Category: Quilts

Posted in Fiber, Photography, Quilts

Getting From Here To There

Posted on by debthumanblog

At the moment, I’m waiting for fabric to tell me what to do next.

I’ve taken three classes from one biology teacher, and I’ve had to make quilts for each class. It wasn’t an assignment; it was art that insisted on being made. This semester, I’m taking human physiology. I’ve worked out what I want on this quilt, and worked out what the different things will look like. The quilt will have trans-membrane proteins, G-coupled protein receptors, transport proteins, neurotransmitters and neurotransmitter receptors, hemoglobin molecule, chlorophyll molecule, cell-to-cell communication, and if I can get enough detail into a small space, a protein receptor on the surface of the cell membrane.

I find it easiest to choose fabrics if I grab fabrics I want to audition for the quilt and let them sit for a day or so. Frequently, fabrics look different a day or two after I choose them. I started with a different fabric for the background, but nothing seemed to work well with that fabric. I’ve eliminated some fabrics that don’t want to play nice with the other fabrics. Now, I just have to wait until the fabric talks to me.

This is the lone detail on the isolation quilt. I know how I want to quilt the rest of the piece, but I haven’t decided how I want to quilt this part. I think I want to outline the figure, but I don’t know what I want to do with the box. I don’t think I want the box to recede and I know I don’t want a lot of detailed quilting in the box. I’ve basted the quilt so it’s ready to be quilted. I just need the quilt to talk to me about this portion.

I’ve been asked about how I manipulate photos to make fabric designs. I use PhotoScape X to edit the photos. This is a free (mostly) app for either Mac or Windows. A one-time payment of $40 USD unlocks all of the features and the app gets updated from time to time. The most recent update includes the ability to do geometric designs.

First, I find look for a subject that I think will work well.

Next, I apply an assortment of overlays.

The first of the geometric manipulations.

Each additional geometric manipulation makes for a more complex design.

I don’t normally twirl the photo, but I decided to experiment a bit.

Followed by another geometric manipulation.

I added lines giving me an abstract design.

My Spoonflower shop with 167 new designs just added is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

My online store, Deb Thuman Art has jewelry, scarves, coffee scoops and seam rippers. The photos on the home page show only a small portion of my store. You have to go to the top of the page and click on “shop” to be able to see everything in my store which is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

Posted in anxiety, Fiber, Photography, Quilts

The Art Cure

Posted on by debthumanblog

My brain isn’t working well today. I’m having significantly more anxiety than usual and a I’m having peripheral neuropathy pain.  I’ve combined an anti-anxiety med, the medical marijuana and three hours’ sleep. I don’t recommend it. 

I have nearly all of the 167 new fabrics in my Spoonflower shop. Because of the insomnia, anxiety and meds, I’m having serious problems coming up with key words for each fabric. At the moment, 142 new designs are in my Spoonflower shop and you can find them here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

There are two single yard pieces that I plan on quilting. One is a photo that I manipulated using the geometrics part of PhotoScape X. I like that it looks like a modern version of a traditional quilt. Yes, there will be photos.

There’s a reason it’s called art therapy and I’ve been playing with photography.

I photographed the desert coming alive in the spring and summer. Now, I’m photographing the desert going dormant. What strikes me is how determined plants are to keep blooming. Here are the remnants of a recent bloom surrounded by dead blooms and dead leaves.

Yucca pods that have opened to release seeds.

Every photographer, including me, has an assortment of full moon photos. I’ve been deliberately looking for opportunities to photograph a less than full moon.

It was a nice night, so I decided to play around a bit. I experimented using a flashlight to light up different parts of the yard. I was hoping for something a bit different, but what I got is intriguingly eerie.

One of my recent manipulated photos. Here’s the original photo.

Today, I started with a photo of bare branches and played a bit. Here’s the final manipulation.

For some reason, the original shot won’t load.

I can get nearly instant gratification with photography and I find I am suddenly calm when I start to make art.

