Melanie Testa’s Blog

We were tired of living in a house.

MellyMells — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:24:00 GMT

So we packed our bags and moved into a city apartment.

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The title of this post refers to a favorite childhood book by the same name.

Last night I went to the Society of Illustrators Sketch and Jazz event. Event? It is a twice weekly gathering of people who draw figure models for 3 hours. There is a bar and a live jazz group, bass, sax and piano. The Society has been around for 105 years, it's filled with artwork from the Big'uns and is a great setting.

I went alone and had much flutterings and hesitation beforehand. Afterward, pure skipping and la-de-da happiness.

I came home to a little bulge of an envelope that I am thankful wasn't lost in the sending. The envelope was ripped and pudgy and exciting looking. It contained a lil LaFazio felted wool square among some samples of her fav threads (which I had asked for). It immediately got hung on my sewing room wall. The square doesn't have a name and I am lovingly calling it lil LaFazio.

My snapshots stink and do not do the lil wonder justice.

And have you seen my latest article in Cloth, Paper, Scissors?

CPS is hosting a Mother Earth Doll Challenge and used my doll image to promote it in their newsletter, are you going to participate?

The zone.

MellyMells — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:33:00 GMT

A famine, then a feast. That seems to be the way of life, I think.

Just before Houston, I decided it was time to make a larger piece, based on the recent painting of a Wester Tanager in my journal and I set out. I printed in a flurry, with no true thought in how to get the thing printed and made rules up as I went. I then needed to put the piece aside in order to prepare for my lecture and forums. When I came back, I made the retreat and then caught cold. But still I worked on the piece throughout.

Above is a photo of a ripping. I didn't like the placement of the machine drawn daisy, so out came the seam ripper. We are looking at the piece from the back. I decided to back this piece in flour sacks collected while still living in Flagstaff, AZ. Blue Bird Flour by Cortez Millling Co. Cloth flour sacks are not a rare occurence in the middle of our huge country. I have seen calico ones too. These sacks have been well used and have stains of authenticity on them. They even have crunchy bits of flour that are falling away with my dense machine quilting.

And here is a detail again. Can you tell I have been having fun?

anybody home?

MellyMells — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:33:00 GMT

...and then I have been quilting up a storm and not only that but, oh wait.

Hi. How you are? Long time no see. Sorry about that. Yeah. I was away for a lil bit there and for no good reason. Or maybe there were many reasons.

I will slow down.

I did get a flu a couple of weeks ago, and it hung on, clawing, scratching and biting. I am still coughing. But it is getting better-thank goodness.

The above is a detail of the piece I am working on right now and it looks totally different now. In that photo, the organza layer is covering over the Western Tanager's face. The organza has since been cut away and the bird shows itself strikingly, proudly, vibrant even.
But it is not finished. I have not yet read the rules for a certain upcoming quilt show deadline, so a detail is all I will show right now.

With all this Recycled Journal watercolor stuff floating around in my mental space, I have been researching and looking into drawing, paint, and journaling web sites. Almost to the point where I need to tell myself to step away from the computer and focus on the three (!!!) teaching proposals I need to crank out.

But, when you have a cold, what better than to surf the web and find sites like this, or this.

Now I have been wanting a new paint palette ever since I saw Jane LaFazio working with M. Grahams watercolor paintlast spring.

But a girl needs to draw the line somewhere! I have several lines competing for my attention, I would like a smaller paint box than I now carry and I want to start using better quality paint, which I have been finding out is M. Graham among others.

Where are these ideas coming from? Beside Jane that is? Roz.

Roz is putting all sorts of not-so-crazy ideas in my head. Her blog is super organized, categorized, she is humorous, she can draw and paint like nobodies bidnss and she is my new blog crush. Except that she also introduced me to Andrea Joseph's Sketchblog. And is laughing is your thing then perhaps you should fall in love with Oswald over at the Mistress of Longears' Flickr site (Jane turned me on to her).

So. I am on the mend, quilting a piece that is bigger than 12" square(!), researching paint selections and color choices, and wondering how you are too. Thanks for sticking with me folks. I loves yous like I loves Bird Toes. (everything is better with an S at the end of it!)

And Whoa! Hey, wait!

