Come be a “Fly on the Wall” as I continue to work on my African wax-print fabric collage leopard, now named T’swana. I began this fabric portrait last November, in another of my live Fly on the Wall series. Within those four weeks, I got as far as the first draft of her facial features, as you see above.
Now I’m ready to get back to her—finishing her ears, head, and progressing into her upper body—there’s plenty to figure out. I’m not exactly sure how it will all end up, that’s the nature of how I work, but you can be there to see what I do, hear what I’m thinking, and ask questions as I go.
This next Fly on the Wall: Studio Watch begins at 7pm Eastern Time, Thursday, September 12. The following evenings will be September 19, October 10 & 17. Please note the two week break in the middle.
The concept of the Fly on the Wall series is to allow you an extended glimpse into my working process. Over the course of four Thursday night sessions, I invite you into my studio as I work live and answer your questions as I cut, pin, glue and layer fabric.
Each session will kick off with a short slide show to bring you up-to-date with where the piece is at that moment and, if possible, how it got there. Then with a camera peering over my shoulder I’ll do an extended work session.
I have been totally enjoying using the big, bold, and color saturated prints from my collection of African wax-printed fabrics. While they can pose a challenge to use in a collage such as this, these fabrics are vibrant and exciting and just the sort of energy I hoped to inject into this portrait of a female leopard calling for her cubs—based on a photograph taken by my cousin’s wife Tanja Bauer, while on safari in Botswana.
Fly on the Wall: Susan Carlson Studio Watch—African Fabric Collage Leopard—Part 2
September 12 & 19, October 10 & 17, 2024—7:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Each session will last roughly 1-1/2 hours.
All sessions will be recorded for viewing later if you cannot attend one or more.
Price: $78
USE THIS LINK TO REGISTER
In the Part 1 of the African Leopard Fly on the Wall, I began working on this portrait—concentrating on African wax-print fabrics. I waited until the first session (photos below) to begin the first draft, so folks could see it live from the beginning, looking over my shoulder, as I explained my thoughts and collage process as I went along.
Other quilts with similar challenges of using large-scale design fabrics include: “Dixie Dingo Dreaming“, which used the large scale designs of Australian Aboriginal fabrics; “Gombessa“, which employed an African “whole cloth” for the background and Indonesian batiks for the fish, reflecting the home ranges of the coelacanth subject; and the online project of my Fantastical Fish eWorkshop (info below).
NOW AVAILABLE!
Susan Carlson Fabric Collage: Fantastical Fish eWorkshop
INCLUDES:
• All four recordings from the four-week class.
• Extended 10-minute edition of piecing time lapse (see below).
• Over six hours of video instruction.
• Annotated videos with “jump points” to help find the information you need.
• Materials list
• Links to helpful blog posts.
• Free fish pattern of your choice.
Gift Cards Now Available for Any susancarlson.com Product or Class Purchased Through Susan’s Website
Gifts cards are available in six designs for any amount and can be applied as a “coupon” to reduce the price of a larger purchase—or towards a smaller purchase with a remaining balance to be used at a later date.
For more information, click here.
Susan Carlson Fabric Collage: Sea Turtle eWorkshop
Learn fabric collage through a start-to-finish project—from pattern and fabric selection through quilting and binding. Each step is clearly written, illustrated with photos, and further demonstrated with videos. Learn the technique with a Sea Turtle then launch into any fabric collage project you wish. Lifetime access and suitable for all levels, including beginners. Sea Turtle Pattern included
Read all about the Sea Turtle eWorkshop in this blog post: Fabric Collage Sea Turtle eWorkshop Launch.
Fabric Collage Online Master Class
The Susan Carlson Fabric Collage Online Master Class Manual is a multi-media resource guide to the process of fabric collage. Using video, photos, text, and links to my blog posts for further relevant reading and information, I take you from beginning to end in creating your own fabric collage masterpiece, following my guidelines in a step-by-step format. Lifetime Access. Suitable for all levels, including beginners.
Read all about the process of creating the Master Class—explanation of its genesis—the whys and hows Tom and I made some of the decisions we did in this post: Online Master Class Now Available: Some Reflections.
Facial Features eWorkshop
Designed as a supplement to the Fabric Collage Online Master Class, or for those who have a good understanding of the basics of Fabric Collage. Lifetime Access. Intermediate or advanced levels suggested.
The Facial Features eWorkshop contains 8 videos and over 8 hours of in-depth instruction for creating each feature of a portrait in fabric. The videos are annotated with “Jump Points” allowing you to scan forward and backward to the information you need. Facial features PDF templates are included as reference and basic designs to work along with. Like the Fabric Collage Online Master Class, membership in this eWorkshop is for life.
Book: Serendipity Quilts—Cutting Loose Fabric Collage
Full color throughout. Five projects of increasing complexity, four patterns to enlarge are included.
These books will be signed by Susan and can be inscribed to a particular person.
I really love your work, but those are not “African” fabrics. They are Dutch wax prints and the vast majority are still produced outside Africa but a few Netherlands or Chinese based companies. Yes these types of fabric are very popular in parts of Africa and are one of the many remaining vestiges of Dutch colonialism. Please inform your vast number of followers with true facts about these fabric.
Hello Anthony, Yes, you are correct, and I thank you for pointing out a good subject for an upcoming blog post. There’s a lot of history to these fabrics, and they did not originate in Africa. I actually use them for that reason since I don’t want to mis-use a true African fabric. More thoughts to come, but to start, I realize it may be best to change my “shorthand” description to “African wax-printed fabrics.” It does feel like a better identification of the fabrics I’m using in this latest piece. Again, thanks for the prompting.