Hope Hellberg

In the midst of finals and the craziness that has taken over, I had the privilege of participating in a fashion show last week. The fashion show was part of Savannah Fashion Week and was put on to promote the local boutiques. Fabrika Fine Fabrics, my favorite little fabric store, asked if I would show a garment that I made this time last year: the yellow, silk chiffon, nuno-felted dress that I made for my 3-D Fibers class as a sophomore. They were looking for nine students who made garments from fabric purchased at their shop to showcase and represent Fabrika.

The day was a busy one starting at 11a and ending roughly at 9p. I asked one of my dearest friends, Baille Younkman, (http://bailleyounkman.com/) to model for me. She is a fellow junior at SCAD and an extremely talented fashion design student. We went from hair to make-up to rehearsals to fittings to touch-ups and then finally the show. We paired the dress with some great ankle boots, a belt, and some jewelry from a fellow student, Alexis Turner. We were one of eleven shops represented, the only one in which all of the garments were hand constructed. It was a really interesting experience and a great networking event.

(Paul H. Camp Photography)

Week 8. Wow. There are only three weeks that stand between me and a three month long summer break. And I can hardly wait. So many new and exciting experiences to be had, jobs to complete, and places to visit. It should be a highly productive and busy summer to say the least.

In my beaded embellishment class, I just finished my second project: a beaded broad collar. This was inspired after studying clams, oysters, mussels, and all the other unique shellfish found in the deep blue sea. I chose to use primarily oodles and oodles of glass seed beads, but also some old and broken costume jewelry and some tiny rhinestones. This was my attempt at making the overall piece feel like it had a pearl-esque, muted, and natural state without actually being too literal. I chose to use a backstitch and other beaded techniques in order to give the collar a very textural look, because we all know that I am the queen of texture. I am quite satisfied with my piece and can’t wait to get it back from critique so I can wear it out and about.

In the next three weeks, I will also be completing a full on installation piece about the concept of grace for my weaving final and working on one more beaded creation to share in the near future. Stay tuned for more images and progress about my work.

Week 5. Where has all of the time gone? I have been busy as a bee this quarter so far and still have 5 more rigorous weeks to go until summer break. I have been loving both of my classes, but they seem to be the most time consuming and intricate classes in all of my Fibers studies. But who would I be if I didn’t present a little challenge for myself? Exactly.

In my beaded and embellishment class, I just completed a beaded skinny tie. It was supposed to be for my wonderful boyfriend, but the idea of wearing a bead-encrusted tie did not really go over too well, understandably. So I have a feeling I will turn it into a headpiece of some kind when my professor returns it to me. We were to choose a narrative and then conceptually incorporate it into our work. I chose Pride and Prejudice and using the idea of dark and light, masculine and feminine, and pride and prejudice, I beaded an organic form onto a very rhythmic and orderly striped tie, again relaying the idea of contrast. The color combination and sense of movement were all intentionally chosen to abstractly convey such ideas in my narrative.

I am now diving, head first, into a full on beaded collar for this class based on the inspiring images of mollusks: clams, mussels, and oysters.  I am also finishing up the last of my 9 feet long weaving sampler, which was quite an experience to work on, to say the least. Here’s to a strong finish to my junior year!

Green, green, green. Everywhere I look there is green. There is green in the blossoming trees in the park, in the lovely pollen covering everything in it’s path, and in the dyed sheet music I am using for a new installation. And the thing is, I am totally okay with it. Spring has sprung and new things are abuzz.

Speaking of new, I am heading into my second week of classes for Spring Quarter. I am in Intro to Weaving and in Beading Surfaces & Structures. Both are extremely tedious classes and just two more ways in which I am being taught the wonderful characteristic of patience. I am thoroughly excited for the classes and the techniques that I will gain over the remaining nine weeks, but it will be a lot of work in the process. In the meantime, I am making a two part installation to be installed in our College Ministry Building, which I am wicked excited about. I have a few in-progress images to share as I finish the remainder of the piece:

Finals are almost over; two days stand before me and the close of winter quarter of my junior year. Where on earth has the time gone? I blinked and all ten weeks of this intense quarter are completed. Craziness.

Our final assignment in my screen printing class, we were to pick a tool of some sort and incorporate it into a motif to be stepped out over yardage of fabric. My first thought? Kitchen tools. So, I rummaged through mine to find a cheese grater with some excellent cut outs, three-dimensional elements, and textures. I then mono-printed it, both front and back, getting some excellent prints. I took those prints, scanned them into the computer, overlaid them together to form a motif, added a jog line around the image and stepped it out. I also added a more geometric form to lay behind the cheese grater motif, adding an extra element and depth to it. I was to print six yards of fabric, in two color ways: black + golden yellow and teal + warm pink.

