Making an Assemblage

I thought I would give some information on the making of my bird assemblage for the New Life Art Project. I was allowed to select from bins of old musical instrument parts, and when I saw the violin body it looked immediately to me like a bird. Perhaps this is because I love birds, spend a lot of time watching them, and like to incorporate them into my work whenever possible. Or perhaps it just looked like a bird. You decide. Anyway, the next thing I saw was what I believe to be a key guard for a saxophone. That looked to me like the eyes and beak of bird too. So, there was no fighting it anymore, I was going to make a bird from these parts.

Step one is to gather together the musical instrument parts and other miscellaneous found objects I had on hand.  The photo below shows the musical instrument parts I took. I ended up only using the violin body and key guard to the left of the violin. The other parts will have to wait for another idea to inspire me.

assemblage parts

Step two is to consult with my good friend Linda who is a genius with found object art. She helped me figure out what else I needed and then we were off to second hand stores. At the second hand store we found a spatula and grilling utensils that we thought could be feet and tail feathers, sea shells for wings, and a photo stand that would help to support the violin body. I also later picked up a vegetable steamer. That made for excellent tail feathers.

Here is a little bit of how I used these items:

The black shape shown below is the photo holder. It is in the shape of a person wearing a graduation gown and holding a diploma. It had three bent wires out of the top of it that you slid photos in to display. The wires were removed and used as top feathers on the head.  It may have started its life as a present for a graduate, but it is now holding the violin body to the top of a cigar box.

Here you see the wires secured to the key guard and used as  top feathers on the head.

assemblage head

I'll show a bit more on my next post. That's enough for now.

Assemblage - "Avian le bois"

This summer I participated in the New Life Art Project. This project is a mechanism for funding music lessons for underprivileged kids. Artists are asked to convert old musical instruments and their parts into art, and then donate them for an auction fundraiser.  I chose to create a bird assemblage from a violin body and other second hand objects. I call my piece "Avian le bois", which  is a twist on the violin term "Avee le bois", meaning "With the Wood" (source - www.violinist.com) .  Here are photos of my finished assemblage.

The postcard front and back for the New Life Art Project are shown below.  The art items are on display at the Showcase Gallery in Costa Mesa. The auction will be held October 12th. I hope you have a chance to go to the gallery to see the display and even attend the auction. Maybe you'll find something there you just have to have!

SAQA Benefit Auction Will Begin Soon!

The annual Studio Art Quilters Association (SAQA) fundraising auction runs from September 9th through 28th. It is a great opportunity to purchase fiber art pieces.  I have donated the art quilt shown below, "Nature's Energy Drink II" to this auction. I hope you will check it out and consider purchasing your own fiber art piece! To get auction details click on the link below.

SAQA Auction

Nature's Energy Drink II

Anthem Story will be at the AQS Grand Rapids Show

I made this quilt for a Flying Geese Quilters Guild challenge last year based on the theme "History Lesson - An Event in American History". My quilt was one of eight selected to represent the guild in the American Quilter's Society national competition called the "Ultimate Guild Challenge". Our eight quilts have been juried in as semi-finalists and will be shown at the Grand Rapids, Michigan AQS show.  The show is August 16 - 18.  I'm honored to have had my quilt selected and shown.

Learn to Make "A Slice of the OC"

If you are interested in learning art quilting techniques, sign up for my class where I teach you to make this quilt that I call "A Slice of the OC". It is based on landmarks in Orange County, California. I will be teaching the class at Flying Geese Fabrics in Tustin, California on August 17, from 10am - 4pm,. It is a pretty fast project that you will start in the class and finish at home. The store has a kit that you can purchase that includes the top fabrics and trims. You will need to provide the backing, batting and some other supplies. The class cost is $40, and I don't know right now what the kit cost will be.

The Flying Geese Fabric Store is located at 307 El Camino Real, Tustin, CA.

Their phone number is: 714-544-9349.

Maps Exhibit at the Long Beach International Quilt Festival

Come see the Quilts on the Wall: Fiber Artists special exhibit "Maps" at the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach. It is a wonderful display of fiber art based on 18 different artists' interpretation of the theme: Maps. 

The show runs from August 2nd - 4th and is at the Long Beach Convention Center located at 300 East Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, CA. I will be at the show throughout the weekend. This is the last year Quilts Inc. will have this show in Long Beach, and I will miss it when it is gone.

Maps - El Camino Real

Quilts on the Wall is doing an exhibit called "Maps" for the Quilts Inc. Long Beach International Quilt Festival this year. That show will run August 2, 3 and 4 at the Long Beach Convention Center. I am co-curating the Maps exhibit for a second year. This is a juried exhibit with this years' jurors being Beth Smith and Karen Cunagin from Visions.

"Maps" is a wonderful display of art pieces. I hope you have a chance to see it. I was fortunate enough to have my piece juried in to the show. It is based on the El Camino Real road that runs though the California Missions. I will be talking about the techniques I used to make this piece in future posts. I show it below. I hope I see you at the show.