Workshop with Ana Buzzalino

 Hop over to my new site and see the results from this workshop Part 1.

Who knew. I'm almost doing abstact art!

MARYHOPKINS.CA

In Peril - Final

 If you haven't shifted over to my new website :

marykayhopkins.ca

I've added a link on the new blog page where you can enter you email address and you'll receive the post automatically.

Hope to hear from some of you soon.

Last Post at this site.

 Please join me at 

marykayhopkins.ca 

New Post - NEW WORK

Things came together today and I'm finally moving on a new work.

'Quail in the Field'

Follow it in the Blog at my new website 

marykayhopkins.ca.

New post - July 18th

 Check  my latest project for the Quilt guild at 

marykayhopkins.ca

July 14 - 2 Weeks Left

 We're midway thorough this hot/rainy/cold month of July. The flowers and the veggies seem to like it. Just a reminder this month is the last month I'll be posting here. I've transitioned to my new Website.

 marykayhopkins.ca. 

Hope to hear from you, there.

New Website Reminder

Spent a lovely afternoon with my Step daughter, her husband and our LIVELY grandson. We did find a few moments together in the corner where Arwynn answered most of my questions about working with the new website. 

I will be blogging there but will place a notice here each time over the summer. I then expect to discontinue my old blog. I hope you can all make the shift with me. 

If you haven't already done so please check out my new site.

marykayhopkins.ca 

✨

Here's My New Website

 TA DAA

https://www.marykayhopkins.ca/

The blog is still active but there are a couple of steps you need to take to reach it.

After opening the Website and the blog link, it shows an April posting. At the bottom is a notice that says 'Older Postings'.. Click there......they are in fact current. So enjoy.

There are a few things to massage but it's looking wonderful. 

Many, many thanks to my stepdaughter, Arwynn (who is working full time as a graphic artist, from home and living with a 3 1/2 yr old non stop charmer (as well as a wonderful husband) .....and who found time to do this for me.

See her fab work here.     https://www.arwynn.com/

The End of the month is Here

This blog is not collapsing but the email notifications are stopping.

I'm going to start using my Facebook page a little more exclusively for my Art information and when my Web Site is up I'll post that on Facebook as well. In the meantime if you haven't bookmarked my blog the address is

marykayhopkins123.blogspot .com 

M

Forest Path- Day 15 - I had to Scratch That Faerie Itch

 I just couldn't let it go. I spent hours on line looking for Faeries, Gnomes Goblins etc that weren't Disney or all T&A. 

Finally found a couple and reduced the pictures down to about 2 inches.

The Faerie, high in the tree is FM stitched over a black line ink drawing on wash away stabilizer covered with black netting. So all that remains is the stitching on the netting. This was anchored using a dark mono filament that served to give some depth in the form of a slight shadow.

The second at the bottom on the forest and hiding in the furled tree roots is a Goblin or Hob. Everything but his eyes blends in. He was needle felted but left really fuzzy. He's had a dose of hair spray and after it dries I'll trim some detail into his face. ie. ears.

Here's my inspiration and their doubles.

The Faerie was easier than the Goblin.

Here was my inspiration. 

And here is my version embedded in the tree. (Ears need a little more definition.)

Forest Path - Day 14- Final

 Pieces like this can go on forever. (18x38)

After I anchored the leaves with netting and tiny meandering, the trees were stitched firmly in place with all their folds and crevasses. The path is lightly stitched and the grasses and mosses are held with a few lines of stitching,

I'm calling this done.....but I'm itching to add some forest folk..........😉

Forest Path - Day 13

 Almost there...

Forest Path - Day 12

A rainy day was enough to push me to finish ornamenting the trees with moss.

I had been feeling the right hand side was not right, in terms of perspective...too many trees and too close together. I was going to remove some but all I ended up doing was lifting the last one, the brown one and moving it out, increasing the size of it's neighbour, just enough.

Now that this portion is complete? ( I can always add more) it was time for the what I think is the final cropping (photoshopped not cut). I'm comfortable with these proportions.

