New blog

I'm going to be blogging over at my portfolio website - the trouble with the images I was having here are the last straw :P

Here's a link, update your bookmarks if you so desire: http://janellelile.com/new-blog/

And I think I'll try to do quick updates on instagram, it seems like a fun way to share pics when I don't have a whole lot to say about them!  I'm janellelile (so creative).

Bellevue Arts Museum ArtsFair

Hello all, sorry for the radio silence over here.  I've been working on some new pieces to go with the new series and applying for some art fairs for this summer!

I'll be at the Bellevue Arts Museum ArtsFair July 25, 26, and 27 at booth L-02.  All the info about the fair is right here. I'm on a wait list for another fair so I may or may not be there, we'll see!

I've got a new drawing that is finished, too and I wanted to try an encaustic that had a drawing transferred on top to see if it would work.

For unknown reasons the only files that are uploading correctly today are my images that are formatted for the art show application website??  Thanks Blogger! :P  So try to ignore the borders here:

It's a bit terrifying trying to melt in the drawing on the encaustic without messing any of it up…the little triangles are much easier to do.  It worked and I like the result though, so I think I'll do more like this.

merry christmas!

Hope your holiday was lovely and filled with cheer!  I have a couple of hummingbirds overwintering here and they've been delightful to have around.  I've been fretting about them on cold nights but they've been doing great and even made it through a snow storm.  The lights keep their feeder from freezing overnight.

Looking forward to 2014!

Happy Thanksgiving! And a discount for you!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  Even if you don't celebrate it yourself, it's a good reminder to be thankful, I think :)

I'm so thankful for all the wonderful opportunities I've had in the past year, and all the amazing people I've met online and in person.  So to say thanks I'm having a little sale in the online shop.  Use coupon code THANKFUL13 for a 15% discount from now through Monday.  I'm also doing free gift wrapping for the hand printed accessories in the shop, example above.

Here's to a lovely and tranquil holiday season!

Fall City art fair

Heads up for the local peeps:  I'm going to be showing at the Fall City Autumn Arts Faire in (you guessed it) Fall City, WA on November 16th.  That's this Saturday!  10-4, live music, things to eat, should be a good time.

I'll be there with art, of course, and some of the hand printed accessories I've been making for those people who want some art to adorn themselves and their homes!  See you there!

new series!

 Deflect, 16x20" mixed media on paper

Pieced, 11x14" mixed media on paper

Stabilize, 11x14" mixed media on paper

These are what I've been trying to figure out for the last couple months.  There's a learning curve for how to incorporate new things and it took quite a while to figure out how I wanted to proceed.

I picked up a book at the local used book emporium about embroidery in various cultures.  The pictures are beautiful but the idea that clothing in some places was embroidered to protect the wearer really stuck with me.  I've been sort of mulling over combining stitching with figure drawings for a while and I was ready to move on from the crafter drawings.

The best way I found to embroider onto the heavy watercolor paper was to pre-punch a hole from the front (so I could see where I wanted it) and then re-poke the hole from the back so it was big enough to put the needle through easier.  I didn't really care for the look of the holes in the paper so that's why I came up with the idea of patching bits of fabric over the holes.  On 300 lb. watercolor paper the holes were sort of overwhelming the stitching.  My transfer paper works great on fabric so I thought that would make an interesting combination.  I like that using bits of fabric also gives a patchwork feel to the drawing.

I worked on all three of these at once and I think I will do them one a time in the future...that's a lot of little holes to embroider and my fingers are hurting!

new minis

That's a lot of images for some very tiny art!  

These are 4x4" minis I made to test out the addition of image transfers on fabric and embroidery thread to attach the fabric bits.

The more opaque pieces of fabric are cotton with image transfers and the sheer pieces are silk.  The silk didn't take the image transfer for some reason but if I decide I just have to have it I could always try those printable silk organza sheets.  I assume the effect would be the same.