Here is a free project I made for The Sewing Republic . Just released and spankin' new! I couldn't talk about it while I created the pattern, but I can now! Go download your pattern today.

So many shoulds, time enough to follow through.

MellyMells — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:51:00 GMT

There are many things I should blog about, like the ten yards of fabric that came to my door on winning the Nature's Best contest, THANKS to you! Or the fabulous review of my book in Machine Quilting Unlimited, or the fantastic blog I found this week.

But instead I want to talk about the Recycled Journals I am now in love with. Have I talked about this too much already? I used some original pages from the book, Dreams their Meaning and Significance and layered them into signatures of 140 pound cold press Fabriano watercolor paper. See the texture? I could bite my tongue.

I already, sort of, messed the book up. I have to learn about end paper. I think they need to be stiffer than the paper I chose. And because I chose a paper that was floppy, I tried to substantiate it by painting the wrong side with white, panicked, glued something on top, panicked and well, you get the gist of it. Now the end paper in the front of the book is glued to the first page. Covered that one right up. It isn't that bad, a little odd, but. So am I (I was giggling through the writing of that last paragraph- it is good not to take self too srsly).

Have I said how much I love 140 pound watercolor paper? I learned to love it in school, Fabriano in particular. The brushes, the paint, the way the water lays atop the page ready to be reworked until it isn't anymore? Totally different than painting on cloth, but still such satisfaction.

And we all know how much I love to draw and wish that every person who had an inkling of even wanting to draw would start now. Right now. It is so graceful, paper and pencil, that it all you need. Painting is just an extension of drawing. And every artist, even if they don't use every tool in the box should have an understanding of the basics. It is so meditative.

I wish my first journals were available to me now, (they are in storage). I would show you. I sucked. We all suck when we start out, that is the way it is. I still have a ways to go, I want to learn to have ease with hands and feet, for instance. But when you are new, just tell yourself to turn the page and don't look back. Not right away, anyway. Now I can look back as some of my early journals and see the raw beauty and the gems among the mundane. See where I was stretching to see myself further, trying. For the most part, I love the progress I have made. But I do see it as a journey, not a destination.

Arrow, beautiful, white and black Arrow. Head tucked, smiling. He knew I was looking at him and kept murping and coming to attention and asking me to pet him.

I am actively seeking friends.

MellyMells — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:27:00 GMT

Sometimes you just have to say it like it is. The statement comes out and then resonates. I spoke about this a bit in my last post, I told you of Shirley, who approached me at Open Studios and whose name tag indicated that she was from New York City. Without thinking I reiterated where she was from and told her I was actively seeking friends.
So this post is about friends, both old and new.

Last week, I returned home from my new friend Shirley's house with a sense of excitement, vim and vigor. I was a bit busy and although I wanted to drop everything and purchase some watercolor paper, linen thread and glue, I stayed focused. More on that later.
But today there was nice crisp fall weather and I was able to complete some jobs prior to hopping on the train and heading over to the art store to purchase the needed supplies. Photos will come later, the pages I am cutting in this photograph are being flattened over night.

A good friend of mine had to attend to some important business and was unable to teach a class. Somehow my name came up and I am filling in. This is a three week class where we print, create a quilt, and embellish.Week one we made found object stamps using cardboard, string and plastic.
I am now prepping for week 2; quilting, or perhaps embroidering is the right word. This is my sample and is as far as I have gotten.
Not too shabby! The sample makes me happy because it is not my normal style.

Then there was my retreat. This is a dream scenario, food is cooked three times a day on a strict schedule, wine and beer can be had if there is interest, a large room is provided where 8 to 10 talented, creative and supportive women gather twice a year to work on our own projects. The leaves outside rustled and fell, the view of the lake... gorgeous.
I decided not to go to lunch on Saturday and was left in a quiet room with piles of cloth, a spill of thread and echoes of friends voices. It was awesome. You might remember that I used to organize this group and that this is not the first retreat I have been to with these fabulous women (I went into my personal wayback machine and got lost in my own archives! Suffice it to say, I have been going to this retreat since 2005 safe for my brief love affair with Flagstaff.

Eye candy...

Brienne quilts like the devil and uses yummy threads to boot.