I’ve got nearly all of the isolation quilt basted and can start quilting it tomorrow. I’ve a pretty good idea of how I want to quilt it. I need to work on the human physiology quilt. 

Don’t want to risk shopping at the few stores still open? One safe option is to support an artist. Many artists have on-line stores offering one of a kind treasures. Mine, Deb Thuman Art, is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

I’m linking with Nina Marie here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

Posted in Fiber, Judiasm, Photography, Quilts, Suicide

Quilts, Shutdown, And Other Joys of Modern Life

Posted on by debthumanblog

I’ve finally put the binding on a quilt made in memory of 11 people who were killed inside a temple in Pittsburgh a couple years ago. The blue in the center is the Hebrew word for life. The 11 Stars of David are for the 11 people killed. The red is blood spatter. I remember reading that when members of the temple went inside the temple, they found blood spatter and brain tissue on the walls. 

I quilted and put binding on the suicide quilt. I’ve only quilted the bottom half of the quilt. We don’t know what happens after we die. People have an assortment of beliefs about what happens, but no one knows for sure. The lack of quilting reflects that unknowing. The line between the hands is how connections between people are forever severed when someone dies. 

New Mexico is shut down for two weeks. The number of new infections each day is out of control. I doubt shutting down for two weeks will make a difference. I think the timing of the shutdown is an attempt to keep people home on Thanksgiving. I suspect the state will remain shut down until the end of the year. 

I’m getting tired of this virus. Tired of not being able to go anywhere. Tired of having my photography restricted to what’s in my yard. While dead yucca seed pods are interesting, there are only so many I can look at before I get bored. 

I’ve been playing with photographs of the only part of my yard that looks like a forest. The rest of the yard looks like a desert. 

Last spring, I found a cholla I hadn’t seen before. It had small, white flowers rather than the large, garish purple flowers on all the other chollas in my yard. Now, it’s got tiny tunas about the size of a marble. The other chollas don’t have tunas. 

I’ve been doing most of my shopping online and it’s taking a long time for things I order to arrive. I think this is a combination of horrible orders given to the postal service in an attempt to stop mail-in ballots and the larger than usual number of packages traveling through the mail. I have an online store, Deb Thuman Art http://www.DebThumanArt.com. I mail out orders Monday through Saturday the day after the orders are placed. If an order is placed on Saturday, it won’t go out until Monday. Please shop early to allow for gifts to arrive in time for Christmas. 

My Spoonflower order has shipped; and when it arrives, I’ll be putting 168 new fabric designs in my Spoonflower store https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman. 

I’m linking with Nina Marie http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

Posted in Fiber, Photography, Quilts

Quilts, Fabric, Photography

Posted on by debthumanblog

I’ve had this quilt design floating around in my head for a while. After reading an email this past week, I felt alone and isolated. The quilt couldn’t live in my head anymore; I had to make this quilt. It’s a self portrait. I tried pinning the white square on the fabric, but the square bunched up. I ripped out the stitches and made quilt basting spray. That was frustrating. The spray bottles I bought are only good for spraying something the consistency of water. Quilt basting spray wouldn’t go through the nozzle. Because my anxiety is high enough that it’s in the stratosphere, Jim had to figure out how to make a spray bottle work. Eventually, Jim found a bottle and sprayer that would accommodate quilt basting spray. I’m surprised at how well this spray holds fabric together. 

I outlined me with purple Razzle Dazzle because purple is a healing color.

Using Razzle Dazzle for hand sewing can be frustrating. The threads separate and get tangled. I used a fast-drying adhesive on the end of the thread and that kept the threads from unraveling. There was a knot in the other end. This quilt is still in progress but this is all I’m going to do in the way of design. I need to figure out how I want to quilt it. I’ve got an idea about quilting that may make a couple quilts play off each other and tell a story. 

