In Cheryl Rezendes' etsy shop you'll find gorgeous hand dyed silk for nuno felting and scarf making, as well as her fat quarters, wearable art, accessories and most recently some home decor items made from her dyed and painted fabric.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
etsy shop spotlight - Cheryl Rezendes
Cheryl Rezendes is a dedicated and passionate artist with a strong commitment to teach
and assist others with their own personal artistic growth, pursuit of
creative expression and appreciation of art.
In Cheryl Rezendes' etsy shop you'll find gorgeous hand dyed silk for nuno felting and scarf making, as well as her fat quarters, wearable art, accessories and most recently some home decor items made from her dyed and painted fabric.
In Cheryl Rezendes' etsy shop you'll find gorgeous hand dyed silk for nuno felting and scarf making, as well as her fat quarters, wearable art, accessories and most recently some home decor items made from her dyed and painted fabric.
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
member news - Janis Doucette
SAQA member Janis Doucette's quilt "Views from a Road Well Travelled" has been accepted into theMODERN SPIN: CONtemporary TEXTiles in an Historic Mill exhibit at the Narrows Center for the Arts – 16 Anawan Street, Fall River, MA November 7 – December 27, 2014
detail of "Views From A Road Well Travelled"
Hand painted, hand printed, hand dyed shibori and batik, burlap, beads;machine pieced, machine quilted, hand embroidered.
Monday, October 13, 2014
etsy shop spotlight - Ann Brauer
Ann Brauer's work is based on the wonderful vistas looking across the Deerfield
River to the nearby mountain as eagles catch fish, the arches of the
Bridge of Flowers reflect in the water and the village of Shelburne
Falls beckons.
click here to visit Ann's Etsy shop
Click over to Ann Brauer's Etsy shop and you'll find a wonderful array of items ranging from gorgeous wall hangings to personal accessory items such as eyeglass cases and purses.
Add a burst of color to your kitchen with one of her potholders, table runners or tea cozies:
click here to visit Ann's Etsy shop
Sunday, October 12, 2014
lighting makes a difference
In my last post about taking photographs I talked a little bit about lighting, using a tripod and that it's important it is to photograph your quilt standing directly in front of it. I also mentioned that you don't need a really expensive fancy camera to take a good photograph of your quilt and in this post I'm going to show you an actual example...
But first I want to show you where I photograph and how I light my quilts. Unfortunately I don't have any room in my studio for a design wall and I don't have any walls in my house that are good for photographing my quilts against. But I do have a large finished basement with a nice big wall that's perfect for using for photographs so I had my husband cover the wall with some foam board from the hardware store:
I covered the foam board with some canvas fabric to cover the bolts and the seams and then covered that with some white cotton stretched over the surface.
This gives me a nice neutral background to shoot against. You can see in the next photo that I've got my quilt pinned against the background and I've set up my photo lights to light the surface of the quilt. I'm using photo lights because there is no natural light at all in my basement. These lights are very inexpensive (less than $50 for the pair of table top ones but I use the larger stand ones like the ones here) and they make a huge difference in the quality of my photos. I also have a set with an umbrella diffuser that do a nice job lighting objects with diffused light.
My camera is on the tripod and I'm ready to shoot...
and the resulting photograph:
Not a bad photo but can you see the shadowing along the left and right edges? That was easily fixed by adjusting the position of the lights and pulling them further away from the surface of the quilt. The new photo:
Much better! no shadows and the picture is nice and clear and the colors bright and vivid. The right lighting is so important. Take a look at this next photo. I turned the photo lights off and took this with just the overhead lights in the room on:
Yikes! The colors are dull and flat and it's really not a good representation of what the quilt actually looks like in person.
I took all of the photos above with my Canon Rebel t2i camera which is a great camera but it's an expensive investment that I know not everybody can or wants to make. So the question remains can you take a good jury ready shot of a quilt without an expensive camera? You certainly can! Take a look at this next photo:
But first I want to show you where I photograph and how I light my quilts. Unfortunately I don't have any room in my studio for a design wall and I don't have any walls in my house that are good for photographing my quilts against. But I do have a large finished basement with a nice big wall that's perfect for using for photographs so I had my husband cover the wall with some foam board from the hardware store:
I covered the foam board with some canvas fabric to cover the bolts and the seams and then covered that with some white cotton stretched over the surface.
