Haleiwa Arts Festival

It's Almost  time  for The Hale'iwa Arts Festival!

Saturday, July 21, 10 am-6 pm ; Sunday, July 22, 10 am -5 pm

Celebrate the Arts and Rediscover
Your Inner Artist

Spend a special day with your family and friends at the Fifteenth Annual Hale'iwa Arts Festival Summer Art Fest, in Historic Hale'iwa Town, on Oahu's beautiful North Shore

Saturday, July 21, 10am-6pm & Sunday, July 22, 10am-5pm
at Hale'iwa Beach Park 

on the North Shore of Oahu.
Free Admission and
Free Entertainment.

The Arts Festival features 128 fine artists with original works, limited & open edition prints, traditional & contemporary, in oil, acrylic, watercolor, ceramic, sculpture, photography, fabric, jewelry and glass.

The Art Festival also includes performance arts featuring original music and dance, with audience participation encouraged.( I love the Bagpippers on Saturday morning!) Also included are cultural history trolley tours of Hale`iwa town, art demonstrations and displays, and a host of "hands-on" children's activities

Be sure to pick a program guide at  Information Event HQ tent,

this will have a map and help you navigate your way around.

this is a wonderful event for all ages, locals and visitors.

I'll be in my booth #111  near  main entrance, first aid, and

Information Event Headquarters .

stop by and say hi.  Aloha, Sonja

A Painting class from Japan

My first painting class this summer came all the way from Yokohama Japan!

they have visited my booth at quilt shows for many years

 and this was the year they wanted lessons.

fortunately art is a lot like laughing to me .

 we all do it in the same language, mostly.

they wanted to paint flowers and fabric and so we did.

 for two days.

 each day they took the bus out from Waikiki and we painted up a storm.

 i did allot of demos instead of words and they did a great job, as you can see.

 now these ladies have fabric that they painted to use in their own quilt designs.

they also now have good brushes, little pots of paint, and many, many ideas to play with.

these  sessions  are  my  most  favorite  kind  of  days!

  

                                

nice palette!

Which one is yours?

Color in many forms

                                                       finger painting fabric dots


   

Aloha ! Sonja

prayer flag for June

Mahalo
is a word for ThankYou.
it is a one word prayer
of being grateful and aware of all beauty around you.

I took one of my prayer flags that had the word stitched on and collaged it with some of the pieces of fabric that i am thankful to find in a box,

colorful bits waiting to be useful.

after i decided upon an arrangement i free motion tacked them down , overlapping.

after a freemotion quilting session, i painted some parts
that wanted more color.

the addiiton of buttons and ties complete this project.

 

this is held up to the morning sunrise.

 

i have left the edges raw on purpose.

perhaps they shall join up at a later date.
As for now they are free.
Mahalo, Sonja

leftovers or art?

         empty paint jar get new life.

 So, what did i do with the those tiny strips and selvages of my painted fabric today,

the ones stuffed in a bag? 

i adhered them in random order of pulling them out of the bag and covered a used up paint jar that was housing some of my paint brushes.

this morning the idea came along with a cup of coffee.

 i orderd more paint today and sent a photo along to Dharma Trading
 to show another way
 i love their stuff.
Perhaps i shall ad fabric to top of jar, later.

 something  to do while paint dries.

Yes, that is a moma hen in the background with little ones.

Happy Wednesday

Plumeria

what a wonderful fragrance the Plumeria gives off .

 So clean and light and welcoming.

  

Here is a painting of plumerias in my hand.

later i painted a smaller verson,

 quilted it, and shared  with some of my art pals.

oh happy day of flowers

have a great memorial weekend.

Turquoise scarab

Turquoise Scarab

The theme for May's exchange is Turquoise

 for the artsinthecards  art group

here is my offering

isn't he cute?

below are some of the materials i  used after idea light bulb came on ;

my paper sketch, painted coffee filters backs, paint, brushes, threads, sharp tools.
 i was given a carved bead of a scarab to make into a knotted necklace many decades ago
that was part of inspiration memory recall.

what photos do not show is the iridesent painted over color

Three scarab beetles 

Here they are in all their glory
 quilted on my favorite  Bernina 830 Record machine .

be well, sonja

Acid Rain

 Rain

 was the latest word prompt for Arts in the Cards trade.

 what that word looks, feels, sounds like to you at the time is what was made visable

 and reduced to a small card and sent out to other artists.

this blue bubble photo is not one of them.

it is a eyeglass cleaner cloth borrowed from my DH from his last pair of glasses.