Next comes adding batting and backing. Some stitching on the trees will properly anchor them and begin to define contours before I add branches and leaves.

Forest Path - Day 11

Today I finished the moss on the base of the most distant trees. Then I jumped forward. 

Now that I'm working in the foreground the final width of this piece becomes more important. I'm now realizing the last few trees are too narrow and perhaps I can remove a few and increase the width of the remainders.

 

Forest Path - Day 10- More moss and Grass

Working on the closer and larger trees is much easier that those in the rear but they have been neglected. So I made up a couple of sheets of fusible fibres using unwound and destructured commercial yarns as well as fresh rovings.

(Gardening keeps cuttings my work time......It could be worse!) 

Blog Access is Changing

Due to a change in the workings of BLOGGER.COM, as of the end of this month (June), they are no longer going to provide email notifications.

In response, I'm in the process of birthing my own website, co hosted with my Stepdaughter, Arwynn. 

I will be able to list my new videos directly but I'm unfamiliar with the blog capabilities of the new web site. So I will be maintaining this site for as long as.....

Stay posted as I get dragged into the new Today. (Oh bother!)

Forest Path - Day 9

I was going to start stitching the trees in place but then I remembered I needed to be able to lift the edges and slip the mosey/lichen and grass in behind

I had started with the grass in the distance but now as I reached some of the more prominent trees, placing the moss in and around the flutes of the bases required pain staking tweezer and mini iron work.

I made up several patches of fused mixed rovings.  Each different colour or blend was fit, cut and lightly touched with the mini iron to melt the glue and anchor. I did over lay some more colours this way but I found it's hazardous to try to apply glue backed bits of wool over another glued bit of wool. The iron wanted to lift everything. It seemed I had one pass or try only. It was better to mix the colours as a patch and work from there.

Very slow 3 hours, but really rewarding. 

Forest Path - Day 8

 I'm still playing with the cropping of this piece. Thank heavens for photoshop.

I added a full tree trunk on the right side and then at the last minute I decided to 'try' another tree on the left. Until this is all settled I don't want to start the foliage, grass, mosses and lichens.

The changes may be subtle to the viewer as you can compared todays results with yesterday. And yes it takes almost a day to add, furrow and anchor another tree.

Forest Path - Day 7

The left side of this piece is cropped to what I had imagined would be the edge, but I'm rethinking that now as I move forward and outwards.

Though this is unmistakably a vertical piece I'm not happy with just how narrow it is. The trees that are placed now have a lot more character and will require a lot of tweaking to get them where I'm happy.

Forest Path - Day 6

Working with the pleater is giving me the effect I like. I received some suggestions about using some other products that crinkle with heat. What I like about the pleater is that I can control the linear placement of the bark as it moves down the tree. I can shift it and create hollows that I don't think I would get with other methods..

So I've taken the left side out as far as I'm going to go.

The path  is off centre so there are a number of large trees to go into place on the right. 

Finding the best fabric (when I really can't go out and browse) is the challenge. 

Forest Path - Day 5

Choosing the fabric is rather quick compared to anchoring it place. 

After the fabric is run through pleating machine, one edge is given a narrow hem. That's the first stage of anchoring the smocking threads. Next a bead of fabric glue is applied to the whole hem to lock the thread. It doesn't always work so I have be on the watch for that when it come time to gather the material. A second line of glue is used when the hem is placed in position on the background. The back edge is positioned next. That determines the width of the visible tree trunk. 

I started out using glue but switched to a light fusible web to hold the gathered piece in position. It's applied at this point, just matching the width of the trunk.

Pins are placed at each pleating thread to hold everything in position as the threads are drawn up and anchored. 

Last, a hot iron fixes the trunk and it's folds in place. 

Forest Path - Day 4

 

Constantly auditioning.

Forest Path - Day 3 - A Little Grass and Moss

It's looking as though I need to completely finish each tree as It appears. Otherwise I can't anchor the leading edges until I slip the moss or grass into place.

