Now that the studio is finished, I got to spend today creating art!
Although before I could begin making, I had much preparation to do.
The art I’m going to be creating over the next 7 weeks is for a solo show in Boulder that opens in mid February. I’ve shown in this space twice before so I know it well and know exactly the work I will make for the exhibit.
Usually when I create, the artwork tells me what size it needs to be. This is a lovely feature of not working with a canvas. But it can also be a liability when I am facing a deadline as I like to work BIG and I don’t have time to complete a lot of huge quilts.
Being aware that 7 weeks isn’t much time to create an entire exhibits worth of art, this time around I’ve prederminded the sizes I will make so they fit the gallery and my time budget.
Since I have huge white walls, the first step in preparation is to mark off the sizes I am working with. My plan is 9 larger pieces, the first 5 fit on my design walls and are marked off below.
[They might be a bit hard to see and if so – apologies for the big white photos. But in each of these there is some very light colored yarn marking off the spaces to fill.]
The largest – 3’x8′ (this is on the design wall I just put up – woohoo!):
Two 4’x4′ square:
Two 3’x3′ square:
Once these 5 are completed I’ll design the remaining four 3’x4′ pieces.
Equipment Prep
Next up I needed to get the sewing machine ready. I wound a bunch of bobbins (the thread that goes in the bottom of the sewing machine).
And cleaned and oiled the bobbin case and put in a new needle. Now it’s all ready to go.
Home #10
And here is the start – Home #10 will be the 3’x8′ piece. This is likely all you will see of it before my show opens so the work is all brand new. Or maybe I’ll post a few in progress photos. We’ll see…
It’s yellow, purple and brown and turning out way cool (it’s much further along now). I’m most pleased.
The Plan
I have about 260ish hours of studio time needed to complete the work for the show (more show details later). I have 7 weeks in which to do this. So, well, I’m going to be busy over the next few weeks as I think I’ve got to continue on with the day job also.
I’ll post updates 2-3 times a week so stay tuned. And coming up soon will be my year in review and my work fro 2010 and the coming decade. I love writing those posts.
And while I’ve said my studio is complete I still need to fix this one small detail. The builder had to redo some texture – back in April or May and the wall has looked like this ever since. I need to hunt through my 20 paint colors and get this fixed cause I’m really tired of looking at it this way! Maybe I’ll go do that right now…