Carol embraces the whirlwind effect of creativity, if your stash overflows you will find the right cloth for the purpose. And heck! Look at her stash.

Dana is a wearable art artist and her work is amazing. She can handle the most delicate of cloth with mastery.

She helped me to break down and recreate the skirt pattern!
...Dharma, why is your Hemp/Silk Charmeuse so darned expensive (or perhaps I should say, when was the last time you made a skirt that calls for 5 yards of cloth?)

And here we are minus one member, sorry Jutta. From left to right, myself, Carol, Dana, Jane, Judy, Elizabeth and Brienne.

Houston 2009

MellyMells — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:10:00 GMT

This is a difficult post to create because I forgot my camera in a store in Galveston Texas (it is being returned to me this week). So these photos are thanks to Jamie Fingal, Leslie Tucker Jennison and Sharon Hyll. Thanks gals!

This is a photo of me at my lecture. My first true lecture, where I created a set of slides to project and spoke for 50 minutes straight. It took a good three days to put the Powerpoint presentation together, fuss with the word prompts, read it to the empty apartment and worry it wasn't long enough.

But I counseled myself to read slowly, ad-lib and riff off topic as it felt right to do so and sip water throughout. And I did well. I had about 50 participants and spoke for about 50 minutes.

I even bought myself a new skirt, which you can't really see in this photo but which I am in love with! I plan to work on recreating the pattern for myself so I can make fabric and new renditions of the skirt. I know I feel as though too many people wear black here in the city. It is like a uniform. It is pretty but over used.

Beside I am a textile designer.

I did a couple of Open Studios at the MIU booth. Since the book has had some time to percolate, it is interesting to see what people think of it and what they say about it. All the Interweave booth's books sold out by Friday, so I went to other booths that carried my book and made sure to direct new readers there for copies. (Like Robin).

I truly hope that my focus on using thickened dyes doesn't turn folks away from my book. That is my main fear.

But Festival is full of surprises! A member of my very first guild sat in on the monoprinting presentation I gave at a Mixed Media sampler, one of the women at my lecture came up to me later that day at Open Studios and I noticed she was from NYC. I told her I was actively seeking friends and yesterday I spent a delightful afternoon at her house making hard covered books into watercolor journals! Recycled books! And tonight I will meet up with Iris Karp of Misty Fuse to go to an opening in Chelsea. I know I don't NEED to go all the way to Houston to meet New Yorkers, but it sure does help to narrow the focus and hone in on mutual interests!

I spent some great time with Leslie, and Judy, among others.

And Surviving the Runway was great fun this time around. Maybe it was the music. Maybe it was helping to make a corset out of craft foam, pipe cleaners, pom poms, fabric and duct tape. Goovy-ness like that just can't be beat and with Pokey's signature music tracks in the background to dance to?

Perfect.

The winner is?

MellyMells — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:02:00 GMT

I added the two blog comments together, 10 from my Author blog and 27 from my personal blog and used a random number generator to choose a number between 1 and 37.

Drum Roll please!

Debbie L.

I am going to Houston tomorrow at 8:15 a.m. so please excuse me for the next week. I won't have time to go to the P.O. until I return.

It is going to be fun though! I am doing two forums, one on machine quilting and another for the mixed media miscellany- monoprinting with dyes. I will also do a couple of Open Studios for MIU. I am giving my first full lecture. I gathered images and wrote out a 67 slide Power Point presentation for the Journaling as Inspiration for quilt artists lecture I will give on Friday morning. I have counseled myself to speak slowly and clearly and will bring a bottle of water to sip to help me pace myself. I read it out to myself this morning and think I will be fine as far as the timing goes.

So I will have a full week ahead of me.

Not to mention that I am meeting up with my friend Alice, a mighty special woman. So good times, good times.

THANKS to all who voted for me over at Nature's Best! I won! :) Thanks so much for voting for me, visiting the site and having some fun. I watched the tally with glee and a real child-like spirit of fun.

Studio Tour 2009, plus a give away.

MellyMells — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:54:00 GMT

Cate came up with the idea of a studio tour and I love seeing where people create. I couldn't pass this opportunity up.
This will be a photo intense entry and I am going to upload my latest Video Prompt too. I have put off blogging all week just for today.

