Tuesday, May 25, 2010

My Latest Work....


My blissful week at Empty Spools Seminars at Asilomar in Pacific Grove in March has finally resulted in a finished quilt - "Fossil Fueled".

My son's childhood fossil collection became the inspiration for this fused applique' quilt. Begun in a workshop entitled "Quilt Like Leonardo Da Vinci" with the ever creative Barbara Olson ( shown talking about her own gorgeous quilts below) in which we were asked to make detailed still - life compositions from natural objects, the quilt evolved from photographs and pencil sketches of fossils of sea-life from the Permian and pre-Cambrian periods.

My final photographic composition is shown at left. Hand dyes, batiks and printed cottons were used along with metallic copper braid, glass beads and textile paints for the final illusion in my fiber composition.




We were encouraged to arrive at Asilomar having read Michael Gelb's book How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci and were challenged to use many of the thought processes and exercises in the book to jump start our own creativity. For me the incredible beauty of the Asilomar State Park environment is usually enough to inspire me (especially this year with beautiful sunshine and blue seas even in mid March - see the snapshots below) but exercising my left brain in new ways was a fascinating experience.



One of the reasons I adore the Asilomar Conference Grounds is the opportunity to walk on the State Beach each morning before breakfast and classes. A boardwalk stretches from the dining hall over the dunes to the beach beyond. Fabulous on a slightly misty morning and even better at sunset!



7 comments:

  1. Oh that's gorgeous. I am totally impressed :)

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  2. Thanks for posting, I love your quilt. It makes me wish I could go to this seminar and see that scenery. Alas I live in Australia.

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  3. What a great interpretation of your still life. Love all the purple. Barbara is a great teacher.
    Come see my antique quilt entries:
    http://utahquiltappraiser.blogspot.com
    http://starleyquilts.blogspot.com

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  4. Reminds me of our wonderful family trip to the beach! Thanks for sharing!

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  5. wow thats amazing! http://erinlebeau.blogspot.com/

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  6. absolutely stunning!! this is such a wonderful quilt and love your writing. used to live ocean view blvd 1971 when pregnant with first baby--spent hours and hours walking along the ocean there and drove over to asilomar a lot to enjoy that beautiful place also. thanks for sharing this wonderful piece

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