What's New in the Studio

Good Day!

I've been busy in the studio with dyeing new fabric and pearl cotton. I've added several things to the Etsy Shop.  I've also been busy with Christmas presents. So many of my grandkids love homemade items, that it is fun to make them for them. But I'm not showing you what they are, because one or two of them may be snooping. 😁

Hand Dyed Pearl Cotton DMC #8

Hand Dyed Cotton Yard Fabric

Ice Dyed Yard Cotton Fabric 

So what are you working on during the holiday season? Quilts? Holiday items? Christmas presents? I want to know. Inspire me!

Don't Forget! Free Shipping through the end of the year in my Etsy Shop. Use Coupon Code FreeShip2017

Have a wonderful, safe and joyous holiday season!

Creatively,

Jules

PS: Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. I post a lot of new product on those pages!

It's Almost My Birthday!

Oh my goodness! My birthday is sneaking up on me. It's time for my annual Birthday gift to Studio Jules Art on Etsy customers!

Here it is: FREE SHIPPING until the end of the month. Just click on this Link or copy the Coupon Code HAPPYBIRTHDAY and you will receive Free Shipping on any size order. Order as much or as little as you like, the Free Shipping is my Birthday Present to YOU!

Happy Dance!

Jules

Finding Balance

Lately I have been struggling with finding balance between “Life” and “Studio”. Do you ever have that problem? I have decided to take each day as it comes and be at peace with it, and maybe, just maybe, I will be able to spend a few hours each week in the studio.

Our new little dog, Oreo, is a joy and has become a great encourager for me to go to the Studio. Everyday he runs to the studio and tells me it is time to work. Unfortunately, most days I have to tell him it isn’t time yet. He just loves to sleep at my feet while I am quilting.

He is such a love and tries to help me work on the computer too.

The latest pieces of work to come out of the studio are this versatile piece, “Fall 2016”. The colors remind me of a Fall morning with the changing colors and the left over colors of summer. It can be hung on the wall or lay it on a table as an accent piece. It measures 8”x17.5” and is available in my Etsy shop.

The big project I am working on is a modern quilt. It isn’t a large quilt, but one that can hang on the wall or accent a table. I used the Rising Star pattern for the blue stars and love the way the triangles are quilting.

I’m off to work in the studio and get more quilting done. Enjoy your day and make it a creative one!

Back to School - Free Shipping!

Back to School Free Shipping!

Get ready for Fall with a new scarf or treat yourself to quilting fabric (since you have the house to yourself again!).

Use Coupon Code BACK2SCHOOL for Free Shipping at check out in my Etsy shop.

Hand Dyed Scarves

I love dyeing fabric and scarves and hankies. Being able to share this love with others gives me a wonderful feeling. When you wear one of the hand dyed scarves, you will always have someone commenting on the color and the uniqueness of the pattern.

The hand dyed fabrics, each of the ice dyed pieces is different and I have started dyeing pieces using the Shibori technique. Today I posted new fat quarters that are in different colors and various Shibori techniques.

Hand Dyed Fat Quarters
Hand Dyed Yards

Do you needlepoint or hand quilt? I have some beautiful DMC pearl cotton to go with your hand work. I love to needlepoint and have hand dyed DMC to work on a project. What a peek? I am doing this to go along with the Four Year Quilt! When I'm done it will be put on a custom made footstool. 

Pearl Cotton

So, enjoy your day and pop on over to StudioJulesArt on Etsy and use your BACK2SCHOOL Free Shipping code in the Coupon Code section of check out. 

Sunset

Last night the sunset was beautiful!

This morning I woke of thinking about the sunset and realized that I have fabric and scarves in my Etsy shop to match!

Beautiful Red and Yellow

Hand Dyed Red and Yellow

I love dying fabric and sharing it with others. These infinity scarves are made out of Bamboo Cotton and are so soft. Enjoy the eye candy, but jump over to my Etsy shop and purchase one of these scarves so you can enjoy the sunset everyday.

Mother's Day at Studio Jules Art on Etsy

Just in time for Mother's Day! Jump over to my Etsy shop, Studio Jules Art, and pick out a sweet infinity scarf or hankie for your mom! For those of you that are TCU fans or support the Alzheimer's Association, there are some scarves that are just the right colors!

