Fiber Food Round Robin exchange

One night, at the 2006 ArtFiberFest workshop retreat, a group of fiber artists were sitting around late at night, just talking and working. One person suggested we do a fiber food exchange amongst ourselves, we all thought that would be fun, and next thing you know, we are creating our food and having fun!

Basically, each person created a plate or tray and a theme. You send this to the next person, who then added food according to the theme of the piece. The results were fantastic. We were featured in a fiber art Portals “zine” (thanks to Suzanne, who sent me he (zine copy so I could view it), and each plate will be on display in the AFF gallery.

**Please note that the following food items were made out of fiber.

My choice for this project was a retro TV dinner tray. I made the tray and received back the filled tray:

Here are some other pictures I took while each plate was in my possession:

Elegant appetizers (I made lemongrass caviar)

Breakfast Plate:

The egg was my addition:

Next is the Salad Bar plate:

My addition to this plate was:

For the Dessert Tray, I made a cross between a ding-dong and a cupcake… chocolate, of course!:

Last, but not least, is the Bento Box:

I was inspired, so I added: and

I added the potstickers, sushi, and some rice:

It will be a treat to see each finished plate on display. I will have to take photos to share. I also want to share about each artist in this project and their respective plate. We are talking about another exchange, but this one will be hard to top.

Take care! Hugs, Carla

Carla’s Coffee Wraps

I’ve made progress on my trade for ArtFiberFest. I purchased all the materials needed, plus designed my fictitious company logo for this project. Every coffee company needs their own logo, right? LOL!

Thanks to Lori for her consult on the phone this afternoon! I found some cool disposable coffee cups, lids, and cardboard sleeves at Smart & Final. Found a terrific cocoa buttons, and a wide variety of beads and fibers to put into each kit.

Enjoy your weekend! Hugs, Carla

Stencil Tutorial

I mentioned last week that I was thinking of rug hooking one of my fish drawings.  I needed some way to transfer this to the cloth, so I decided to make my own stencil.  The added benefit is that I can also use it in my quilting, too.

For this project, you need a line art drawing of some sort, stencil plastic or mylar, an exacto knife or special stencil cutting knife with 2 blades, a permanent marker, and a cutting mat.  I just used a exacto knife since that is what I happened to have on hand.

Step 1: Decide on your art, then enlarge or reduce to the size you want:

and print out: 

Step 2: Trace the drawing onto the stencil plastic (or mylar) using the permanent marker.  Use your exacto blade to carefully cut out the black lines.  (Hint: I plan my connecting lines ahead of time so the stencil will stay together)

Last step: Use the stencil to mark where you wish.  You could use this to mark a quilt with chalk or- as in my example- I’ve marked a piece of burlap for a rug hooking project:

Easy Project!  I suggest this tutorial for all levels of experience.  Just be careful of that sharp exacto blade or stencil knife.  As with all my previous tutorials, please share what you create if you use this.

Regards, Carla