A new way to learn

I discovered a neat website and app that is like Pinterest, in that it is visually beautiful, but differs in the creation of the content. Snapguide builds tutorials, or guides, with a clean, elegant interface. You can create a guide to anything - a recipe, a craft project, an exercise, anything, or you can search for a guide in any one of an assortment of categories. The guides can have any number of steps and include photos and videos. I think this has the potential to be as big as Pinterest, and without the pesky copyright issues since you can like or share or comment on a guide, but you can't take someone else's content and add it to Snapguide. And if you think it looks nice on the web, it looks and functions fantastically on an iPhone or an iPad!

So far I've added 2 guides, as Flourish!, to Snapguide and I'm aiming to add one every week or so. If you teach quilting or have a creative business Snapguide can be a great way to direct people to your website and enhance your reputation as an "expert". It's also a fun way to share your knowledge.

My two guides (so far!):
http://snapguide.com/guides/transfer-images-using-citrasolv-natural-solvent/
http://snapguide.com/guides/make-matchbook-notepads/

If you have an iPhone or iPad, look for them in the Snapguide App too.

Have you tried Snapguide? What do you think?

A Year of Art

I created a new piece for Virginia Spiegel's latest fundraiser, A Year of Art, for the American Cancer Society. The month I'm illustrating is April, a month tied in my memory with pretty new Spring dresses. I abstracted a dress shape and stitched and collaged hand-moulded and painted paper, and a paper printed with Korean text. The piece is mounted on a painted 12" x 12" x 1" canvas.

La Mode 2

The fundraiser begins on February 12. Find all of the details here.     

por Juan

Pulse Points

Last fall I was asked by Seth Apter, mixed-media artist and author, to answer a couple of questions for his Pulse Points series on the Create Mixed Media website. My answers were included in the second of the series here.

His questions were really thought-provoking and I spent a while doing some deep thinking on my answers. Three other artists answered the same questions and it was interesting to see where the similarities and differences were in our answers.

The questions were:

Have you ever been jealous of another artist’s skills?

Do you feel you have found your niche art-wise or are you still searching?

What would your answers be to these questions? Again, here is the article with our answers.

You can see part one, part three, and part four on the Create Mixed Media blog.

12-12-12

Today's date is very special and it's the last time this type of numerical symmetry will occur this century. A group of fellow artists on Facebook brainstormed a fun way to celebrate the date and our art, all in one! As a result we are each blogging and posting photos of groups of 12 art supplies. In order to keep the symmetry, I present 12 photos of 12 art things each. Note: The first photo is of the matchbook notepads that I posted a tutorial for on my Flourish! blog.

If you want to play along, post some photos of 12 supplies and add a link in the comments below!

Studio Tweak - Behind the Door

The space for my studio in our new house is much smaller than it was in our previous house and every square millimeter needs to pull its weight. I like to use visual systems to keep myself organized and I needed a way to keep all of the paperwork associated with teaching and vending gigs, and their attendant travel arrangements, organized and attractively at hand. I also needed an out-of-sight place to store some of my packing and shipping supplies, as well as some gift-wrapping accessories. I started by analyzing available areas and finally settled on this area behind the door that you use to enter the studio. This door is kept open nearly all of the time, so the unused space behind it would be ideal for my make-over.

This is the before:

This space is definitely not living up to its potential! There's 3 feet of wall space and the entire back of the door just crying out for purpose. The wall is looking a little beat up and the trim could use some touch-up paint, but those are easy fixes. Since the walls are painted with flat-finish paint, a Mr Clean Magic Eraser takes care of most of the scuff marks. Remove the gold hook, patch a few holes and add a bit of semi-gloss paint on the trim and door, and we're good to go. I had hung up the one rod soon after we moved in but I kept thinking that more rods would be more useful. A trip to Ikea took care of that and I picked up 2 more rods, a package of hooks, and a few baskets to hang off of them, all from the Bygel series.

Here's the smooth-functioning after:

I drew inspiration for the clipboards from a few sources, most notably my co-author Elin's similar clipboard system as featured in Quilting Arts Studios magazine a few years back, and for the hanging rods and bins on the back of the door from Adventures in Renovating a Brooklyn Limestone's make-over.

 

The clipboards as-is were a little too boring, so I jazzed them up with a bit of hand-printed paper from an art supply store. First, I made a template of the shape I'd need to cover the surface of the clipboard by using a piece of cardstock and measuring, drawing and cutting until it was a perfect fit.

Then I traced around the template on 2 different printed papers and cut 3 of each for a total of 6 pieces. I was thinking this would be fun with 6 different papers too, but didn't want to stop long enough to run to the art supply store again.

Next, I used gel medium (Claudine Hellmuth's Studio MultiMedium is one of my very favorites) to adhere the paper to the face of the clipboard. After applying a thin and even coat, I pressed the paper in place, flipped the clipboard over and weighted it down so the paper would dry flat, leaving the clip hanging over the edge of the work table.

I wanted to have a way to label each clipboard and hide the brand stamped into the metal at the same time.

First I tried printing out labels and affixing them to the clipboard with magnetic tape. That was okay, but didn't look finished enough and I think the labels could have been knocked off fairly easily.

Another trip to Staples office supply store (for another 2 clipboards - I only started with 4 for some reason), found me wandering the new Martha Stewart supply aisle. Yum. There I found adhesive metal bookplates, coincidentally sold in packs of 6. Obviously meant to be!