Infinity Scarf in Deep Purple and Wisteria

Finally - Back in the Studio and Back on Etsy

This past year has been a whirlwind with moving and getting settled in our new home. I love our new home, it is the perfect size and location for us. My studio has been separated into two rooms, but it works well. My construction studio has wonderful windows and faces the south and the studio with all the fabric faces the west with a huge two story blocking the sun. Bonus!

 Yesterday I re-opened my Etsy shop. Right now I have hand dyed and ice dyed scarves and hankies listed. Pop on over and take a peek! The colors are awesome!

I'll be posting more hankies and scarves this week and then I will post fabrics and notions. 

Glad to be back in the land of the creative! Enjoy your day!

December Shipping/Shopping

"Confused"

Well, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are over, but Christmas Shopping is still happening! To celebrate the shopping season, I'm offering FREE SHIPPING on all Art Work and Art Quilts in my Etsy and Art Fire shops. Use Coupon Code ARTWORKFREESHIP in both shops to get the free shipping on these beautiful pieces!

The piece above is called "Confused". It is mixed media on stretched canvas. Painted with textile and acrylic paints, denim, silk, cheesecloth, painted Misty Fuse, papers and beads. It is listed in my Etsy shop.

I have a lot of fabric that isn't posted on either shop (just haven't had time to take the pictures and post them!), so if you are looking for a certain color, color combination, or size, shoot me an email and I'll let you know what I have! The Ice Dyed fabrics are fantastic!

Okay, off to clean up my desk, do much hated paperwork, and clean up the Christmas decorating mess. I've done as much as I can do this year for decorating. What isn't done, is going back in the attic!

Happy Shopping with FREE SHIPPING everyone!

Getting Things Done

This week has been busy, busy, busy. I finished preparing my hand dyed fabrics for the Trinity Valley Quilt Show and just have cards and patterns left to prepare. I also need to prepare kits for the Painted Cheesecloth and Sunflower Art Quilt workshop I am teaching to the DAFA members on September 17th. But I think this will wait until closer to the workshop so I know exactly how many to prepare.

I have taken time for myself this week with a wonderful massage and mani/pedi on Tuesday. Then I did a little shopping. Since my birthday is tomorrow, I decided that it was time to take some time off and pamper myself a bit.

This morning I received a wonderful email about one of my pieces of fabric being included in a Treasury on Etsy. Here is the link to Style Study #26 Mediterranean. It is a beautiful, relaxing collection. I'm honored to have one of my pieces included!

Reorganizing my "To Do List"

I am truly thankful for all God has put before me - the challenges and the rewards. I am thankful that He has given me my faith, my family, and the talent and drive to create beautiful (and sometimes not so beautiful) artwork. Today was a wonderful morning at church and I have been able to make time this afternoon to catch up on group discussions, Etsy discussions, business development emails and watch a few movies in the process. For those of you who know me and are getting to know me, you know that if I could multi-task in my sleep, I would. I just have a hard time “not” multi-tasking. Even with the perpetual habit of multi-tasking, I have been feeling a little overwhelmed lately. Trying to accomplish so much in what seems so little time. I started to give you my “To Do List”, but I decided you could already relate and didn’t need (or want) to be burdened by my overwhelming need to do so much.

I will share with you that I have read and been involved in some wonderful discussions lately. I am a member of TAFA, the Textile and Fiber Art List. There are a number of us linked on LinkedIn and Rachel led us into a discussion this week on how we price our products. Great discussion on how we set our pricing and being careful not to under-price our products, and/or ourselves, and how hard this is sometimes. The timing was apropos because I had just received the weekly email from Etsy Success about using Product Worksheets to help with the pricing of product. I have already priced my products and do a lot research when I’m in the process and calculating my wholesale and retail prices. However, this discussion and online support from Etsy has me reevaluating my process and double checking my pricing. Reading and networking with the other artists involved with TAFA and Etsy is wonderful support and I appreciate both groups tremendously.