 and as good as any place to start as i am visual.

 also a good reminder that i get my eyes checked this week for sharper vision glasses!   

i started out with water/rain drops and the  idea that i see  colors in drops, which i do .

water running down a windsheld or window takes on shapes as did the paint i put on several pieces of cloth that i left out in the rain to make them dilute and as they dried on a slope,

the colors ran downhill.

of the 4 pieces i picked 3 that i quilted to repeat that rolling down effect  of drops.

 i used some metallic thread that broke (even with the metallic needle)  often .

 i was glad these were small pieces.

rain drops keep fallin' on my head.....

was the most sung  old song  as  worked  along  on  this challege.
what does rain inspire you in your imagination?

 

  

eggs

one of my favorite ways to color eggs
 at Easter is to wrap them in onion skins and hard boil them.
i will often tuck in a fern or herb sprig in as a resist. i like red onions but other skins colors work. i bundle the eggs covered with skin in a coffee filter ( i have small eggs from some of my hens) or i cut a square of fabric that is then lightly bound at the gatherng point.i used 8 inch squares here.
 a little vinegar and i let them cook and color at the same time.

this is the simple process in photos to get organic Easters eggs in beautiful colors of gold, greens, and rust that look like they might have been hatched by some exotic wood fowl with no toxic dyes.
  start to collect onions skins ahead of time or make friends
with the produce manager at your local market.
the more skins you wrap the deeper the tones get.

gather the eggs, skins, herbs, coth wrapper square, and don't foreget a pair of scissors to snip the

wrapping string.

                                                         

these are bundles are ready for the pot

    boil as you would for hard boiled eggs.

              i also put a few uncovered eggs in as i ran out of skins.

these turned a warm golden brown but without the marbling/motling of skins wrapped ones.

these are unwrapped while still  quite warm as i cannot wait to see what happened .

                                                   i made a nest of fabric sevlages and strips.

                                                        hard to watch boiling eggs so
                                                                 

while i was waiting for the onion skin eggs,
 i finger painted some already boiled  eggs with food coloring the result of which
 i got more on my fingers than the egg
.

lovely  blue/green egg, scrap cloth, and my camera strap got some more color as well!

Happy Easter  to All!

Sonja

atc art spring 2012

RED

Red was the prompt for Feb in the ATC exchange with  artsinthecards folk.

 my mind went  directly to the comb of a rooster,

in fact, Peaches the rooster that shared 5 years with us was y model.

 one of the redest reds i have  ever seen was the afternoon sun shining through the

 comb of the rooster.

 i drew and painted the head. next some layering  and quilting.  a sky blue background made me happy. after i scanned and printed 9 rooster heads on cardstock i had lost some

 of the vibrant color i  wanted.

out came colored pencils and more paint.

still not there,

i turned over the pieces and embossed the comb with a stylus tool to ad demension.  

 lastly, i added  a bit of golden glitz into the neck feathers to show shimmer of light.  

                                                              LIME

the prompt for March was Lime.

 i have a citrus tree that has lime scented leaves that i believe to be a rough lemon or what i call
 a lumpy lemon. see photo below.

 then there is that song about de lime in de coconut and call me in the a m ...

now i can't get that image or tune out of my mind. i sketched an assortment of slices quickly as
not to overthink this little project.
 then i get out  some paints of yellow and blue
and plain muslin fabric and lightly draw simple arcs for the lime skins
. painting very loose, i reach my bliss.
(and this is why i paint afer all!)
 after the paint is dry i quilt in some slices segrments. the blue between gets tiny circles quilted, and a few cards get seed beads sewn on for dewy drops beore the envelope captures them.
some did not. i also put in one real leaf because i love the fragrance. i sent one leaf  to New Zealand where lime-sniffng inpectors found me out and held up the mail. for weeks.
note to self: do not repeat that leaf sending out of USA if real !

 and in the very last shot at the  bottom  

 having  turned a  card on its side  i now  see a Lime in a bikini!

 you never know where art will lead you but it makes me happy today!

be well!
sonja

water dragon

The year of the Dragon
2012
 

The year of the chinese water dragon is well underway. in one of my post card art trading groups we made dragons recently and this is my guy.

first i sketched and painted on fabric and

then  the next day i free motion doodled over the dragon  with various verigated threads

from Superior Threads,

the King TUT line is my favorite.
i made four of these so i had one to keep for my collection.

the Dragon seems to be resting on a branch here.out on a limb.

i am glad most of our lizards don't get as large as this fellow .