This was given to me by Kristine Mays, it was intended to help me rust fabrics, but I have used it as art ever since. Kristine's work is great. She can create cloth out of wire. Just amazing.

Here is my video tour:

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You can imagine that I love having doors to hide all this stuff. MESS-SY.

But you have to make a mess to create stuff.

This Inspired to Quilt Video Prompt (#6) is about color mixing. This is an exercise that I would have scoffed at early in my creative development. But I ask that you not follow my lead in this respect. Creating a color wheel will help teach very basic concepts and ideas about color, value and hue. If you follow that up with creating color gradations, you willreally get a feel for each color.

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Here is a close up of my color wheel.

I entered a piece named Happiness in an online contest called Nature's Best. This is in the small projects category and I would love to win. Vote for me, vote Happiness, please?

I am also going to host a give away. Leave a comment telling me about where you create, if you have dedicated space or a 6x9 foot sewing closet like mine and you will be entered to win a copy of my DVD. The contest will end in one week on Saturday, *October* 10. Especially leave a comment to your blog, if you are participating. Either way, you have a chance-no worries if you do not have a blog!

I hope you win.

Welcome back!

MellyMells — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 14:06:00 GMT

Arrow is a little ginger favored sweet meat. I love him. Because baseball season is in full swing, I now call him A Row. A little New York City humor for you.

Can we all take a deep sigh of relief on my behalf? Thank you.

My creative mojo is back. Do you know when you create a large piece, the edges are bound, the hanging sleeve is attached, the rod is even bought, cut and drilled. Everything is complete. The next day you wake up and...
...crickets.

What next?

...crickets.

That is how I have been feeling since I completed writing my book. I had even begun to think, maybe this is the end. Maybe I am an opus sort of person and quilting is finished for me. My goal is achieved and I need to start moving on. Sad thoughts, those.

About a month and a half ago, I started wondering how to move, push and knead myself back into the center of my creative picture. Journaling works for me. Knitting has been working too. At least it gives me quiet focus, which can be good.

The tanager from the last post sparked creative interest and I have begun a large wall hanging in cloth inspired by it. It is too formative to show though.

David and I went away this week and I promised myself to create at least three drawings in my journal when I was away. Two really good drawings came from this promise. I am not finished with this painting, but I am happy with it so far.

Today I am off to teach at the City Quilter. Wish me luck!

Those Tanagers

MellyMells — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:02:00 GMT

It is no surprise that I am a bird geek. I love 'em. Birder's World magazine is my drug of choice. I get a new issue and closet myself in quietude until I have turned every page and looked for the best bird photo, checked out my must-read articles and sneaked a peek at birding tour advertisements.

Drawing from photographs is so much easier than from life when it comes to birds. They have a way of flitting and moving about that is not conducive to getting them on the page! This drawing was inspired by a photo taken by Glenn Bartley.

So anyway, my latest issue is here and I have been pouring over it. It turns out Tanagers have been reclassified and now reside in the Cardinal family. This Tanager is a Western Tanager and I am lucky enough to have seen this bird in person back in Flagstaff. Well, maybe not this exact bird.
((I hope the above link works; it may be that you need a subscription to the site, I hope not--It would be fun if you could do a side by side comparison to the photo-to see where I have deviated from the original))

My scanner is too narrow to show the entire piece in a single image, I gradated the background and the bird is perched in the middle right of the page. I didn't get the eyes quite right, mine are rounder than the photo and I could stand to make my darks darker. But I love the spirit of what I was able to catch in the painting. I used transparent watercolor on the ground and the bird and opaque watercolor on the branch.

If any of you have read my most recent journaling article in Cloth, Paper, Scissors, you might want to know that I used paper frisket to first resist out the bird, and paint the background. I then removed the Frisket and painted the bird.

I may continue to work this page... I sorta think line drawings from the botanical garden would compliment the bird quite nicely. Time to pen shop... I need new pens (devil grin).

That's how we sing

MellyMells — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:54:00 GMT

David and I were walking to Fairway last week and David gave me a lesson on street talk. He told me of the phrase, "That's how we roll". He'd heard our neighbor say the phrase and apparently it wasn't the first time he'd heard it. So, I come home and look it up on Urban Dictionary. As I am poking around at the site, I find the phrase, 'That's how we sing'. Which fits this post quite well, I think.