Honestly, networking with the groups I am involved with online seems to fall to the bottom of the list sometimes because I put more time and effort into producing product. However, as of today, I have decided to spend more time networking and I realize that as I do, it will help me with my production process. When we get so busy with our lives and the “To Do List”, it is easy to let our priorities become misaligned. So my friends, I encourage you to evaluate your “To Do List” and see where you are out of balance and how making sure your faith, family, community and work on in the proper order. Oh, and don’t forget, we have to get some exercise too.

Are you interested in TAFA? Here are the great links to the different venues TAFA has available!

TAFA - the Textile and Fiber Art List
TAFA Market
TAFA on Facebook
TAFA Blog

Happy creating everyone!

Beat the Summer Heat, Be Creative!

Will this heat ever stop? Not anytime soon, according to the weather people. Texas is headed to break the record from 1980 of the most consecutive days with temps at or above 100°. I remember the summer of 1980 very well. I was attending college in the Texas Hill Country, taking summer school, walking to classes and the cafeteria in the heat; it was not the best summer of my life (for several reasons). This summer, I’m lucky; I get to stay in the air conditioned house and I don’t have to leave, unless I want to and when I do, it is early in the day. Yesterday, my car thermostat read 103° and it was only 11am and today it is suppose to be back up to 110°. What’s a person to do? Well, I’ll tell you! BE CREATIVE!

To encourage all of you to stay inside and do something creative, I am running a HOT Sale on my ArtFire and Etsy shops. 25% off everything! Just use the code HOT2011 at check out, on either (or both) shops! Now, since it is hot outside, please remember to drink plenty of water before you shop, hydration is the key to successful shopping!

Stay cool and be creative!

Hand dyed Fat Quarter Show and Tell

The weather cooperated this morning and I was able to take pictures outside of the fat quarters I hand dyed the past couple of days. Blues and greens are usually very difficult to photograph, but the clouds were working with me today and I didn't have to do any color adjustments!

The first one I want to show you is the one that was the one I had rolled with a hand painted fat quarter and then threw into the dye bath. I love it! I have posted it in my Etsy shop, click here to see it in the shop.



I've only been able to post the ones I've selected to sell on Etsy today. I'll post the ones I have selected for ArtFire tomorrow. Here are the ones on Etsy!

Relief Efforts in Japan

This morning I awoke hearing the increased devastation in Japan. I can't imagine what the United States would be like if we had experienced this tragedy. The American Red Cross is in full action in Japan and they need additional funds to meet the increased needs of those they are serving. As of today, and until I feel the immediate need has passed, I am donating 50% of all sales through StudioJules ArtFire shop and StudioJulesArt Etsy shop to the American Red Cross.

50% Off Sale Hand Dyed Handkerchiefs

I decided to get ahead of the curve and put my hand dyed handkerchiefs on sale 50% off. Get them now before Mother's Day, allergy season and for Teacher gifts!
StudioJules on ArtFire
StudioJulesArt on Etsy

Parfait Dyeing Results from Last Week

Well I have dyed, ironed and posted fabrics on Etsy and ArtFire! Thought I would give you a peek at what came out of the dye containers. The colors are so beautiful and I'm amazed at how the dyes take so differently from the snow dyed fabrics. The snow dyed fabrics, the colors are so much more brilliant and the parfait dyed fabrics are softer. The movement in both are wonderful and unique. So, here are the parfait fabrics!


Hand Dyed Cotton Fabric Fuchsia


Hand Dyed Cotton Fabric Varigated Green and Yellow


Hand Dyed Cotton Fabric Fuchsia and Blue


Hand Dyed Cotton Fabric Blue and Fuchsia


Hand Dyed Cotton Fabric Purple, Fuchsia and Blues


Hand Dyed Cotton Fabric Golden Yellow and Green


Fuchsia and Blue Hand Dyed Fabric


Multi Color Dyed Cotton Fabric 1 Yard

It’s Been a Good Day!