This gives me a nice neutral background to shoot against. You can see in the next photo that I've got my quilt pinned against the background and I've set up my photo lights to light the surface of the quilt. I'm using photo lights because there is no natural light at all in my basement. These lights are very inexpensive (less than $50 for the pair of table top ones but I use the larger stand ones like the ones here) and they make a huge difference in the quality of my photos. I also have a set with an umbrella diffuser that do a nice job lighting objects with diffused light.
My camera is on the tripod and I'm ready to shoot...
and the resulting photograph:
Not a bad photo but can you see the shadowing along the left and right edges? That was easily fixed by adjusting the position of the lights and pulling them further away from the surface of the quilt. The new photo:
Much better! no shadows and the picture is nice and clear and the colors bright and vivid. The right lighting is so important. Take a look at this next photo. I turned the photo lights off and took this with just the overhead lights in the room on:
I took all of the photos above with my Canon Rebel t2i camera which is a great camera but it's an expensive investment that I know not everybody can or wants to make. So the question remains can you take a good jury ready shot of a quilt without an expensive camera? You certainly can! Take a look at this next photo:
I took this with my inexpensive Canon Powershot camera (a great camera for traveling with by the way) which goes to show that with a tripod and good lighting that you don't need an expensive camera to take a good photo of your quilts.
Saturday, October 11, 2014
member news - Jodi Scaltreto
Jodi Scaltreto has two quilts in
the "Tell Me a Story" exhibit at the Jaffrey Civic Center at 40 Main St in Jaffrey NH. The"Tell Me A Story" exhibit is sponsored by the New Hampshire chapter of the Women's Caucus for Art
In this exhibition, 41 New Hampshire artists, working in a rich
variety of styles and techniques, express stories based in personal or
ethnic narrative, myths, legends, popular culture or wherever stories
are found. Some of the media represented will include handmade artist’s
books, quilted wall hangings, assemblages and collage, sculpture and
mobiles, mixed media, monoprints, hand-colored etching, acrylics,
watercolors, photography, photo collage, and digital prints.
In addition to presenting their artwork, the exhibition will include statements from each artist, relating to their artwork and stories. These will be placed next to their work for viewers to read.
Opening reception is on 10/17/14 from 5 to 7 and the exhibit runs until 11/15/14. Juror’s choice awards will be presented for first, second and third
prize, at the opening reception on Friday, October 17, from 5 to 7 pm.
The reception is open to the public. Click here for more information.
"Fire and Rain" by Jodi Scaltreto
"The Many Faces of Jason" by Jodi Scaltreto
In addition to presenting their artwork, the exhibition will include statements from each artist, relating to their artwork and stories. These will be placed next to their work for viewers to read.
Monday, October 6, 2014
etsy shop spotlight
With the holiday shopping season right around the corner I thought I'd start a new series of blog posts spotlighting our regions members who offer their art as well as supplies for sale through an etsy shop.
SAQA member Nancy Turbitt's etsy shop is filled with a wonderful selection of art making supplies ranging from gorgeous silks, lace, taffetta, metallic and velvet fabrics to out of print patterns, beautiful buttons, mixed fabric grab bags and vintage cabachons.
If you have an etsy shop or other online shop that you'd like to have featured here on the MA/RI blog just send a link and a description to Sue at sue@suebleiweiss.com.
SAQA member Nancy Turbitt's etsy shop is filled with a wonderful selection of art making supplies ranging from gorgeous silks, lace, taffetta, metallic and velvet fabrics to out of print patterns, beautiful buttons, mixed fabric grab bags and vintage cabachons.
If you have an etsy shop or other online shop that you'd like to have featured here on the MA/RI blog just send a link and a description to Sue at sue@suebleiweiss.com.
Sunday, September 28, 2014
images from our regional meeting
if you missed yesterday's regional meeting at ProChemical & Dye you missed out on having a really great time with your fellow SAQA members! It was a very hands on meeting with lots of time for experimenting and socializing. Here's a few photos of the fun we had...
A huge thank you to Vicki and ProChemical and Dye for hosting the meeting!
waiting for the program to begin
SAQA member Vicki Jensen setting up the indigo vat
dipping the cloth in the vat
the resulting cloth! (insert a crowd of ooohs and aaahhhhs here!)
Vicki getting ready to demo with a gelli plate
using a tool to create patterns on the painted plate
The resulting cloth
members dipping their cloth into the indigo dye vat
some of the dipped cloths drying
members experimenting with the gelli plate
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