Swap Results

Last Thursday at the September FANE meeting, all participating members brought their swap art to trade. Before we swapped, we each had a chance to describe what we had in our given bag of goodies and what we did with them.  Most people were really challenged to make art out of things from someone else's stash.  Some people changed things completely by painting over them.  One member photographed all the things in her bag and used the photo to make her pieces.  Another used the large paperclips in her bag to make a stamp and used it to print on fabric.  It was really fun to listen to everyone's stories and see the results.

The person who received my bag of goodies was unable to attend the meeting due to a family emergency, so next month I get to see what she made.  Something to look forward to!  I'm not sure if I'll make these into a book or some kind of wall hanging.  They are certainly too beautiful to be stuck in a drawer somewhere, don't you agree?

Art on the Go

The week before we left on vacation, I put as much time as I could prepping my little swap pieces, completing all the cutting, fusing, and machine stitching.   Then I packed up a kit with needles, thread, beads, scissors, and any other embellishments I thought I might need and we hit the road.  I was able to stitch on beads, buttons, and the little flowers included in my swap bag while we were driving and during other quiet moments.  Completing a few every day, I was able to get them all completed - a day early!  Here are photos of some of them:

While adding the embellishments, I tried to keep in mind some of the elements of design we discussed the past year in the FANE group (balance, rhythm, motion, focal point...).  It was a good exercise for me, since the colors and shapes were pretty constant and many of the pieces were abstract designs more than representational pictures.  On Thursday evening, I'll swap these and come home with 19 different ones, each made by a different artist.  I'm sure I'll be thrilled with each little piece of art.

Now that that project is out of the way and school begins tomorrow, I'm ready for a fresh start and a new project!