
A few more…
A few of these are already in My Etsy Shop and many more will be added as they come out of the kiln. However, at the moment, I’m here…
So all of this will have to wait until the end of the week!
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by Ariane Zurcher | Aug 7, 2016 | Art, crafts, creative process |
Remember those “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” books?
This is my version of that…
If you show a girl a quilt, she’s going to wonder how it’s made. When she wonders how it’s made, she’s going to take a Block of the Month class to see how it’s done. Once she’s signed up for the class, she’s going to begin making a quilt herself.
Center Block from the Flower Pots Quilt Designed By Kim McLean
When she starts to make a quilt herself, she’s going to think about how she can make it uniquely hers.
Detail of one of the Center Blocks
When she begins to make it uniquely hers, she’s going to incorporate all the stitches she learned in the Craftsy class given by Sue Spargo that she wrote about a few weeks ago on the post, Change.
Detail from Flower Pots side panel
Once she begins adding all those stitches she learned…
Almost finished Flower Pots Quilt!
she’s going to want to start designing her own blocks…
Rhino Block designed and stitched by Ariane Zurcher
…which will lead her to a two-week Artist’s workshop retreat.
The artist’s retreat will be life transforming and will give her all kinds of ideas for new pieces that she wants to design and create…
Manhole Cover at Onondaga Community College
While she marvels at all the things she’s seeing and learning she will be reminded of other things she’s already working on…
Detail from Flower Pot Quilt Border
One of those things will be manhole covers! Who doesn’t love manhole covers and if you love manhole covers, wouldn’t a quilt inspired by them be even more fabulous?!
So it’s probably best to give a girl her first quilt while she’s still very young so she has plenty of time to learn and do all of this!
Merlin overseeing the work.
Coming next week: pots! Not flower pots as in the quilt, but real pots, thrown pots, hand painted pots… gotta love pots!
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by Ariane Zurcher | Jul 31, 2016 | Art, Design, Quilting by the Lake |
I just returned from a two week long artist’s workshop, where I studied with the fabulous and fabulously talented artist, Rosalie Dace for five days, followed by five days with another fabulous and extremely talented artist, Lorie McCown. The workshops are part of the Schweinfurth Art Center‘s yearly summer program – Quilting by the Lake, also known as QBL. Though there is now no lake, there was one at the place they first began doing these workshops more than thirty years ago, and not everything produced is quilted, though it depends on the workshop you signed up for.
Here’s a run down of my time at QBL.
Day 1 of Rosalie Dace’s Workshop entitled Skin Deep: Panic! and the realization that perfectionism is creativity’s executioner.
By the end of the first day I have a couple of ideas, but am definitely struggling.
Day 2: I begin repeating something Rosalie had written on one of the large boards propped up on one of two easels in front of the class. “DON’T PANIC!” This becomes my mantra for the rest of my time at QBL.
Day 3: I hate everything I’ve created thus far and have the rude awakening that my expectations are a killjoy. Around the middle of day 2 and into day 3 Rosalie encourages me to use machine stitching, which definitely pushes me out of my comfort zone. I proudly show Rosalie the machine stitching I’ve done (and am devising ways I will hide it after showing her) she applauds my efforts and then drops a bomb by suggesting I add two more lines of machine stitching so for every one line there are now THREE and a little part of me dies inside.
This was what I had done by the end of Day 3, beginning of Day 4. People would wander by and remark, “Ohh, pretty” or “oh the beach! I love the beach” or just, “water!” It was around this time that I came up with the title: “It’s deeper than you think” and then proceeded to muddy those serene waters by incorporating many of Rosalie’s great suggestions.
Day 4: Go with the flow. I’m a fiend and machine stitch everything I can get my hands on. I am one with my Bernina and life is good.