A few weeks ago I was contacted through email by a woman I do not know. Apparently, she knows Kathy York, a facebook friend, whom I am unsure I have met in person. Though I do frequent her blog. Kathy told her friend that I might be a likely recipient for a boat load of dyes. Mostly unopened, in colors I have never used! (Dye was bought, then a pregnancy put a hold on their use).

Has the dye faerie descended? It feels like it. I mean, these things are NIB. (You have the tools, look it up!)

I have a growing collection of bird planters. The robin on the right is my third and most recent acquisition. There is also an as yet UN-photographed pelican.

As my pheasant and robin seem to be high on friendships, I thought it might be fitting to say that I am finally feeling comfortable here in Brooklyn. I am making friends with the place. The struggle has left me and I feel as though I am now able to relax into and see what Brooklyn has to offer and how I might contribute.

The gift of dye has made me want to see if I could rent studio space for a day and gather some knitters and spinners together for a Dye Studio Day.

While I still have a few deadline pieces to wrap up, I am planning to get out and explore some too. Prospect Park is not all that far from where I live and they have an Audobon Center. I guess it is supposed to rain for the next few days though. So, I should go. Quickly.

I like to Dye.

MellyMells — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:09:00 GMT

These little things are what I have been so crazed about. I have been making them by the armful and am preparing to sell them along with dyed embroidery flosses, Pretty Purses and other yummies over at my new Etsy account. Keep checking back as I learn how to use it and update it with more items later in the week.

Last week I went to Southside Coffee and drew, well, the street sign outside the joint. Now I have to say. I have never taken a drawing class about perspective and truly wish I had. I have learned to draw by evaluating relationships between objects. I tend to look at and draw negative space. Now that I live in a city where everything is angles and perspective I feel the challenge to learn a more regimented approach to perspective.

I was sitting over a different cup of coffee with David and thinking abouyt this challenge and decided that what I need to do is take a photo of the thing I would like to draw and play with rulers and tracing paper. I need to give myself a visual idea of what I am looking at. I am a visual person, after all.

Today is a video Prompt day. I uploaded this challenge last week, and perhaps you have noticed it in the widget over to the right. Bad blogger! Lazy blogger! Oh well.

Today I began playing around with dye and noticed I have no soda ash soaked fabrics in storage. So I unrolled 4 yards, cut them into 1 yard pieces, I find that is my most manageable size.

I scrunch each piece of cloth separate of one another, to make it easier to separate once they are sodden. Then I stack them one atop the other in a 2 gallon bucket.

Once that is complete, I pour the soda water over the cloth and allow it to soak for a 1/2 hour.

Then I hang them to drip dry for as long as it takes.

Now My Man and I just moved from a seven room house to the three room apartment. I dye in 1/3 of what any normal person would call their living room. And because we do not have access to outdoor space, I drip dry on the tub. The caveat to this system is that I am diligent about cleaning drips and spills. The tub gets washed after each drip dry session because I do not want to find out what soda ash can do to porcelain if left to its own device.

I tell you all of this for several reasons. One because I want you to know that working in no-space-at-all is possible! Where there is a will, there is a way. I love working with dye. I love its luminosity, the soft hand, the color. I love they way thickened dye lays down when painted with a watercolor brush.

Some folks hold themselves back from working with dye because there is a skill set and knowledge base involved. It also requires an investment. It also... takes space. But, not too much. just a 1/3 of a room, if you can manage it.

Heck I started dyeing in an apartment and I bought myself a plastic box and stored everything I needed at the time in that box.

The investment part can be handled over time, a few dyes, three primaries, if need be. Soda ash, thickener and some cloth. Get the smallest amounts if that makes you feel better! You will soon be cursing me for starting you down a slippery slope, but that is my job!

And while I am at it. A good reader has alerted me to a misprint on Page 17 of Inspired to Quilt. (BooHoo!!!!Waaaa!)
In the paragraph entitled:

Mixing Dye Concentrate:

IT SHOULD READ
To mix dye concentrate, you'll need a funnel, a jar, water, and urea pellets. Using a funnel, put 2 tablespoons of urea pellets in a 16 oz jar. Add 1/2 cup hot water, cover, and shake until dissolved.