They fit perfectly over the logo and in the space on the front of the clip.

Here's a look at the oh-so-pretty after again:

There's something about Spring, finishing up some projects for deadlines, and having a few weeks at home between trips that brings out the organizing bug in me. What have you organized lately? How do you tame the "paper beast" in your studio?

Quilting Arts In Stitches Blog Tour!

UPDATE 3/12: My apologies, I wrote and posted this last Tuesday while I was at the Quilting Arts TV taping and it wasn't until today that I noticed that the post was still in the drafts folder and had never actually posted. THAT explains why there were no comments!

Welcome to the last stop on the Quilting Arts In Stitches blog tour for issue 6!

You can find the action-packed issue here at the Interweave store for your PC or Mac or in the App store for your iPad.

If you've been following along, you've visited a slew of the contributing artists for this action-packed issue.

Lindsey Murray 

Betty Busby

Barbara Schneider
Nancy Cook
Tracy Stilwell
Sandy Donabed

We are SO excited about this issue and hope that you have a chance to check it out. You will find videos, slideshows and images that you can zoom in to see every detail. There is a wide variety of interesting techniques and ideas to read and hear about - from Barbara Schneider's remarkable out-sized leaves to Sandy Donabed's update of traditional Redwork; from Betty Busby's painted and stitched macro designs to Tracy Stilwell's fabulous mixed-media art doll. And wait until you see how beautifully Nancy Cook echo quilts her designs. We even show you (with a wicked cool animation) how a stitch is formed in your machine to help you achieve the perfect stitch!

 

Barbara Schneider's Leaf Fall as it is exhibited - gorgeous!

 

Plus, in this issue, we reviewed an assortment of cool gloves and tools to make free-motion quilting easier and pain-free. At each stop on the tour we gave away one set of gloves or tools to a lucky commenter (we opened the packages for photography, but they've never been used!) If you would like a chance to win a set of Noble Notions' Quilter's Grips (really cool caps for your fingers to help you free-motion stitch) then please leave a comment below.

 

If you have a great idea for an article, please consider submitting it to the magazine. Who knows? Maybe you'll be part of the next blog tour!

Foto/Fiber 2012

I am so pleased to once again be taking part in a fundraiser for Virginia Spiegel for the American Cancer Society. Virginia does more than any one person I know to help raise money to help defeat the scourge that is cancer. I am honored to have been asked to participate and I think her fundraiser this year is brilliant. All of the fun starts this Wednesday, February 15th. All of the details are below and on her website. Scroll down to the bottom to see the bonuses that I am donating,

Foto/Fiber 2012

90 Photos AND 90 Fiber BONUSES

Gold Donor Day - February 15, 2012

Make a minimum donation of $100, choose a photo by

Virginia A. Spiegel, Karen Stiehl Osborn, or Cynthia Wenslow
and choose a Fiber BONUS by a specific artist

from the following list of fiber artists.

Regular Foto/Fiber - February 16, 2012

Make a minimum donation of $50 and choose a photo by

Virginia A. Spiegel, Karen Stiehl Osborn, or Cynthia Wenslow.

Your Fiber BONUS will be chosen at random for you

from the following list of generous fiber artists.

Artists donating Fiber BONUS include: Natalya Aikens,
Frances Holliday Alford, Pamela Allen, Liz Berg, Sue Bleiweiss, Nancy G. Cook,

Jane Davila, Vivika DeNegre, Diane Rusin Doran, Jane Dunnewold, Jamie Fingal,

Leonie Hartley Hoover, Leslie Tucker Jenison, Lyric Kinard, Susan Brubaker Knapp,

Lynn Krawzcyk, Jane LaFazio, Susan Lenz, Jeanelle McCall, Linda Teddlie Minton,

Karen Musgrave, Gail Myrhorodsky, Karen Stiehl Osborn, BJ Parady,

Cate Coulacos Prato, Yvonne Porcella, Wen Redmond, Sue Reno, Lesley Riley,

Cynthia St. Charles, Susan Schrott, Suzanne Silk, Lura Schwarz Smith (with Kerby C. Smith),

Sarah Ann Smith, and Terri Stegmiller

Drawings for Fiber Art throughout the event.

All patrons of Foto/Fiber 2012 will also have multiple chances throughout Foto/Fiber

to win fiber art donated by:

Leonie Hartley Hoover, Lyric Kinard, Lynn Krawczyk

Yvonne Porcella, Susan Schrott, Mary Ann Van Soest

More information on how Foto/Fiber 2012 works:

http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/FotoFiberHowItWorks.html

Our goal – Raise $7,000 for the American Cancer Society

Fiberart For A Cause has already donated over $215,000 to the American Cancer Society

through the generosity of fiber artists and their patrons.

Contact Virginia(at)VirginiaSpiegel.com for more information

These are the bonuses that I am donating. If you make a donation on Wednesday, you can request one of mine as a bonus to your photo otherwise, the bonuses will be randomly selected after Wednesday.

I've included some awesome goodies! There are: gorgeous printed rice papers, a gyotaku (fish) print, a stampmaking kit, an ATC (artist trading card) and a printed bee.

Please consider donating and participating in Virginia's latest fundraiser. Together, we can do such good things!