Armed with a 25% off coupon, a couple dollars in commissions and the promise of free shipping, I placed a sizeable order with Spoonflower. When my order arrives, I’ll be able to put 168 new fabric designs in my store. I also ordered two of my designs to be printed on two one-yard pieces of fabric. I think they will make interesting art quilts. The fabric with all the proofs will be used for quilt backing. My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

It snowed this week. Snow in southern New Mexico is rare, so I had to go out and photograph the snow covered desert. 

Next, I started playing around in editing and came up with some intriguing fabric designs. 

I’m linking with Nina Marie here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My store, Deb Thuman Art, is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

Posted in Beads, Fiber, Jewelry, Photography, Quilts

Beads & A Quilt Idea

Posted on by debthumanblog

I’m taking a human physiology class from one of my favorite teachers. This is the third class I’ve taken from her. For some reason, her classes trigger quilt ideas. No quilt ideas have come from any other class I’ve ever taken. When I took neurobiology from her, I made two quilts about nerves.

Someday, I’ll bind this one.

When I took animal physiology from her, I made a mitochondria quilt.

Now, I’ve got a human physiology quilt floating in my brain.

When I was in college for real, I majored in biology. I would lay awake at night trying to figure out how water crossed the cell membrane. I loved botany. Had I gone to grad school instead of law school, I would have been a botanist. Now, I’m in college for fun. I take classes that interest me and I’m not working towards another degree. I can’t get another degree; I’m out of wall space.

As I was reading the textbook for my human physiology class, I saw something astounding. There are junctions between human cells that closely resemble junctions between plant cells. I’ve never seen structural overlap like that before. That’s what triggered the quilt idea. The soft idea floating in my head features representations of the parts of biology and the parts of my class that mean the most to me. I need to do some sketching.

In the UFO category, I still haven’t made quilt basting spray which means I still haven’t quilted the suicide quilt although I’ve got a firm idea of how I want to quilt it.

I’ve been working on photographing necklaces I’ve made and putting those necklaces for sale in my store, Deb Thuman Art which you can find here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

I woke up in pain yesterday. Only one thing to do when that happens – grab the camera, go outside, and start shooting.

I woke up about an hour after sunrise, so I got some interesting light.

The agave that bloomed two years ago still hasn’t died. We didn’t cut the stalk down, and the stalk is now woody and it has become a perch on which birds watch for predators. These are dove.

I’m linking with Nina Marie here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

Posted in Beads, Fiber, Photography, Quilts

Beads. Photos. Tooth. Quilt Idea.

Posted on by debthumanblog

We took a tiny trip to Albuquerque on Friday. We stayed overnight and came back Saturday morning. Travel is interesting. No more breakfast buffet at the hotel. They offer a breakfast grab and go bag containing yogurt, a granola bar, and some juice. No bedspread on the bed. If you want a blanket, you have to ask for one to be brought to your room. All the dishes, including the coffee pot, are in the dishwasher rather than in the cupboards and drawers. No more hot coffee and hot tea all day and night. We bought teabags at Sprouts. No honey. No sugar. No creamer. The pool is closed but the exercise room is open. Only two people or one family in the elevator at a time. One of our favorite restaurants appears to be permanently closed. Limited hours at other restaurants. I had to contact the Department of Transportation to ask if restrooms along I-25 are open. They are. I asked because restrooms at parks have been closed since mid-March.

The point of this trip was to buy beads at my favorite gem store. I checked before we left home to be sure the gem store was open. This trip, I decided to splurge and buy some of the more expensive beads. Expensive is a relative term. Although I loved the 10mm round larimar beads, I couldn’t afford to pay $750 for them. The most expensive beads I bought were $45 a strand. It’s a balancing act. I wanted to have higher end beads, but I need to have high end beads that turn into earrings and necklaces my customers can afford. Few people are willing to pay $1,000+ for a necklace from an on-line store. At that price, people need to see the jewelry and feel the stones before buying. 

Bumble bee jasper. These are beads the clerk recommended, and I’m fascinated by the colors.

Larimar which is found only in the Dominican Republic. I love the stone, but at the moment, the beads are pricy. Gem prices are driven by scarcity, politics, and how much is being mined at the moment.