My day started off wonderful! Got up, checked the email and someone had bought some of my dyed fabric! To make it even sweeter, one of the pieces is one that I snow dyed last week. Whoo Hoo!
So, I made sure to workout, but I think I forgot to have breakfast and celebrated the sale by myself. While I was getting ready for the day I decided it was time to put forward some of the “Branding” information I have been reading on the internet, Etsy and ArtFire. First I decided to continue with the header I have on my blog, Etsy and ArtFire shops and put it on my “Sales Receipt/Packing Slip”. I just copied the packing slip information over from Paypal and made my own! This way I was able to personalize my message at the bottom and made sure all my websites were accounted for.
Next, I pressed white gift tissue, yes, I ironed gift tissue. I want it to look nice! Then I printed out clear labels with my ArtFire and Etsy shop web addresses and I pulled out some of my hand painted fabric scraps and cut a strip to use as a bow. After I wrapped up the fabric, I used one of the labels to secure the gift tissue, and then tied it up with the hand painted fabric! Doesn’t it look pretty! I know printed gift tissue paper would look nicer, but I don’t want to run the risk of any of the dyes from the paper to leave a mark on these beautiful fabrics.
The next branding/marketing idea I put to use was printing out “Return Customer” discount cards. It is a marketing strategy talked about on one of the Etsy forums. I thought this was a grand idea, so I put it into action.
Okay, so now I’m off to post new artwork on Etsy and ArtFire!

Snow Dyed Fabric - The Big Reveal!

We received over an inch of snow the other day at our house. Just enough for me to gather enough snow for to snow dye some fabric in the garage. I posted on Monday the pictures of my 5 yards of fabric being snow dyed (and how they looked like huge snow cones). Well, here are the results. At first, I wasn’t too thrilled with the results, but I have learned not to make judgments until after I washed the fabric twice and dried it. Because, first impressions are always wrong. The fabric I think looks the worst, becomes my favorite, what can I say, so I just don’t get my hopes up or down anymore and look forward to the wonderful surprise that awaits me. The part of the process I love the best is when I iron the fabric, that is when it really talks to me and tells me what it wants to do. With each picture, I’ll tell you what they told me!
For those of you that are just now following my blog, I blogged earlier this year about the snow dyeing process. See my March 31, 2010 post "Snow Dyed - Hand Dyed Cotton.

The Reveal……………


This first piece is gorgeous, I know I should save the best for last, but I just had to show this one first. This piece started talking flowers, as I started ironing, flowers started popping out, iris and peonies. Purple and yellow iris, pink peonies, do you see them? My hair stylist asked what I was smoking when I showed the pictures to him, I don’t smoke anything! Just high on life, fabric and color.


Oh, I love these colors. Reds, pinks, orange, yellow, bright cheerful colors. This one started talking flowers too, yellow and pink iris again, or maybe some butterflies. This would also be a great piece to use for appliqué. It has such a great mixture and movement. Do you think I’m anxious for warmer weather and that is why I’m seeing spring and summer flowers?


Piece number three started out as a disappointment. The top section just didn’t take the dye as well as the middle. I don’t know if it just didn’t get soaked well enough with soda ash before I placed the snow, or if the dye just didn’t migrate over to it, but it has a hint of the robin egg blue, chartreuse and pink. The colors are better in person, I just couldn’t get the color to adjust right today and I wasn’t up to braving the cold to go outside and take it. Brrrr. Anyway, I can see using surface designs and textures on it. The middle part reminds me of pictures I’ve seen of stars exploding. When I started thinking about stars, then a universe piece started forming in my brain...we’ll see where it goes. It just may go into either my Etsy or Artfire shop. Any takers out there?


Piece number four, now this is a close runner for my favorite. Rainbow explosion, the green is very lightly mixed in the middle. The way the colors just explode into each other is invigorating! The snow, ice crystals really did a great job. This piece also shows great potential for flowers and butterflies too. Do you see them too?


This last piece was dyed with piece number two, so the colors are the same, but the way the fabric took the dyes is a little different. At first I didn’t see flowers as much as the other piece, but when I looked at it again I saw gladiolas and some roses. I also see this piece as a great piece for appliqué. Each artist visualizes differently, so tell what the fabric saying to you.

Some of these pieces will be one of my online shops, StudioJules on Artfire or StudioJulesArt on Esty . So, if you interested, check my shops! Each piece is one yard.

Happy creating everyone and I hope these bright cheerful colors warm up your day!