While working on the “It’s Deeper than You Think” piece I begin playing with the other study, which began with a cream colored background. I decide I have to lose the brown fabric, it’s a sink hole and is bringing everything down, including me. It morphs into this, with sticks and stones and leaves that I found on my way to class that morning. I entitle it, “And Yet, You Are Here” (I will refrain from explaining the title as I trust all of you to come up with your own interpretations!)
Day 5: I finish the “It’s Deeper Than You Think” piece and reflect on all that I learned, not just technique, but about art and the making of it, and was reminded of the often painful process and cycle of creating. Whatever genius idea I have, usually showing up in my mind at some absurd hour in the middle of the night, loses it’s luster by daylight. By afternoon I’ve decided it’s the worst idea I ever had and by evening I’m questioning the meaning of everything. Needless to say this usually spirals down into a kind of personal horror, like a set list with all the songs you’ve ever hated that randomly play loudly on a loop. Relief comes in the middle of the night with yet another stroke of genius and the cycle begins again. But, as Rosalie reminded me more than once, “It’s okay. Don’t panic.” And with that mantra in mind, I can sit with the discomfort and “keep swimming.”
It’s Deeper Than You Think
Rosalie is a force, brilliant, funny, kind, welcoming, encouraging and oh so very talented. It was an honor to be in her class.
I had the weekend to play before I began Lorie McCown’s class called “Connections.”
A brief summary of Lorie’s fantastic 5-day workshop.
Day 1: I got this. I’m an old pro at this point and nothing is going to phase me. Lorie mentions that machines are optional and encourages us to use hand stitching (I promptly ignore her), immediately decide I’m going to resurrect (with Lorie’s okay) the other piece I started in Rosalie’s class, “And Yet, You are Here” and machine stitch the whole thing. Lorie encourages us to think out of the box, explore materials we otherwise might not have thought of. I’m open to this idea, particularly as I’ve already given my inner rebel some freedom. She shows us examples of her work that are powerful, emotionally laden and visually compelling. I decide I’m going to use paper and maps and whatever else I can get my hands on that evoke the title – “And yet, you are here.” Remember I am now one with my Bernina. All is well.
Day 2: I’m not going through the angst I experienced the week before, so things are coming along nicely. Lorie is terrific, gives lots of encouragement and suggestions and wonders aloud whether I might “go bigger” and then asks, “What do you think?” I’m totally on to her, but do “go bigger,” because, well, why NOT go bigger? and anyway I’ve already demonstrated my anarchistic streak by ignoring her whole hand stitching thing.
Day 3: I announce that I’m thinking of using silk ribbon and Lorie suggests I use it as a way to tie in the idea of “And yet, you are here” by tacking it down in various places and then bringing all the various ribbons to the “X” so they converge. I love this idea and dive into my silk ribbon stash.
Lorie discusses various backing options. I decide, since I don’t have the canvas I’d prefer, I’ll back my piece in wool, which I have a great deal of. Still very little hand stitching, almost everything is machine stitched because I’m clinging to my whole – I’m a rebel – schtick.
Day 4: I’m letting “And Yet You Are Here” simmer for a few days and decide to begin working on a version of another idea I had in Rosalie’s class.
This is what it looked like in Rosalie’s class.
And then I added to it.
In Lorie’s class I took this concept and did this.
Which then became this
Day 5: I can be a rebel with hand stitching too! The night before, I worked until 10PM and was in class by 7:30AM. I’m determined to work in some of my ideas for this piece – holes and slashes with stitching around them. The piece now looks like this… it’s still a work in progress, I intend to do much more stitching on it and you’ll notice I hand stitched everything on this piece. I’m calling it – “Life #1” and am thinking of making a series. Lorie’s all over the “series” idea, which you can see if you visit her website, and I encourage you to!
A few close ups
Thanks to Quilting by the Lake, the Schweinfurth Art Center, Rosalie Dace and Lorie McCown, but more than anyone I am forever grateful to my husband, Richard Long, who said when I broached the idea of going away, “Absolutely, you deserve it.” And when I asked, “Are you sure?” He didn’t hesitate, “I got this,” he said. I know how much he had to do so that I could go. What a great guy! And what an amazing twelve days I’ve had!
