Okay, so I’m posting the start of this page in April. Dayjobbes and eyesight willing, there will be lots more art this year. Let’s get to it:
Tempe Spring 2016 Festival of the Arts Awards ribbons. Based off the whimsical sculpture of Vicki Fish, this season’s Festival Featured Artist. Held on April 8, 9, 10 of 2016.
(16) 16″ x 4″ category ribbons, (1) 20″ x 5″ Best of Show ribbon.
Vicki’s work features a lot of birds. Grackles are basically the official bird of Tempe’s Mill Avenue, where the Festival is held. I have the callouses to prove these ribbons didn’t quite make themselves, but it was close. I like them because of the guardian grackles and their almost Hitchcockian edge. It’s the mirror-bead eyes.
Materials: commercial printed floral cotton, image-transfer on linen, acrylic ink, polyester thread, glass beads, polyester ribbons, metal pinbacks.
Twilight Arc. 1.25″ x 3″ x 2.75″. 22 cloth pages: recto of turquoise cotton embroidered with text and embellished with scrimshaw mother-of-pearl discs; verso of appliqued gold/green fabric, hand-marbled cotton, and commercial cotton print.
Covers are re-purposed shell pendants incorporating white mother-of-pearl and abalone shell. Single-needle Coptic binding with waxed brown polyester cord, and braided endbands and decorative terminals finished with shell and opal glass beads. Braided ties hold the book closed, longer braided cords knotted with abalone shell and opal glass can serve as necklace ties. Page text seen here. Artist’s collection.
Dia de Los Muertos Votive Rings (more about these here).
Carved buffalo bone, fabric pages, waxed polyester thread, glass and bone beads. I’m updating these in 2017, so they no longer look the same.
Tempe Fall 2016 Festival of the Arts Awards ribbons. Based off the sky from the Festival Fall poster, this ribbon set layers machine-stitched applique cotton and linen to form Ed Mell-type angular skies and landscapes. I’m a little wistful over these ribbons, as they incorporate the very last stash I bought from the loose-bead bin at the now-gone Beads Galore of Tempe, AZ. (Especially the iris flattened round beads in aqua and pink, which seemed made for this color theme.)
(18) 16″ x 4″ category ribbons, (3) 20″ x 5″ Best of Show, Best Display, People’s Choice ribbon, (2) 9″ x 3″ Honorable Mention ribbons.
Materials: commercial printed cotton, recycled linen, polyester felt, glass beads, digitally printed fabric labels, bronze pinbacks, polyester grosgrain ribbon ties.