The 1/2 is missing in that second sentence.

Go mark up your book and kiss the page for me. Tell your copy that I said, I am sorry. :)

And here is your next challenge.

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The next challenge will be even more interesting. I will put you up to playing with and mixing color! I have started the next vid prompt already.

Let's play ketchup.

MellyMells — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:34:00 GMT

But no one will get squashed.

Arrow has been settling in quite nicely. He has taken to asking for the rag bed. This means that he circles me, asking for my lap and instead I take out the rag bin and encourage him to sleep near me, rather and on my lap. This is quite useful as the heat is a bit much right now and I am proud of him for learning that near is as good as on.

He looks happy, doesn't he?

And I love to see how much of the space he can fill up. It is akin to a round cat in a rectangular hole. I mean, just how pointy can he get?

I am also happy to say that I am part of Bernina's National Teacher's Program. They have loaned me a Bernina 440, which I love so much, I LURVE it, oh no, maybe I luff it. And will be creating a project for The Sewing Republic. Check the site out. It is geared toward the young hip crowd, the sewing crowd-of which there are many! Sewing is the THING right now. Is quilting passe'? I think not!

So anyway, I linked my blog to thiers and the link can be found in my sidebar to the right as well.

I contributed to Quilting Arts Gifts, and even if I do say so myself, this issue os OVER-the-top fantastic.

I couldn't photograph all of my favorite projects, but let me say Kathy York's Fabulous Tote Bag is, well,fabulous. Janet Lasher created a great silk scarf, Kelli Nina Perkins gave us a project free of calories but sweet all the same.

We all know the power birds have over me, I swoon at thier sparkly eye dots, love every feather I stumble upon and even collect birdy things. Alisa Burke create the Birds of a Feather project and well. I will join her flock any day.

So don't hesitate! Go get yer copy pronto.

And well. I have a new Video Prompt in the makings and a great new arty thing I am obsessed with. But that will have to wait till tomorrow or the next day. Leave a comment and I will reply with love!

The wonders

MellyMells — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:50:00 GMT

I am back!

While in Phoenix we stayed at a friends house. Upon entering her front door my guy noticed this mother and baby and it is a good thing I snapped a picture because the next day that li'l bird was fledged. Other great animals we saw? Bats flying over the pool while we took a wee skinny dip, a hummer buzzed me-I was that interesting, and a frog owned the pool one crisp desert morning overlooking the pool with coffee.

I taught Soy Wax with Paint at Art Unraveled. Don't I look sorta sexy in this pose? And I am in an apron, no less.

I love this event and the people it draws. I felt as though it gave me permission to work outside my norm. Today I will buy myself a Dremel tool, because Belinda, and Jane use one and I think I need one too. Not only that but I need two part self leveling epoxy, gold leaf... uh. hmmm.

Wait till you see what this trip made me make!

Here is a sample I made in class. Belinda and some of the other artists in my class turned me on to Jacquard's Halo line of paint. And you can see the exuberance with which I embraced it. What Whoa~ A trip to the paint store is in order!

Gone Fishin'

MellyMells — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:53:00 GMT

Hey, are you on facebook? I am as Mells Testa. I say that because if you are on facebook and am my friend, you have probably seen these photos before.

I am teaching Soy Wax with Paint over at Art Unraveled in balmy, Phoenix Arizona on Wednesday. Wow it's amazing how quickly we can move around this earth. I will be away for the next week and won't have a computer! Ah, joy.

I do have another Vid Prompt coming but it will have to wait till after my return.

That said, and because I need to have photos for every post, otherwise it is boring, right?

I turned 40 this week and am darned proud of it! No agist babble for me.

So as I have wishes and wants for myself, I would like to loose 5 pounds and recommit myself to walking for aerobic exercise. It was easy in Flagstaff with its miles of National Forest, here in Brooklyn it is much different. I need to start where I am though. So this is my second day of walking. I commit to 5 out of 7 days of walking each week. I prefer walking in the morning. I will loose the 5 pounds and have fun doing it.

Note to self: Get Danny Dreyer's Chi Walking out for the library.