To all of you folks who’ve come by from Blogging it Forward, welcome! Fiona from Cafe Cartolina has handed over the torch to me, and I’d love to show you a bit about what inspires me. Actually, I do this quite a lot! I’m finding that the more I am able to talk about what I find inspiring, the more I learn about my artistic process, which is making it easier to get past a block, or to figure out what’s working in a piece.
As a quilter I “draw” with my electric needle – my sewing machine. When learning free motion quilting, I spent several years trying to perfect the size of my stitches, the smoothness of my line, the spacing between my lines… At some point I realized that “really good” free motion quilting is so perfect that it could (and is) programmed by a computer. This really had me stymied for awhile, until I realized that this machine quality was what was bothering me, and I came up with a way to use my machine and still keep that fact that the lines were made by my hands evident, I call it free motion machine sketching.
Anyway, as a prolific reader of blogs, I scroll through lots of eye candy every day! There are certain things that make me gasp, and I’ve noticed that one of the themes that run through what is gasp-worthy is work where the fact that something was made by the hands of a living, breathing individual is still apparent! The 1st example of this is a new fabric design of Jan DiCintio, a.k.a. Daisy Janie:
She posted the other day about how she took a sketch from doodle to design. That design is amazing to be because of the delicious unevenness of her lines – this is most evident in the corner marked by the red 3. She starts with a hand drawn sketch and manipulates it with the computer – but that hand drawn quality never disappears, and that is what takes a geometrical design to something special! Bravo Jan!
I had another gasp this week when I saw the rustic silver jewelry of Madison Reece. I love the texture she gets in her silver – look you can see her fingerprint in the upper part of that flower necklace! How cool is that?
Madison Reece Designs || Shop || Blog
Now let me show you some woodblock prints I just bought from Sean “Deacon” Neprud. He carves, inks & prints each piece by hand. I’ve enlarged one so you really see the layers of color and texture he gets – I love those layers! he’s got a crazy promotion on right now where he has just finished carving and printing 101 different pieces and is selling them crazy cheap, check out his shop link below to sign up and get in on the fun.
BadDeacon Design || Shop || Blog
Finally, the stupendous work of Diana Fayt. Look at that perfectly intricate flower…the marks on that bowl…those pears! I really can’t even describe how incredibly awesome her work is to me, but I DO know that part of why I love it is it is completely evident to me that each perfect piece is made by hand, and what makes it perfect is the fact that it isn’t, the little wobbles & wiggles shout out to me “Someone made me!”
Diana Fayt || Shop || Blog
It’s been a long, difficult week, it sure was nice to talk about some inspiration! Next up on Monday…Carla Kay White! Have a great weekend y’all!
13 Responses
ohh, I too love these pieces. My favorite is the pear vase near the bottom. I think in part it reminds me of some of the clay pieces my mom has done and also is kind of the black and white style I love.
I am just hoping to soak in more of how you go through your design process, and how you learned how to free-motion stitch so beautifully. To stitch this technique, though not on a quilt-sandwich of sorts, would I use the same sewing machine foot as you do? And what is the name of that foot you use in your tutorials? Have a wonderful weekend!
Thank you very much for the mention of my woodblock prints!
I feel honored to be mentioned amongst these other talented and creative folk. I always get some inspiration, and the creative juices start flowing when I look at the stuff other people have made.
Thanks for sharing these artists with us! It is always fun to find new inspirations!
I’m an illustrator and I’ve been thinking about trying to translate some of this into stitching so I really enjoyed reading about free-motion quilting. Great blog-it-forward, thanks for sharing!
These are great! I’m with you, I love the organic and imperfect form. Very few things in nature are precise and “perfect”, and I think that connection may be one of the draws for art hand-made by artisans. Lovely post!
Great post. Jan of Daisy Janie has been a big inspiration of mine as well. She is a wonderul artist (love her eye for color and pattern) and a great person.
You’ve been an inspiration as well. Working, being raised by two boys (*wink, wink), and running a business is exhausting and hard. You seem to do it effortlessly. I’ve enjoyed getting to know you through blogging and Twitter.
oh, BINGO! just as you said, our thinking was right along the same lines: ‘a person was here and took the time to make this.’ nothing better than something that is handmade and LOOKS like it was handmade. i’ve been head over heels for jan’s work for a long time, and can’t wait to check out these other artists!
A new find – Diana Fayt! I LOVE the pieces you’ve shared here and can’t wait to check out more of them.
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