[Artists-making-art] my introduction

Tue Nov 29 20:42:33 UTC 2011

This is Patty Estes in Maine and have no "intro" written up, but at 
fifty-eight, where to begin??
This discussion of textile art is fascinating...it's just what I needed. I 
have a two foot square lap type of loom and just told my daughter in law 
that I decided to keep it for myself, even though I've never used it! I 
thought I could use it for wall hangings and such. I grew up in a very 
creative, artsy family with my mom an art instructor locally and with 
private students in the home. I began with realistic pencil sketches, than 
went to fashion line drawing, then to being a mother!! I have done 
paintings, but as my vision has changed, my paintings have become more 
impressionistic and I am drawn to stick things onto the canvas! "Oh, 
multi-media!" one clerk in an art store declared what I do. I suppose, I 
just want to enjoy what I do...after the fact, too. so a piece of mica 
becomes the sun over water, etc. My painting has gone from realistic 
representation to impressionistic to just plain intuitive art...like going 
from a bright Renoir (of course I am not at that level, just using his 
palette to make a point!) to a muted, washed out Monet...which I never liked 
much. But this is the way I now see, it seems.
And he apparently had RP.
I got out some of my formals that I had designed and my mother sewed up for 
me and am still in love with the fabric and can't part with it. so, thought 
of cutting strips and weaving. We'll see. I have the same small motor 
limitations, but also have the absolute need to use what color/texture that 
I still can!
I write, also, but sometimes words just don't do it.

thank you for this timely discussion,
Patty Estes
Auburn, Maine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jewel" <herekittykat2 at gmail.com>
To: "An exploration of art by and for blind persons" 
<artists-making-art at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 2:43 PM
Subject: Re: [Artists-making-art] my introduction

> Dear Kestrell,
> Sorry about the misspelling. It's definitely an interesting nickname.
>
> Please keep us updated on how the silicon works on the canvas cloth.
> I'd love to hearhow that turns out. FRor the beads, I might suggest
> using jewelry-grade wire. If you research French beaded flowers,
> you'll find that they use thin wire to shape their beads into all
> sorts of shapes, mainly flowers, though I've seen French beaded
> animals, too. I have a pendant that is a blue rose made only out of
> seed beads. Persoanlly, I can't work with seed beads due to pain in my
> joins (fibromyalgia), but it's an idea if you can do it.
>
> For the brads, I stick to fabrics that can easily be punched through.
> I've used nylon, cotton, linen, and light-weight wool. I'm trying
> embroidery cloth right now, which basically already has the holes so
> it's easier...with other fabrics I have the chance of tearing the
> fabric which could cause a rip or bending the brad and breaking it.
> Both have happened to me in the past.
>
> ~~Jewel
>
>
>
> On 11/29/11, Kestrell <kestrell at panix.com> wrote:
>> Hi, Jewel
>>
>> The name kestrell (I spell it k e s t r e l l) comes from the name of the
>> smallest kind of falcon (spelled with one l), but I took my particular
>> spelling from Edmund Spenser's long poem, "The Faerie Queen," in which 
>> the
>> Elizabethan word "kestrell" (with two l's) means a low and common person. 
>> It
>> started off as my online nickname, but then it just seemed everyone I 
>> knew
>> was calling me Kestrell, so I pretty much use it all the time.
>>
>> I haven't gotten into brads much. I tried beads, but what a pain in the
>> butt! I have arthritis in my hands, so doing lots of repetitive handwork
>> with small items can irritate it. Do you use some sort of punch-machine 
>> to
>> insert the brads, or can you easily do it by hand?
>>
>> For my tactile tapestry, I used a duck cloth banner/flag which comes with 
>> a
>> lightweight wooden dowel that I purchased online from Dharma Trading
>> Company, which is also where I get some of my dye products. The baners 
>> come
>> in a variety of sizes, they are all nicely sewn, and it is natural cotton
>> fabric. First I tie-dyed the fabric with dark green in a pattern which
>> suggests tree trunks and branches. Then I took some wide brown velvet 
>> ribbon
>> and made three straight up-and-down lines to suggest three abstract 
>> trees. I
>> wanted to make a green and silver river of beads, so used Big Eye plastic
>> beading needles to sew the beading thread onto the tapestry, but
>> unfortunately the thread broke, or perhaps I just didn't sew it securely
>> enough, so then, beads everywhere! My new plan is to use this silicone
>> product called Sugru which comes in little packets which you open, knead
>> like PlayDough, and then layer on to the cloth or whatever you want to 
>> put
>> it on. People use it to mold into bowls, create custom grips on devices, 
>> and
>> patch holes on boots--it's pretty cool stuff. Then it just needs to cure 
>> for
>> 24 hours.
>>
>>   Kestrell
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Jewel" <herekittykat2 at gmail.com>
>> To: "An exploration of art by and for blind persons"
>> <artists-making-art at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 11:43 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Artists-making-art] my introduction
>>
>>
>>> Kistrell,
>>> What an unusual name! I love it! Thank you for the book suggestion; I
>>> went directly to Bookshare and got his books (there are two of them,
>>> one on arts and one on history of blindness in England).
>>>
>>> I also do tactile art with ribbons, butons, and more. Have you tried
>>> brads? I use them in my tactile art. they come in many colours, which
>>> I keep sorted in bead organizers, and some even have textures (such as
>>> ones I got that have a velevet texture and some that are glittery). I
>>> have only finished one piece, a dragonfly and flower, but am working
>>> on several others. What do you use as the tapestry blank (cloth,
>>> canvas, something else?) I am trying embroidery cloth now, as I've had
>>> some difficulty with regular cloth taking the brads without tearing
>>> the fabric. Oh, and brads can be used to write things out in a sort of
>>> jumbo Braille!
>>>
>>> ~Jewel
>>>
>>> On 11/29/11, Kestrell <kestrell at panix.com> wrote:
>>>> Hello
>>>>
>>>> My name is Kestrell and I live in the Boston area. I am totally blind,
>>>> but
>>>> was low vision until my early twenties. Growing up, I was an art
>>>> student.
>>>>
>>>> For the past few years, I have been helping to organize a tactile art
>>>> show
>>>> for a Boston-area science fiction convention, and it resparked my
>>>> interest
>>>> in making and appreciating art, so last year about this time, I decided
>>>> that
>>>> I wanted to get more art in my life. A number of great events, such as
>>>> this
>>>> list, seem to have occurred during this year. Another great event was 
>>>> the
>>>> visit of Simon Hayhoe, an academic who studies and writes books about
>>>> teaching art to blind people (you can find his books on Bookshare, and 
>>>> he
>>>> also has a Web site which you can find through his Wikipedia entry).
>>>>
>>>> I've been trying different art media, including tactile tapestrymaking 
>>>> (I
>>>> use things like ribbon, hemp cord, beads, and fabric for this), wire
>>>> sculpture, and tie-dying. On Thursday, the blind crafters list will be
>>>> having a class on creating tie-dye with permanent marker, so I'm 
>>>> looking
>>>> forward to that, as it is a lot less messy than using powder dyes and
>>>> gives
>>>> the artist a lot more control.
>>>>
>>>> I've also been blogging about different resources I have found and
>>>> writing a
>>>> book about my experiences reintroducing myself to art as a blind 
>>>> person.
>>>>
>>>> Kestrell
>>>> http://kestrell.livejournal.com
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
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>
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