Fiat Lux: Studio Illumination

You can’t do art in the Dark

Normally I talk about quilting, art and design technique. But my beloved sewing machine is currently at the vet. So my 230 is on the table and I’m puddling along with projects. I thought about the lighting makeover we did recently.

Light is sight. We see nothing without lighting, and without good lighting we just don’t see well enough. That affects everything, from threading needles to photography, to fabric choices. And my eyes aren’t getting younger.

I’ve done my sewing in attics, and basements and back closets, and in class in all kinds of lighting, most of it pretty bad. But a studio makes it’s own demands. Besides, I was hunting everywhere for my reading glasses, all the time.

Lighting has changed drastically since the beginning of leds. I decided to put Don on it. There had to be a way to make this better. He had the best ideas. We made some mostly cheap changes that changed it all!

Led Lighting

Some simpler changes that are really effective. Don changed the 60 watt warm ceiling bulbs to 100 watt bright white leds. It’s not a restful change. But it’s real illumination, even at night. The change is dramatic. It makes the room crackle with energy and it takes out the dark spots. I can even see the things I dropped under the machine on the floor.

The old incandescent bulbs took a lot of energy to create light and threw a lot of heat off as a byproduct. The compact twisty florescent bulbs were more efficient, but they had mercury in them and it made them really bad to clean up after they broke. I’ve had ott lights, but I never really noticed a big difference with them. Leds create light just through electricity. They can be very bright without the heat and so much safer. And I can adjust the temperature on many of them. The link on top will take you to a great Cnet article about leds.

Swing Shop Lights

I’ve already discovered shop lights. My favorite ones have a ring in the center with a magnifying glass. These are one pivot and can be swung directly to the spot where you need one. My first one had a florescent and an incandescent bulb. Now the new led ones can directly change the temperature and intensity. The table clamp means it can be anywhere and won’t fall over. These are a bit pricey but lovely. I have one on each machine table. Pay attention to the lums, the magnification and the size of the arm. The wider the arm, the wider area it illuminates.

Floor Lights

We also put in a pole light at my sewing table with a reading light on it. These are a cheap fix. A pole light reflects light off the ceiling and brightens the whole area. The reading lamp is direct light on your work. They both help a lot. They’re available at all kinds of places at a full price range, and help particularly as a hand sewing or ripping light. Remember to change the bulb to a 100 watt cool blue and the shade to white.

Under Arm Lights

My 770 Bernina has a bright light under the arm of the machine. One more reason to love it! But you can buy those lights, and put them under all kinds of sewing machines. Light right where you need it. Even on old machines.

Photo Lights

We have some excellent photo lights. But they are big and unwieldy. For smaller pieces it’s like chopping vegetables with a machete. Just too much power for the task. So we put in some smaller photo lights that can change temperature and intensity at the push of the button. The heads on both of them are about the size of a large post card.

Consistency with lighting makes for a consistent portfolio. Work is has a consistency in color ranges and tone. Having consistent lighting confirms that and makes it shows off better. In a way, it’s good branding. And they work well for vlogging and videos.

If you aren’t regularly taking photos of your work, start now. If your critics don’t care, your grandchildren will. Everyone’s art deserves to be documented. Yours too.

Neon Signs: My Warning Lights

Did you leave the iron on? Is the mangle plugged in? Are the machines running? Unanswerable questions unless you’re really willing to look hard at every appliance at the end of a hard day. All satisfied by a florescent light and a power strip.

These aren’t about illumination. But they let me know when the electricity is flowing. They’re plugged into a power strip with the other studio electrics. When they’re off, everything on that power strip is off. When they’re on, you know just by putting your head in the room. Some go on the wall. Some are free standing. I have one for each room so I know when I’ve left something on. Do I have the same kind in each room? Don’t be silly. I have a dinosaur, a whale, a star, Jupiter, and a flying bat.

Power Strips

The downside to a lot of this lighting is that is that they use USB plugs. I can’t say I understand it. They just do. You can buy power strips with USB plugs or use an adapter.

I’ve put in links so you can easily find these things. But they’re universally available.

Look for the lighting that lights up your life.

