ridgewaystudios.org

Fragments from an off-center turning became leaves and a flower for a framed wooden quilt block.   The inner block was part of ther Creative Gambit wall piece in 2019.

I have added a border of color to fit the 7″ frame.   A quilt applique technique adds shapes to an underlying block. Instead of stitching, this block is held together by glue.   The turned leaves were shaped, cut in half, carved, and painted with leather paint.  The veins are carved and filled with white liming wax.  The flower center is an upholstery nail.  Woodworking techniques applied to quilting habits.  It’s my favorite way to work!

This 5 x 5″ framed quilt was my best composition of 2019.   It also tells the story of new making techniques that I began using this year, building on my fascination with white line printing.

The quilt started with carving wood blocks for printing.  One was made for ‘white line’ prints – everything except the branches in this case, which are the white fabric shining through the printing inks.  The other block cut away the background, so that the ink created the trunk and branches of the tree.  I have used silkscreened patterns before, but this was my first effort with block printing.

The ombre (graduated) stripes were a commercial fabric that picked up the vertical elements in the two printed blocks.  For some other designs, I have printed directly on the ombre fabric, with happy results.

For a quilter with a wood shop, I suppose that block printing is the obvious combination of media.  As I increase in skill and vision, I hope to move on from this tiny format into bigger works with more to say.

I’m working alongside Liz Kettle (textiles) and Jennifer Hanson (pottery) to present a show of new work in Manitou’s Commonwheel Gallery in July.  Although most of fine craft is just plain hard work, sometimes it needs a playful start to find new directions.

Creative Gambit will have risk-taking moves by each of us individually, as well as three assemblies combining our work.   For three artists who work in primarily functional mode, these collaborations are a distinct departure.

‘Tea for 3’ will be a still life vignette inspired by Alice in Wonderland.   The stack of cups is turned off-center in two sections; the handles are bent spoons.  Liz is making a fabric vase, and Jennifer has crafted a whimsical teapot.     We realized early on that in a gallery, we should do gallery things.  The still life painting is a popular genre, but we can go behind the scenes to make our own subject matter.  That is one of the powers of fine craftwork!

Ridgeway Studios’ clay studio and woodshop are in a cottage that I lived in until 2009, complete with a working kitchen and sunny windows.

Yesterday I was working with underglazes on two different colors of clay.  Surface design for clay has been a long study.  It is only after working with pyrography and color on wood that I begin to see the amazingly easy ways to design for the clay surface, starting with the plasticity of the forms.  The bottle in the darker clay, for example, was shaped while wet with four sides, while the top remains round.  This suggested squares for the application of color.

Surface design only works when the form requires it for a sense of wholeness.   That is, it has to be much better with the surface design than without it.  I think I have been intimidated by that standard for a long time.

‘Earthenware’ uses carved cross-hatching through layers of milk paint, which are also sanded back.  About 9″ diameter.

The center medallion is turned on the offset axis, but moves visually back to the center!  It seems that the effect of the offset bowl is obscured by creating a center for it.   Won’t do that again…..

Milkpaint is subtle.  I find it very difficult to photograph the actual appearance of these platters. 

‘Mums’ uses deeper carving in order to fit the scale of this 18″ platter blank.  The mums are sanded back to the original red underpainting so that the edges of the petals emerge.    Sunflower milk paint provided a deep layer over the whiter paint, which was textured with deeply textured paper while it was wet.  It has a little more of a silk brocade feeling.  A thin wash of sparkly gold covers the entire platter.

Merryl has been using milk paint on platters and fruit for most of her career as a woodturner.  Even when other turners became more and more flamboyant, she stayed with her restrained shapes and quiet colors.   She is best known among symposium attendees for her use of milk paint finishes.   In November, the Center for Art in Wood will present a retrospective of her work.

In honor of Merryl, I ventured into some unknown dimensions.

I haven’t made platters this large (13″ diameter) before, so scaling up the surface design to the bigger surface area was challenging for me.  I also wanted to explore ways of using milk paint as a finish.   I chose to layer 5 colors of milk paint in a very free way, with big brushes, while the layers were still wet.  I had burned and carved some areas of texture before painting.  Often, sanding back through the layers works well.  This time, however, I wanted to stay with manipulating the texture of the wet paint, by lifting off some of it.  I liked that effect well enough to forego sanding back through the layers.

Ice-dyes are like tie-dye on steroids, and much less predictable!  After dyeing some quilting fabric, I couldn’t resist making garment-dyed dresses, camisoles, harem pants, lotus capri’s, and a few jackets and vests in the Game of Thrones colors of ice and fire.

The clothes are rayon jersey or woven rayon, sewn for Dharma Trading in Indonesia.   The dyes are Procion fixed with soda ash.  All of the garments have been washed three times in the dying process, so they won’t shrink.  A curious thing about rayon is that the fibers are weak when wet, so no wringing or line-drying!  It really loves a medium hot dryer setting.   The woven garments benefit from a touch-up to hems and bindings with a cool iron (wool setting).

Garments are one-of-a-kind, in women’s sizes M-L-XL-XXL

These turned pears responded well to a bit of Goldfinger enhancement.

Wooden fruit is a very traditional product of the turning shops in England.  It provides a wonderful pallet for me to collect samples of finishes that I use.

Tubes of dubious origin and doubtful usefulness!

Aspen cut in the face grain orientation on the lathe.  This orientation does not present aspen to its best advantage, so there is a good opportunity for fun with texture and color.

To 9″ tall

Inspired by my collection of Richard Raffan wooden tubes, which I use all the time

Inspired by Game of Thrones on HBO, I decided to interpret ‘Stormborn’ in two different colorways for ice dyeing.

This is the ‘Ice’ colorway on rayon, which gives the most vivid colors.

I will have Stormborn products for sale for the first time at our September Studio Tour, the 8th and 9th here at our home studios.  Come try them on, and join the fray!