Phosphosiderite. The name is from the components of the stone, phosphorous and iron. I was surprised to discover it’s rare because the price for these was reasonable.

Peruvian opal. Although these opals don’t have the light play of the more famous opals, a couple of the stones are clearly trying to sparkle.

Rhodochrosite, one of my favorite stones. It’s the national stone of Argentina. While the price here is reasonable, the price is outrageously expensive in Argentina.

Turquoise. The reasonable price was a surprise because turquoise jewelry is expensive in New Mexico.

Vericite. I love the delicate green color of the stones. The color isn’t absolutely accurate in these photos.

Here in New Mexico, we’re getting smoke from California and Arizona. I don’t remember the last time smoke didn’t hide the mountains in haze. I took these photos from the hotel window and had a time and a half editing the shots. 

My broken tooth was extracted this past Tuesday. I opted for anesthetic because I detest getting a shot of anything in my mouth. The oral surgeon explained that the tooth had three roots and the roots would have to be drilled out. After the tooth was removed, a titanium post was implanted in my jaw. I watched a Youtube video to see how the post was implanted, and I was glad I wasn’t awake. While the process is fascinating, some things I’d rather not know about while they are happening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k6pFGwUHVs if you’d like to see the process. I stopped taking the painkillers on Wednesday. I hated being stoned and when I wasn’t having pain. I’m still taking the antibiotics four times a day. I still have to eat on only one side, but I’m starting to eat semi-solid food. Pasta. Enchiladas. Refried beans. Rice. 

I was reading in my human physiology text book, and my brain took a little trip. I thought about chocolate chip cookies and how everything in a body is interconnected. That transition made sense at the time. Then, an idea for a physiology quilt started to form. The design needs more work, but I may end up with something fun. Fun would be nice. For the past couple years, my quilts have been about mass shootings, suicide and isolation. 

I’m linking with Nina Maria here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

My on-line store, Deb Thuman Art is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

Posted in Fiber, Photography, Quilts

While Still Trying To Figure Out How To Quilt The Suicide Quilt

Posted on by debthumanblog

I’m closing in on the quilting design. I’m playing with the idea of heaven and earth, dead and alive, and how they are separated. I’ve been thinking about how there’s no communication between dead and alive. I don’t believe mediums can communicate with the dead. We have assorted beliefs about what happens to a person after death, but those are beliefs. We have no actual proof of what, or if, anything happens to a soul after death. I believe a soul is alive before conception and lives on after the body dies.

There’s no communication between heaven and earth. Maybe. Those on earth pray, but we’ve no confirmation that anyone or anything is hearing the prayers.

I’d like to put all of that into the quilting and I think I’ve figured out how to do that. If the quilting works out the way I have it in my head, I’m going to have a strange quilt. That’s okay. It will work well with my other strange quilts.

I’ve been sending short stories in to writing contests and I got a rejection email the other day. The short story that got rejected is 1800 words and four chapters. Now, I need to find another contest to submit this story. I submitted two stories to the Chicago Tribune in February. Those are still pending. As I go through stories I had written for my writing classes, I’m struck by how weird my writing is. When I was in college, my writing was normal. When I was a journalist, my writing was normal. When I wrote appeals for my clients, my writing was both normal and constipated. I don’t know when or how I started writing weird. Although I’m an avid reader, I’ve never read anything remotely like my style. That I write weird was an almost disconcerting discovery.

I’m working on a novel. Anyone who thinks writing a novel is easy has never tried to write a novel. When I was a journalist, I’d sit down down, starting a story at the beginning and going straight to the end. All in one sitting. Novels don’t work that way. At least the novel I’m writing doesn’t work that way. The story is about a woman who is my age, bipolar, a criminal defense attorney, a widow, and she’s in love with a police officer. I had to kill Jim off to write the novel. He’s taking it well. New Mexico is a community property state and any royalties I get from this novel are marital property. Translated: Jim and I will jointly own any royalties.