I like how this is working on the small scale so next up will be to add it onto a larger piece.

I'm so far behind...

Uh, so remember that time I went to Portland?  For a show?  It's been a while, I know :P

It's been kind of crazy around here.  I got back from Portland and I was relieved that I could get things back to normal.  Then my mom called me and said my dad was going to need heart surgery and could I come home?  He's doing great now but that was about a week that I wasn't expecting to have to be away.  Then me and my husband went on the big vacation to Hawaii with his entire family for 10 days.  Then I got back and came down with something (apparently I can't be on a plane without catching a cold).  

Soooo...here's some photos from Portland!  I made some simple stand-y peg boards by hinging the pieces together so they fold flat.  I had to get everything into one car because it takes about 3 hours to get there so I really didn't want to have to take a second car!  I had the scarves hung on the boards and the pillows I made on the floor in that metal tub.  I think it all looked pretty good!  I might change some of the display for my little local outdoor fair next month though...putting one of the scarves wrapped around something would look more appealing and give a better idea of how it would look when worn.

Also I've been working on something a little different for the artwork and I'm still figuring it out.  I think I like where it's going but I haven't quite worked out all the kinks and made a finished piece to show you.  But art is happening!  Just not finished work :)

more encaustics and show prep

Three more encaustics, because I wanted a few more to bring with me to Crafty Wonderland.  These are 8x8", 9x12", and 8x10".

I've got most everything put together for the show...it's coming up soon now!  I'm in the midst of printing up some scarves and pillow covers.  I'll have some process photos to post here at some point but so far I was having so much fun printing that I forgot to stop and take photos!  I'll try to remember.

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Carry on.

Crafty Wonderland!

I applied for Portland's fabulous Crafty Wonderland a while back and I was very excited to learn I was accepted!  I've been waiting to mention this news until my name was actually there on the website - I guess it didn't feel official yet.  

I've been strategizing a few new display ideas and coming up with some new things to sell over the last few weeks.  So I've been in the studio quite a bit but I don't have anything that looks like completed artwork to show you yet.  I'm having a ton of fun testing out some block printing on fabric and I found some lovely scarves to print on.

More soon!

green encaustic collage and a tattoo! (but not on me)

Here's another little encaustic collage...having so much fun making these.  I still feel like I'm getting the hang of the medium somewhat but I love the possibilities with depth and layering.  I do kind of like it not to be too smooth - I think you're supposed to be striving towards smoothness but I like some variation.

I got an email last month from Jesika who wanted to incorporate some of my hellebore drawings into a tattoo.  She designed this herself and very kindly sent me photos because I was very keen to see what she came up with!  And then I promptly forgot they were in my inbox, ha ha.  Jesika does some pretty amazing work of her own and I'm very pleased to have been involved in this amazing tattoo!  Thanks Jesika!

lilac encaustic

These shiny encaustic pieces are turning out to be difficult to scan - the glossy surface seems to confuse the scanner and parts of it get blown out.  But I can't get the level of detail I want with photos.  So here's a combination of both...hopefully that gives an idea of what this actually looks like between the two.

I'm trying to get the layers of papers and lines and image transfers to be a little more transparent so you can see through and under them.  Making the lines onto the gesso a bit darker seems to be helping, and I printed out some image transfer bits that are essentially clear with a floating image (in this case the handwriting) on them.  I think that's giving it a feel that's closer to my digital collages where all the layers are working together.

I also decided to start blogging some of my sewing projects but I wanted to keep this space just for art.  I mean, why neglect one blog when you could neglect two??!?  So here's the sewing blog, if you're curious.

not-quite-spring cleaning!

I decided it was time for a change and freshened up my portfolio site a bit.  It's not drastically different but I like it.  It's the same company as before but an updated version of the software that gives me a little more flexibility in the formatting and such.

I've also been working on getting some shows set up for this year which involves lots of writing emails and reading calls to artists and not so much actual studio time.  I'm back in there now and I'll have a couple new pieces to put up here shortly.

