Fiber Artist #5: Hollis Chatelain

In keeping with my focus on persistence and finishing, here's my fifth and final female fiber artist.  Hollis Chatelain came to my attention (in the 90's?) when one of her fabulous pieces sold for mid 5 figures, setting new goals for many fellow art quilters about possible income.  I've continued to be aware of and admire her work since as an influential artist in my field.

Blue Men by Hollis Chatelain

As you can see above, her work is realistic and detailed, striking in composition and content.  For a fiber artist, the way she works is inspiring.  She starts with a large piece of white fabric, sketches the design and then dye paints.  If she was working on a stretched canvas, this would be the total effort to create a painting.  But then, she stitches to add detail and texture to the surface.  Amazing work and I highly recommend checking out her webpage, https://www.hollisart.com/

I'm looking at her work with a new perspective as I try to simplify my processes so that I can still be productive with my lower energy level.  One thing I'm looking at is working whole cloth rather than doing fabric collage.  One of my challenges for this next several months is how do I do this and looking at her process is very helpful in giving me ideas.

Thermofax tribulations

This is apparently my month for challenges in the studio.  First, the sewing machine eluded my ability to thread the needle, then my whole thermofax creation process fell apart.

After I spent an afternoon unclogging the nozzles on my just for the thermofax printer, I tried making some nice fish screens to use on the current piece.  I decided to use the the new white screen because it's narrower than the old roll of green screen I have and then the problems began.

Fish art for thermofax screen

Small summary of the thermofax process for those who aren't familiar with it.  A thermofax is a quick and easy way to make a silkscreen by running graphite line art through the thermofax machine layered against the screen.  The graphite ignites from the heat of the lamp in the machine and burns off the top layer of the screen exposing the little squares in the screen so that paint can be pushed through.

The first try didn't burn the screen at all.  I ran it through 3 times and it burned so lightly that the screen slid around over the art and I got triple faint lines rather than one good solid line.  So I went over the artwork with a thicker charcoal pencil.  That burned a hole in the white screen.  After a few deep sighs and breathing exercises, I ran that art through the thermofax with the green screen.  That resulted in big blurry lines for the spirals.  I decided to stop for the day, think about it and try again later.

green vs white screens of same art

This is where I am now, with this being the green screen fish on the top and the white screen fish on the bottom.  I spent a few hours perusing videos on YouTube about making the screen transition and decided I'll have to do way more experimentation than I have time for right now so I'll be redrawing the fish with a lighter line and using the green screen to make yet another screen later today. 

Here's where I am on the piece.  I did yarn around the edges of the salmon stream and then started doing yarn around the edges of the fish and really didn't like how it looked.  So I tried hand stitching but that didn't work so well what with the 4 or 5 layers of quilting cotton plus batting that I had to stitch through.   After checking prices and reviews, I've ordered the low end Brother self-threading machine and will be seeing if that solves my stitch problem.  At this point, I can only be really thankful that the show application deadline is the end of November so I may be able to finish in time despite all these issues.  Wish me luck!

No sewing machine, now what?

This week in the studio was a challenge.  I started the week with anticipation.  I had finished fusing the current project, had selected the threads to use and was ready to begin the stitching.  And then I tried to thread my sewing machine.

The whole vision problem has been improving with every treatment and I'm now having no problems with most visual tasks.  I still adjust the text size in a book now and then, but no longer have migraines and don't need the eye patch.  The sole exception, until this last week, was using the binoculars while birding and that's been improving too so I thought I was really over the problems.  Until I tried threading my machine.

first use of satin stich in my collage

I learned to sew on a machine when I was 8, 55 years ago.  I used my mom's Kenmore and my great-grandma's treadle machine both.  And I've been making my own clothes since I was 11.  I have 3 machines right now.  Over the last 20 years, as my eyes and my back had their own issues, I've added supplemental LED lighting, various magnifying lenses, and threading tools as needed to keep on doing the things I love to do with a sewing machine.  It took me an hour to get it threaded and I was so frustrated that I wanted to pick up the machine and bash a hole in the wall with it.  So I walked away and cooled off and came back the next day to actually sew.  And I got about 3 inches of test sewing done and broke the needle, probably because I couldn't see the sample sewing well enough and pulled too much.  So, I'm taking a break from the machine. 


If all goes well with the eye treatments over the next few months, then I'll be back to sewing happily.  For now, I'm going to assume that I have to be like Matisse and find another way to make my art.  The rest of this month, I will be experimenting with different ways to give that textured colorful line that I used the satin stitch of variegated thread to create with my machine.  Instead of the stitched line, I'm looking at using yarn, perle cotton, and other thick fibers.  I may do some hand stitching to get the variety of colors & textures I like. 

variegated stitch example

I'll be reporting on my trials here so you can follow along.  And I'll be using what I select to finish up the Salish Sea Mandala #1 that is my current project.  Right now it feels like 2 steps back and a half step forward but I have a plan and I'm confident I'll find a solution.    And I have a deadline of November 31 for SSM#1 to be finished so "make it work" is my mantra now.  Wish me luck!