Because I don’t consider any book that doesn’t have at least one dead body to be worth reading, I’ve put three bodies in my novel including an officer involved shooting. My view of officer involved shootings is nothing like the views written about in The New York Times. It’s also nothing like the views held by the majority of criminal defense attorneys. I’ve never been good at conforming. In the novel, I use capitalization in an odd way. Not only am I working with a story line, I’m working with unusual concepts requiring unusual capitalization.

In the meantime, I’ve been playing with photos.

Start here.

Next, play.

Play some more.

Then, go a little crazy.

Then go really crazy.

Start here.

Eventually, end up here.

Then…

And finally…

I’m linking with Nina Marie http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My online store is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

Posted in Fiber, Jim's Art, Photography, Quilts

Quilting Consternation

Posted on by debthumanblog

       

I still haven’t figured out how I want to quilt the suicide quilt.

I put together a quilt sandwich and proceeded to audition quilting ideas. 

I had thought quilting lightening would be a good idea…..until I saw what it looked like. 

Next, I thought some of my fancy quilt stitches would be a good idea.

Stitch #79 has possibilities. I like how it looks when the stems of the “T” are squished together. I thought stitch #191 would be a good option until I saw how it looked. The stitches where there is heavy stitching don’t seem to work well. 

I had thought quilting horizontal lines would be an option and I auditioned assorted widths, but I’m not thrilled with how that turned out.

This is a quilt where the applique needs to stand out and the quilting be subtle. So here I sit with still no idea how I want to quilt this piece. 

Photography this week was more successful.

The barrel cacti have started to bloom.

I don’t remember the last time it rained and it’s been even longer since it rained enough to matter. Even the prickly pear cactus, a cactus that is hardy in deserts, is withering. The prickly pear cacti will perk up once it rains. Global warming has caused the desert to be hotter – we have had 100+ temperatures, a few of them record breakers, for the past couple weeks – and drier.

Jim, DH, has been busy making seam ripper/stilettos.

The brown one is mine, and the teal one is for a customer. Jim is working on more seam rippers and when they are ready, they will go in my store, Deb Thuman Art.

I’m linking with Nina Marie here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My store, Deb Thuman Art is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

Posted in Beads, Fiber, Jewelry, Photography, Quilts

How to Get From Here to There

Posted on by debthumanblog

Sometimes, fiber art starts in an unexpected place. When I’m shooting, I look for interesting patterns. The original shot might not be scintillating, as this shot isn’t.

I took the shot and had fun in editing.

It’s an improvement, but I took the photo as the sun was going down and I didn’t want a shot that looked like it was taken during the day.

First, I used the surrealistic feature on PhotoScape X.

Then I used an overlay and a texture. I like the result and I may have this printed by Spoonflower and turn it into an art quilt.

I wanted to play a bit more, so I used the underwater feature and made extreme bends in the shot.

Next, I played with the tiny planet feature.

Then, I used the kaleidoscope feature.

It reminds me of a tile floor and it could make for an interesting quilt if I had the design printed by Spoonflower. It could be a contemporary approach to a pieced quilt.

Because of the delay in shipping caused by the vile pandemic, Spoonflower sent out coupons for a discount on a future order. I need to put together a list of all the fabrics I want printed up both for art quilts an for garments. Some of my designs would make great yoga pants. Others would be good for garments. Some would be printed and turned into little quilts.

I’ve been working on product photography and put some new jewelry in my store.

I’m linking with Nina Marie here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My store, Deb Thuman Art, is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

Posted in Fiber, Quilts

In a Bind

Posted on by debthumanblog

I’m stuck trying to figure out how to quilt a suicide quilt. I don’t feel like making garments. Or jewelry. Or much of anything else. I need more quilt binding and I hate buying what I can make. I cut strips of fabric 1 ¾” wide to make ½” binding. The strips are cut edge to edge rather than on a bias. This binding works for quilts, but not for garments. Binding for garments, because of the need to fit binding around neck openings and sleeve openings must be cut on the bias. 

