Insectile Duality

If you happen to find yourself in northern Michigan, I hope you'll consider visiting a very special (at least to me!) exhibition at Three Pines Studio in Cross Village.



This little beaded caterpillar (more about him here) was the inspiration for this project and show - my husband and I each choose six insects,twelve total,  and interpreted them in our separate types of media. Robin used three different types of printing techniques; linoleum block, white line and reduction. I worked in a mixed media style, starting with painted canvases and adding all types of fiber techniques including, embroidery, beading, applique, needle felting and more.




This was Robin's first show and it was a joy to be able to share it with him.

In the gallery, each of our pieces hung side by side.

Those of you familiar with my work might notice that the pieces are a littler looser and more whimsical  than is typical for my work - I'm not really sure why, it just moved in that direction and I decided to follow.

This is my favorite of Robin's pieces, an inchworm done using the reduction printing method, with eight layers of color.

Joann and Gene, the owners of the gallery, our delightful to work with and they have displayed our work beautifully - at the opening reception there was even these super cute "ladybug" bites!

Specimens - 2013 Bead Journal Project

I debated on participating in the Bead Journal Project this year - it tends to occupy a lot of time and I have many projects planned for this year, many with firm deadlines. But I really feel i came up with an interesting concept...and, well, I'm off to a late start, as usual!

My plan is to create a series of "bugs", each of which will have the name of an actual insect but won't necessarily accurately depict each insect - instead it will be my interpretation of the name and constructed in a large variety of techniques; I suspect many will be very mixed media, but always incorporating beads.

I have managed to obtain my "specimen jars" for displaying my bugs (and providing the uniform size that should be part of BJP - 6 1/2" x 4 1/2" sure seemed to be a reasonable size, but they seem very large in person. That's probably okay though, it gives me room to incorporate lots of detail.

I have actually started my first creature, but I currently have other projects with looming deadlines, so I'll have to work on him in bits and pieces.

I promise there will be more to see than an empty jar - soon I hope!