I did a lot of sewing and crafty things over the course of November and December.  I've got to stop making handmade Christmas gifts!  It sucks up all my studio time and makes me a little crazy every year.  I need to pick maybe one thing that's small and goes to somebody who appreciates it properly.  Or skip it altogether...  

And then my January has been kind of a wash too!  We flew to CA to visit family and I always catch something when I travel.  This cold just won't go away.  I had a great time in the studio yesterday and then today I feel like death again.  Can't wait for spring...

Ok, that's enough grumbling.  My fingers are crossed that things will be getting back to normal soon.  

more waxing

Two more encaustic pieces, 8x8".

These turned out oddly much warmer in tone than the last two.  The only thing I did different (I think anyway) was melting the encaustic medium in a different container.  And the medium is a bit thicker although I put on fewer layers.  I guess I wanted to try encaustics to introduce a bit more unpredictability into my work so...success :)

I like that using the TAP transfer paper in and on the wax instead of on paper is that the transfers tend not to dominate the piece so much.  The photos I included in these pieces would have ironed on about 5 times darker than they look here.

feeling fall

In between the encaustic experimenting I was working on a couple of pieces on paper.  This piece had an unexpectedly autumnal sort of pink when I came back and looked at it again.  I meant to just make a toned-down pink but it feels like a fall color to me.

I bought some 300 lb. hot press watercolor paper on sale and I really like that ironing on the image transfers is less likely to warp it.  The other pieces usually came back to being pretty flat but this is even smoother.  And obviously it's less prone to buckling when it's wet since I don't like to have to stretch the paper.

mad scientist-ing!

Hey there!  I've been busy since I last posted - did some art walks at a couple places and I did my first outdoor art fair.  And then I picked up something new and was just doing test pieces and experiments but at long last I have something done that I'm happy with.

I've wanted to try encaustic for ages but I was always concerned about how fragile the finished pieces are.  I happened to pick up a book on a 50% off table at the local craft store and it reminded me how much I love the look of it.  So sheer yearning won out over practicality and I got the book.  I had to get a few supplies like an electric griddle and so on but it's not too terribly difficult to get started.

It took a while to figure out how to incorporate the collage bits and the image transfers.  I came up with a few things I liked - there's lines drawn straight onto the panel in colored pencil because regular pencil smudged when I put the first layer of wax on.  Guess how I found out...  You can see a bit of the smudges still on the top piece.  I picked up all the graphite on the second one and redrew in colored pencil and it stayed put.

There's watercolored and colored-penciled pieces of cut paper and then obviously image transfers.  Surprisingly I can use the same transfer paper as before - just burnish it on and then apply heat once it's down.  It's iron-on for everything else but it comes off without heat onto the wax and then smooths out nicely under the heat gun.

The triangles are graphite pencil transfers onto the top of the wax.  They burnish on nicely and then set with a little zap from the heat gun.  The top piece is 8x10" and the bottom is 8x8".

It's super fun and so far I'm pretty excited about having collages that are flat but with lots of depth.  And I'm glad to have something finished finally that I can post here!  I definitely feel like a mad scientist :)

art opening and art walk round up!

Soooo...I had my opening last month and took some pictures!  And immediately forgot to post them.  And I took some more pictures last week!  And I'm actually posting them!  Here's some from this month and last month.

I made this skirt a couple of weeks ago and I want to make at least one more...looks here like it could stand to be a little longer?  Also maybe it would go nice with a tank top?  I'm really bad at putting things together...I digress.

Emily and Andie!

Look at all this fabulous stuff!  I've got my eye on a couple of things that might find their way home with me when I pick up my art...

The opening and art walk were really fun!  I love talking art with people :)  Andie and Emily have made an amazing space at Assemble and I feel incredibly lucky to have gotten a chance to show there!  Thanks ladies, you're fabulous.