There’s another byproduct of good lighting. Bright lighting makes me happier. That never hurts either.

Fade to Black: Shading black objects for dimension

Envy

Black and white have the same problems. They’re absolute colors that are really harsh statements in their full form. I almost never do a completely black or white object because they are so overwhelmingly strong and so flat. They overwhelm instead of fitting in.

I’ve worked on creating a white dimensional bird out of different pastels and greys. You can see the result on this post, Into White.

But would the same approach work with black? Instead of using tinted pale colors to create depth, use toned darker colors to create shades of black and greys? That’s what I’m going to try. I’ll take step by step photos so you can see if it works.

Indigo Blues

Have I ever done this one this before? Sort of. I’ve done black before, but when it comes to the contrast shades I’ve turned to purple and blues all of which because they were in my stash were a bit bright. The effect was essentially a purple and blue bird. It’s a fun art statement, but it wasn’t what I was aiming for. I really did want black.

I found this great drawing of a raven I did years ago. It fits into my birdfeeder series, so we’ll see what we get.

This turned out to be hard. I ordered the darkest threads in blue, grey, brown, and purple for it. When they arrived they did look ugly.

The other hard thing was telling which were darker. The tones were very close. I used my red, and green color filters and did the best I could to arrange them dark to light.

The real question is, is this a brown/black raven or a blue/black raven? I’ve tried to mix both blues and browns for a neutral black.

It’s not uncommon for this process for the stitching to be discouraging. It doesn’t look really impressive half way through. So I’ve taken step by step photos so you can see the change.

It didn’t work the way I expected. I was quite disappointed. Then I did what I had planned in the beginning. I used black metallic as my last color. The last color is always your strongest color and the one you will see the most.

The final thing that helps this out is the background. I’m using this piece of hand dye that pulls towards the brown/grey shades even with the yellow reds in it. The color of your fabric is the light source of your piece. This background echoes the brown/blue/black quality of the bird.

Is this a final answer? It is for this piece. I want to play more with it after I’ve had a color fix working on something bright and showy. All these neutral darks are depressing, but I think I got my bird where he should be. I think he needs to be flying over conifers. Maybe I do too.

Springing into a new web site

Spring is here. I can tell by the gale like winds and the sea of mud puddles. I’m only hoping the radishes I planted don’t get fooled and come up too soon.

Along with the spring, I have two new series of quilts I’ve been working on all year showcased. The Marsh Heron quilts are herons and water birds in swamp lands. I’ve always loved herons, and I’ve really played with them here. The Bird Feeder Series is about how a garden naturally feeds birds with the flowers within it. I’ve always understood that a garden isn’t all about people. It’s about every one who uses it. Particularly the birds. There are 11 new large quilts that I am so proud of. See if you can find them.

So it seemed time to freshen up my web site. I’m not hopeless with tech, but wordpress has pretty much kicked me around the room in an effort on my part to understand what’s under the hood. I’ve been so frustrated with showing off quilts easily and well. And people have told me they couldn’t find them easily. I think this time we have it licked. I put in a new theme and spent a week making sure all the links clicked through.

So, I ask you if you would please visit the new portfolio section of my page, and let me know if it works for you. It should lead you to a gallery of quilts, where you can click on any of them and get the information page. Hopefully it will be much easier for you to see all the quilts, without having to hunt for them through the blogs.

And there are some great new quilts to see.

In celebration of that, I’m putting the quilts on 20% off sale. If you click through the Etsy button you’ll find the sale price. If you are a quilt owner, and you would like to trade up a quilt you own for a different piece, let me know. You always have trade up rights.

Please let me know if this site works better for you. Thanks!

Ellen

Back to the Drawing Board: Drawing to Make Creatures Feel Live

1017 Three Wishes

Embroidered appliques rely on a drawing to start with. It’s always a moment when I take a deep breath and give it my best shot. I’m not good at drawing. I’m just stubborn enough to keep at it until I have something useful that I’m usually aiming for is a creature in motion. I hate still lifes because the last thing they seem to be is living. If it’s in motion, it’s live.

In a way this is another reason for free motion. The perfection you find in computerized embroidery doesn’t help us here. Being less regular, smooth and even make things more real and interesting.