That includes having to add in the leaves as I move forward. Know that I really haven't decided how I'm going to stitch this all down.

 

Forest Path - Day 2 - a Little Bit of Paint

 and a bit of black marker. Tree edge has a bit more definition.

Still more to add, moss and lichens.....

Forest Path - Day 2

I added 4 more trees this afternoon, but I will take then off tomorrow. I had thought I would add the shading and some moss/lichen colouring at the end but I see now it needs to happen as I go along. That detail is really the only thing that visually separates the tree trunks from each other.

These trees went much faster today. I played with the pleater over the last few days and worked out a method to make multiples in one pass.

I don't think I like the fellow on the left. The grain is running the wrong way.

Day1 - Forest Path - Images in your mind

There is nothing more annoying than when an image pops into your mind and you can't unsee it. 

That happened yesterday as I started on the first layer of trees and vegetation. I'm not surprised though as in a past life I taught Biology and Sex Ed. During construction all I could see was a green vagina........ (sorry)

That's another reason I hang my work at the end of the day and photograph it. I gives me a much better sense of what I'm seeing (and helps to get those little worms out of my head!  😆 😌.

Today I'll move past the anatomy and head back into the woods. 

Auditioning Fabric for Tree Trunks

 It took a little while to master? (haha) the pleater. After looking on line I came to the conclusion I have a 'baby' pleater with a very limited number of needles. There are a few little tricks the instructions don't tell you about. 

As I need a strip pleated much longer than the width of the machine I needed to run the material through a couple of times. It is getting easier.

So here are the result of 3 materials . I thought before I pleated them they had the most promising colours and designs. 

Finishing the Old Man (cheesecloth construct/Mary Pal)

It's taken much longer than I expected to make a decision with this Old Man. He was smaller than I like so in order to enlarge the piece I used black denim.

How much? I wanted him offset and pushed down by the 'storm'.

Then I was stuck with how to show the snow. Last time I used paint, but it was a much larger piece and the smallest line on that would have been overwhelming on this rendition. Bits of Cheesecloth, string or wool?

I tried them all. After rooting through the attachments I found one with a grove that would guide and hold the piece of thin wool while it was stitched. I ended up unravelling a 4 ply poly yarn and used that.

I went ahead and totally finished the piece with a pillowcase binding and a hanging sleeve.

I still may add more 'snow' and /or a black binding. I'll live with it for awhile.

Playing with the Smocking machine

I know now this machine doesn't like batiks. It eats the needles. But it did manage to give me a fair sized tree trunk. Roughly 30"x1"+ Time to refine the materials and the method.

Time for New Work

There are a couple of images that are sitting at the back of my mind. Idle brain cycles are spent planning and musing the details, the hows and the materials.

This one has hung around for several years. Love it!

I'm planning a technique I haven't tried.

But on a morning walk along the Eramosa I stumbled across this big fella. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera and by the time I returned with camera and sketch pad his gnarly shape was hidden, softened with a burst of foliage. Not all is lost though. 

I made two sketches trying out a series of indelible pens ranging from a brush to micro nibs.

I'm not a strong water colour artist so I used some Prisma colour water soluble pencils to fill in the foliage.

I just have to stay out of the garden long enough to get started with fabric in my studio and then I know I'll be hooked on one or the other.

Gallery Show

This WAS supposed to be open to the public but thanks to Covid it's not. The venue is my public library. It may open in a few weeks. We just have to wait and see.

The art works are my work and my friends. We all have different styles and interests but we all love colour.

I did try to take a video but the light contrast in the building was just too much for my small tablet.

M.Anne Smith

As this piece was under glass the glare spoiled the image.

Ann Jeffrey

Ann Jeffrey

Mary Hopkins /Ann Jeffrey

Naomi Klasse

Mary Hopkins

Nellie Hanuta/Ruth Jennison

Nellie Hanuta

M Hopkins/A Jeffrey

Dawn Labelle

Mary Hopkins