Once I got strips cut from one fabric, I used a metal binder clip to hold the strips. 

I cut the ends on a 45-degree angle so I would have an angled seam rather than a seam straight across. A straight across seam makes for a bump in the binding. I made markings on ends of a couple strips of fabric so I could make sure the strips would fit together. Turns out, the ends have to be cut in a specific direction in order to match the ends. This isn’t critical for batiks and solids because there’s no right or wrong side. It is critical for prints. Rather than mark every strip or use a quilter’s ruler and rotary cutter, I folded the end over to form a 45-degree angle and I cut along the fold.

The seams are a bit tricky to sew. If you match the seams without any overlap, the result will be an off set strip of fabric and it will be difficult to fold the binding. You have to leave about a ¼” overlap in order for the edges of the strips to match up. 

Next, and I haven’t gotten to this point yet, sew all the seams. Then, either use a binding tool https://smile.amazon.com/BIGTEDDY-Fabric-Sewing-Quilting-Binding/dp/B079PP3HB4/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=binding+tool&qid=1590783976&sr=8-6 or fold the fabric in half and press. Then open the fabric strip and fold each side in towards the middle and press. 

After you get the binding sewn and folded, make lots of quilts to use up the binding. 

I’m linking with Nina Marie: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My store, Deb Thuman Art, is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

Posted in Fiber, Photography, Quilts

Quilts, Flowers & Choices

Posted on by debthumanblog

I started working on the suicide quilt. Art is a way for me to get the feelings I don’t understand out from inside me. Sometimes, the feelings start to make sense while I’m working on the piece. It has been more than a year since someone I knew committed suicide; I still haven’t worked through all the feelings. 

I inadvertently hung this upside down so I flipped the photo.
My hand reaching for answers.
The hand I can never grasp.

I’ve been documenting spring in the desert as it appears in my yard. Cheap gas, and no place to go. 

Cholla. The spines are vicious. Using pliers is the only way to remove a thorn if you get one stuck in you.
This is a strange prickly pear. The flowers are peach in the morning and evening, and yellow during the rest of the day.
A normal, full-time yellow prickly pear.

Now for a few words about a day I dread each year. I detest mother’s day. I grew up in a house run by a pair of violent drunks who thought they were adults. The most appropriate gift I gave my mother was a Venus flytrap. The most appropriate gift I gave myself was to eliminate that woman from my life. I refuse to lie to myself and celebrate having her for a mother. 

I chose not to have children and I’ve never regretted that choice. It’s not easy to swim upstream. I spent 20 years listening to people demand I have children. I could never bring myself to tell these people something pithy like: I can’t have children. If I did, ignorant people like you wouldn’t be able to make disgusting comments like the one you just made. I did tell one ignorant person that there’s more to life than changing diapers and wiping snotty noses. I did finally tell someone that I have worth and value but I could win the Pulitzer Prize and she still wouldn’t think I was successful merely because I didn’t produce a child. Turning 40 was wonderful because they finally shut up. Mother’s Day accompanied by flowers and syrupy poetry is horrible if you don’t have children whether it is by choice or by uncooperative biology. It’s even worse if you had a horrible mother. Combine the two, and the day is nearly unbearable.

What to do to survive Mother’s Day? I can celebrate having the courage to make an unpopular choice. 

I’m linking with Nina Marie http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My store, Deb Thuman Art is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

My Spoonflower store is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

Posted in Emotions, Fiber, Quilts

I Need A Little Help From My Friends

Posted on by debthumanblog

My brain is having a difficult time picking out fabric. I auditioned a number of color combinations. A few I rejected. A few have possibilities. Most, I have no idea. And so I turn to my quilting friends around the globe for advice. 

This quilt will be about suicide because I still haven’t worked out all my feelings. I’ll just have to keep arting until everything inside of me is resolved. The quilt I saw in my head has a solid background, one amorphous fabric and one graphic fabric. I’ve pretty much settled on the amorphous fabric, but I’m having a hard time figuring out the graphic fabric. Would you please look at the photos of fabric combinations and tell me which you like best. Many thanks. PS….I had come color problems with the amorphous fabric. The fabric on the left, I want to keep. That fabric looks a bit different in some of the photos. The one that comes closest to the fabric in real life is Fabric 12.