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by Ariane Zurcher | Jul 24, 2016 | Art, creative process, Design, inspiration |
You’ll notice it’s been awhile since I’ve written anything here, but not for the reasons you think. It became necessary to give up my studio when we made the decision to pull my youngest child from school and began homeschooling. That was over two years ago. We felt we didn’t have a choice. There is nothing, absolutely nothing I can create that is more important than my daughter’s education. We are all happier as a result.
Which leads me to this blog. Just over a year ago, last May of 2015, to be exact, I signed up for a Craftsy class. Do you know about Craftsy?
WHAT?
YOU DON’T???
Craftsy is fantastic. There, I even added the link for you to go check them out. No, I am not being paid, nor do I, in any way, get anything for writing about them. This is my opinion and experience. Okay, so I took a class on Craftsy called: Embroidering Texture and Dimension by Hand by Sue Spargo and it changed my life. I loved the way Sue used stitches on layers of wool and fabric. I loved how she created something so different from what I was used to seeing. She didn’t “embroider,” not in the way I was used to seeing embroidery done, but instead created a whole new three-dimensional textile. I was utterly enthralled.
I knew nothing about quilting. When I signed up for her class I did not know that her work was considered quilting. In fact when I took the class I wrote her and asked what all the stitching was in the background, was it done by machine or hand and when and how did she do that and, by the way, why and how was it all so puffy looking? Someone helpfully suggested I take a beginning quilt class and my first thought was – “huh, I didn’t know a quilt could do that!”
But back to Sue Spargo’s class. It began with a download of one of her lovely designs, a butterfly sampler, but as I have a strong independent streak, I decided to design my own piece and use what I learned in her class on my design.
A few weeks before I found Craftsy and Sue Spargo’s class, my husband came home with a photo of a West African Long Tailed Hornbill that was perched on a railing at the Central Park Zoo. He, the bird, not my husband, though my husband is also fabulous, was so captivating I decided to use his image in my piece. Here’s the photo my husband took.
A West African Long Tailed Hornbill. Look at him!
C’mon, admit it, he’s adorable. So here’s what I started to do and you’ll notice I got way too involved with everything BUT the bird, which was the focus… and again, this is something I also tend to do – do everything but the thing I’m trying to focus on. Look, squirrel!
The Beginning
He began to take shape…
I gave him some much-needed feathers on his head, because he was getting cold, I could tell.
A little hair/feathers/plumes, whatever are good, but he definitely needed more…
More, more, more and while we’re at it, let’s toss in some black beads. I am a jewelry designer after all.
There, that’s better
And some more circles, because honestly who doesn’t like circles?
Circles can go anywhere I always think and I wanted to try my hand at all the different circular stitches from Sue Spargo’s class.
And if one or two circles are good, well many, many circles can only be better, right?
Okay, so maybe I got carried away….
And here it is, the final piece. As an ode to my beautiful daughter I call this piece Thunder Bubbles.
I used every single stitch Sue Spargo taught on this. It really should be called, “Thunder Bubbles Sampler.” Because I knew nothing about quilting I didn’t know that you should leave an edge so that you can bind, face or otherwise somehow finish it off. I also took a hand quilting class at the local quilting shop and did my best to hand quilt more circular shapes. I didn’t know to iron in between, so the back isn’t as flat as I would have liked and the weight from all those drizzle stitches on his head pulled the batting and backing fabric into a kind of crater. Anyway here’s the back of my very first hand quilted piece!
Next week I’ll write about where all of this has taken me and what I’m doing now.