I usually draw on Totally Stable, which is a fairly good thin drawing surface that irons on and tears away from the final embroidery surface. It does not erase well, but I usually trace my first drawing to clean it up and to get it going in the right direction. Since the drawing is my pattern on the back, it needs to be facing the opposite direction for the applique. I do make some adjustments for shrinkage. Check out my post Drawing on Distortion for a discussion on how to plan for that.

Is it moving already?

Of course we are talking about a two dimensional art form. How do you make it move? There are several good tricks.

If it’s walking, flying, crawling or stepping up, you’re already half way there.

Don’t make things symmetrical

If things are in dimension, one side is always a bit smaller than the other. Of course it helps if one side is moving differently than the other. But the closer side will have a bigger eye, hand, wing, claw or whatever. That’s how we’d perceive it in life.

Depend on angles

. Things either drawn with an angle or put on an angle give the illusion of motion because our mind tells us they are in motion. We expect gravity to be in play when we see something at an angle. It’s moving because in real life it would be moving.

The best reference book I know for this is The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. I’m not a big Disney fan, but Disney knows about creating images that flow and move from one frame to another. It’s not a cheap book but it’s one of the best.

So I draw things. And redraw them. And scratch out the lines I don’t like. And trace it once or twice. Until I have something that moves me and moves.

Old Lady Sewing Support: Making Art More Possible as We Age

Art is tough. It’s a blue collar profession and it’s physically challenging. I had someone ask me recently what I did as work arounds for the things that are possibly “too hard” at my age.

Of course that’s a bit of a barn door closed at the sight of a fleeing horse. I’ve never been all that sturdy, in spite of my solid heavy bones. My back has always been fragile. I’ve always had head ache, and arthritic knees. Bottom line, I’m not anyone’s idea of a physical specimen.

I can’t say it hasn’t mattered. There are some things I’m probably not ever good for, like standing for long periods of time or lifting heavy objects. I can’t say it ever really stopped me either. It helps to find easier ways.

If you want to do something bad enough, you find a way. The trick is to support yourself the best way you can, to make up for what you can’t do. Here are some of my old lady supporter sewing hacks.

Treat yourself like an athlete. Sewing is hard work. Stretch before, take breaks, and use a muscle rub to stretch and warm out before you start to sew.

Make sure your table is at the right height and you can adjust your chair to match it. There is no misery like a straight chair for sewing. Even very rudimentary rolling desk chairs can be adjusted just where you need them.

Make sure you have good lighting. Lighting makes everything easier from color choices to threading needles. I have swivel magnifying lights on each machine and 100 watt cool bulbs in the ceiling lights. It’s a bit bright for relaxing but it’s great for a work space. Make sure you have close up glasses if you need them.

Find ways that make things easier .for you. Set things up so you eliminate lifting. I have a cart for taking fabric to the washing machine. Use a reacher when you drop things. Place a trash can exactly where you’re working so you don’t have to pick up trash. Find ways to avoid reaching, stretching, bending and twisting, to keep from hurting yourself Look at tasks that are hard and ask yourself what you might do to simplify them.

Identify things that are just too hard. I have someone lift my dye buckets for me. And help me photo quilts. Sometimes you can ask a friend, or have someone who wants to learn what you’re doing. Or include one of your grand kids. It’s builds a relationship between you and teaches them things they’d never know otherwise. You too for that matter. Bribery works, but it needn’t be filthy luker. Just make sure no one feels underappreciated at the end of it all.

Look for gadgets that make it easier. I have a huge magnifier on my light. I have rotary cutters that are ergometric. Some are expensive, some are not. Usually if you ask around your guild or your favorite quilt stores for the things that help them most.

Finally rest when you need it. Have a lie down space or a comfy chair in your studio. Keep an ice pack in the refrigerator if you sprain or strain something. Listen to your body.

And most importantly, have someone who can tell you when you might need to stop. Tomorrow is another day, if you haven’t put yourself completely out of whack. Don does this. You can have a reasonable facsimile if you work on it but you can’t have him.

There’s no magic bullet. We all age. We all find our ways to make our time count more, and our work safer, even with our physical limits.