Fabric 1
Fabric 2
Fabric 3
Fabric 4
Fabric 5
Fabric 6
Fabric 7
Fabric 8
Fabric 9
Fabric 10
Fabric 11
Fabric 12

My online store, Deb Thuman Art can be found here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

My Spoonflower shop can be found here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

Posted in Beads, bipolar disorder, Cognitive problems, Depression, Fiber, Jewelry, Photography, Psych meds, Quilts

Art, Depression, Poppies & Starbucks

Posted on by debthumanblog

I have the parts all drawn out. I know what I want this quilt to look like. Now, I’m auditioning fabric. I’m not sure about the fall print. All the other fabrics I auditioned today don’t look right. I wanted one fabric to be muted and the other vibrant but the original muted fabric I thought I would use looked terrible against the teal background.. Maybe if I borrowed from the movies and had sex with my fabric I could find the right fabric.

This is for a quilt about suicide. A year ago, someone I knew committed suicide. Since then, I’ve written my feelings, I’ve quilted my feelings, I’ve lectured about suicide, and I’m still trying to find reasons why. What was happening in this person’s life that was so horrible that death was preferable? I want the universe to make sense. I know from all the biology classes I’ve taken and all the times I’ve stared into a microscope that there’s a phenomenal amount of order in the universe. I can’t find the order in suicide. I know it’s there; I just can’t find it. Maybe suicide is the entropy all things are rushing towards.

Every personality test I’ve ever taken has shown I’m equally introverted and extroverted. That goes along with bipolar disorder. When I’m manic, everything is magnified. I can talk to anyone about anything. I have no social anxiety. When I’m depressed, I isolate. Isolation seems to be my default. Maybe that’s because for a huge chunk of my life, I was depressed. The introverted part of me is having no problem with staying home, not dealing with people, and only venturing out occasionally to go to Starbucks. The artist part of me went to Baylor Canyon to photograph the Mexican poppies. These flowers only bloom if there’s sufficient precipitation in late winter. It’s a spectacular show of brilliant color and the show doesn’t last long. 


Covid-19 has made me exceptionally anxious and that much anxiety causes physical pain. Yes, I’ve had the pains checked out. Every doctor, with the exception of my dentist who suggested I may be clenching my jaw, has found nothing physically wrong. I’ve decided to increase the dose of my mood stabilizer. My doctor knows I do this. The extreme anxiety is gone. I’m not in pain. Instead, I have Zombie Brain. This will be helpful in the event of a Zombie Apocalypse. 

The increased dose of my mood stabilizer doesn’t seem to be helping with depression. I find I’m being hit with rolling depression. I’m not suicidal, but I am depressed enough that I want to curl up into a ball and cry. When this happens, I need to immediately start making art. Then, the depression goes away. 

I have an online store that I built with the help of Wix. Something is wrong with the site because I can’t upload photographs. Without photographs, I can’t upload jewelry that I want to put into my store. It took quite a bit of internet searching to find a way to contact Wix. I got an email back saying they couldn’t help me because they weren’t employees of Wix but here’s the secret phone number. I have to wait until Monday to call. 

I learned how to do focus merge in Affinity. I take several shots of a necklace and focus on a different spot for each shot. After downloading the photos, I merge all of the shots into one shot where everything is in focus. 

I’m linking with Nina Marie http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My online store, Deb Thuman Art, is here http://www.DebThumanArt.com

My Spoonflower shop is here https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

Posted in Beads, Clay, Jewelry, Photography, Pottery, Quilts

The Little Writer Has Evolved Into An Artist

Posted on by debthumanblog

Some miracle happened, and I can now list my designs for sale at https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman Prior to listing designs for sale, Spoonflower requires designers to have proofs made so any color tweaking that may be necessary can be done.