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by Ariane Zurcher | Feb 11, 2015 | Art, crafts |
Last May we pulled our daughter, Emma from school and began homeschooling or non-schooling or… I’ve written more about all of this on the other blog, the one I share with my daughter: Emma’s Hope Book. One of the many benefits of homeschooling, aside from the huge relief and plummeting stress level, is that we get to explore, together and separately. The beauty in exploring is that the goal is to be curious and discover. There’s no right or wrong and there’s tremendous comfort in that. The entire process of learning becomes one of joy and experimentation without the burden or stress of feeling one should know something before having learned it.
So it was, some eight months ago when I sat down with Emma and asked her what she was interested in learning about. She typed that she wanted to learn German and take a ceramics class among a number of other things. So we bought Rosetta Stone for German and Emma began taking pottery lessons at a nearby ceramics studio. Her teacher, seeing my obvious excitement and interest, asked if I might like to make some things too. I eagerly said, “Yes, please!”
Learning anything new is full of experimenting, exploring, tweaking, practicing and refining techniques learned. To dive into something you’ve never done before can be daunting, but only if you are comparing your work to another’s. Particularly crushing is if you expect you will be able to produce something that is of similar expertise as someone who has been studying and refining their technique for decades. The exhilaration comes with the process of learning, practicing and improving. But so often we are not taught that this process is wonderful at all. In fact, we are taught that it is hard work and the end product, only produced after years of practice and toil, is all that is of value. Everything else pales in comparison.
I disagree.
This cereal bowl that Emma made for me is perfect for walking while eating. It has an indentation that perfectly fits one’s thumb while cupping the bowl in your palm. Why hasn’t anyone designed a bowl like this? I’ve never seen one before, but oh, how I love it. This is my new, favorite bowl.
My favorite cereal bowl made for me by Emma.
The platter below? “It matches” was what Emma typed in reply to my exclamation that I thought it perfect for serving cheese and crackers or maybe a brioche en croute with fresh baguette.
Emma’s Platter
This bowl that Emma made used cookie cutters and then she painted after joining all the shapes.
An Autumnal Bowl
A few months ago, or maybe it was years, (this is an aspect of getting older, the years feel like months, yet another example of that saying people tell you when you first become a parent – the days are long, the years are short) I asked Emma if she had any interest in learning to knit. She said she did, and as I love knitting (I wrote about some of that “here“) and used to design knitwear, I thought we’d start with something simple, like a scarf. Emma chose a light blue yarn. After a couple of tries, she lost interest and so I began making a long scarf using an alternating knit 2, purl 2 pattern. I rarely use knitting patterns or cooking recipes for that matter, but that’s another post. Anyway the scarf began like this.
Light blue scarf in alternating Knit 2, Purl 2 pattern with the beginning of a navy blue chenille infinity scarf in the background.
The finished scarf ended up measuring 87 inches in length and 11 inches wide. What you don’t see is the other side where I changed my mind after an inch or so and decided to make the pattern more elongated.
The Finished Scarf
This is the edge where I began knitting and decided to change the stitch. Three times. The final stitch pattern is a Knit 2, Purl 2 for three rows and then Purl 2, Knit 2 for 3 rows and repeating for the remainder of the scarf.
The I-Changed-My-Mind-Edge
I’m hoping Emma will try knitting again sometime, but in the meantime, I’ve started a couple of other projects, one is this deep blue chenille yarn that I’m knitting, using a newly learned brioche stitch, into an infinity scarf for a friend.
The makings of an infinity scarf using a brioche stitch
And finally this is one of my ceramics projects.
Pebbles in a Plate
For those familiar with my jewelry, this may remind you of something else…
Ariane Zurcher Jewelry – B26 Lotus Collection – 18 Kt Brushed Yellow Gold, 25.08 ct Pink Topaz, 2.69 ct Pink Sapphire, 12 ct Tourmaline, 2.96 ct Aquamarine, 17.21 ct Mandarin Garnet, 4.03 ct African Paraiba
So all of this will have to wait until the end of the week!
circles, because honestly who doesn’t like circles?
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