Here are some of the proofs.

You can also see the designs for which I haven’t yet had proofs made so they aren’t for sale. Eventually, they will be for sale. If you see something you like that isn’t yet for sale, let me know and I’ll have a proof made right away. It takes about a week for me to get proofs back and then a couple hours to list the fabrics that are for sale. 

Every few weeks, I’ll be listing more of my designs for sale. I’ve been having so much fun playing with photos, making abstract designs and figuring out how best to translate the abstract photo to fabric. The designs for sale can be ordered in an assortment of fabric ranging from cotton to silk and even upholstery fabric. My designs can also be ordered in wallpaper. https://www.spoonflower.com/en/products/9578592?product=wallpaper On that page, you can see how the design looks as fabric, as wallpaper and as kitchen décor, as living room décor and as bedding.  

In other creative news…… I was thinking last night about where my art has led me. I started out writing short stories when I was still in high school. I knew I was a good writer when a teacher handed back stories we had written, handed me my story and said, “Wow!” This was also the time I learned a lawyer was in me. The assistant principal thought I had drugs in my purse and asked to search my purse. I didn’t have drugs, but without thinking I looked him in eye and asked if he had a warrant. Fifteen years old, and I sounded like William Kunsler. It would be 23 more years before I would go to law school. 

I wrote a lot when I was in college. One teacher told me she always put my work on the bottom of the pile because she knew I was a good writer and she had my work to look forward to as she read the other students’ work. Then I became a reporter and later an attorney. I went from fiction to fact to weird, stilted legal writing. I was good at all of it. One day while sitting in a mandatory, boring seminar, I began writing a novel. The novel isn’t finished yet and I’m amazed at the changes the novel has gone through. In a weird way, writing a novel is like getting to know the characters that exist only in my imagination. I started writing short stories again. Little things at first. The last two short stories are serious and I’m working out my feelings about suicide through these stories. 

During the return to creative writing journey, I learned to work with clay, and to work out my feelings in ceramic sculpture.  I learned more about working with fiber, learned about art quilts, and played in my sketchbook working out abstract designs. I learned I loved working with beads and began making jewelry. Now, I’m designing fabric. It’s been a wild art journey since I got my first thesaurus when I was 14. 

I’m linking with Nina Marie http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com Stop by and see what other artists have been doing.

My store featuring fiber art and jewelry is at http://DebThumanArt.com

Posted in Fiber, Photography, Quilts

Birth Of An Idea or What Can I Do With This Photo?

Posted on by debthumanblog

People have asked me where I get my art ideas from. Most of the time, I’ve no idea. Sometimes I see the finished piece in my head, then I work on the design in my sketch book. Lots of times, I figure it out as I go along. 

Recently, we went to Bosque del Apache. I worked on shooting birds in flight. It’s harder than it looks. I had one shot I liked, but the sky was gray and the photo looked washed out. Here’s the unedited version.

I tried to fix the shot, but nothing seemed to work well.

It still looked washed out. I tried again.

Still didn’t like it.

So, I started to play with funky overlays and weird adjustments.

I didn’t like what I had created. Until……I made the funky edited version my profile photo on Facebook and it had been my profile photo for a few days. Then I started to see the funky version. Really see the funky version. It would make an interesting quilt. I’m working on the design on my iPad. iPad and iPencil make for a never ending sketchbook. 

I haven’t figured out how to handle the background. I like the  washed out sandy, pastel colors in the photo, but I haven’t figured out how to translate that to fabric. I’ve got some water color pencils and those might work. I’ve also got water color crayons. Maybe they would work. I’ve got fabric paint which might be the best approach. Now that it’s cooler, dyeing results in pastels rather than saturated colors. Saturated colors require sunlight and heat. Two things that are in abundance in the desert during the summer.

I’m linking with Nina Marie  http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com  Stop by and see what other artists are creating. 

Looking for cool jewelry or wild scarves? Please stop by my store, Deb Thuman Art http://DebThumanArt.com