“Listen, I love you. I love your prim bruised mouth whose corners compress morally when you are awake and scolding me; love your burnt skin ceaselessly forgiving mine; love the centuries of being humbled held in the lilac patina of your palms.”

This gorgeous passage from a work of John Updike inspired me to create a small scale installation piece to be entered in a SCAD wide Fibers Dept. contest for Shaw Carpets. We were to create a work that is both inspiring and interesting enough to form a concept and a carpet line after. The other requirement? Using natural dyes–my favorite!

Over winter break, a sweet woman from my church was in the process of cleaning out her attic and found about fifty or so old piano books and sheet music circa 1901. She was going to throw them away; I was not about to let that happen. So, I snagged all of them from her and have been saving it for a special project. This seemed like a great use.

I immersion dyed about 15 to 20 of the books of sheet music in Quebracho, Brazilwood, and Cochineal dyes. All three dyes gave off a pink to red hue, which was excellent as I was inspired by the idea of bruised lips, burnt skin, and lilac palms. The descriptive language, vivid imagery, and beautiful details found in his work lent themselves so nicely in making this piece textural and intricate. The use of natural dyes is one of the most mysterious and stunning processes I know of; the surprise and wonder of the results is amazing. I then dyed yardage of canvas in a Black Tea bath, giving the natural canvas a vintage, off-white coloration. I then stripped all of the sheet music into varying lengths and widths in the variegated colors to be rolled into loose, tight, long, short, wide, skinny, crisp, and whimsical forms. The rolls of sheet music were to be attached to the different sized, canvas engulfed, embroidery hoops. The idea of rhythm, texture, and details all played a role in the overall composition of the design; the soft paper rolls adhering to the harsh embroidery hoops give the piece an added element of interest and depth. The oh-so-talented photographer  Sarah Ayer (http://www.sarahayerphotography.com/index.html) captured my piece for me; take a gander.

We are heading into week 9 of classes for Winter Quarter. Where did the time go? In any event, I have so much to do and so little time. My list entails: a CAD final, an English essay, quizses, and discussion questions, a Screen Printing final, not to mention an installation for a competition, whose deadline is creeping up on me faster than ever. But, I love it all. I love my work so much that it’s starting to become more like fun work, than work work, if that makes any sense at all. Fibers is a lot of detailed prep work and learning of processes before I can actually execute any of my pieces; which is why it is so great.

Anyway, I just completed my second project for my Screen Printing class. The assignment was to take a piece from our Repeat Pattern Design class (http://hopehellberg.com/2011/05/25/tying-up-those-loose-ends/), render and replicate it so that it was a fresh design in a new process. I took the floral that I had done in my previous class: ripped, abstracted floral motifs in eggplant colored paper overlaid on a textured olive green paper. This design was transferred onto transparency paper and repeated over graph paper the size of my aluminum screen. Then I added jog lines and transferred the overall motif onto drafting film with charcoal and black colored pencil to make the print. (These mediums would later add texture to my design; you’ll see.) The dark areas on the draft film are what are going to be burned into the screen to form the print that will be inked onto the fabric. I covered both of my screens with photo emulsion, lined up my drafting film designs onto the screens, and then using this amazing machine, burned the designs straight onto my screens. This was a two color design with an overlay, meaning that whatever areas of the design I wanted to be green needed to be on one screen, and whatever areas I wanted to be purple needed to be on the other; the areas where I wanted an overlay would be included on both screens. Then after I had both screens set, I pinned down 3 yards of white cotton fabric and using registration marks, t-squares, and lots of masking tape, I registered my fabric to be ready to be printed. And 7 hours later, I had yardage in two different color ways completed and done.

I have lots of pieces that are calling my name, waiting to be completed. And lots of coffee that is waiting to be brewed in order for me to do so. Now back to work…

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm 139: 13-14.

I was reading through scripture a few weeks ago and stumbled once again upon this glorious passage. It has to be one of my favorite verses of all time. The beauty, the imagery, the wonder. And so, I decided to incorporate the theme of this verse into my first screen printing piece. I absolutely adore nests, bird eggs, and the natural beauty that is exhibited in such creation. To me, a nest is what resembles a mother-child, mother-daughter, mother-son relationship. So, I sketched out a textured nest with some quail eggs inside it. I chose a soothing grey for the pigment and stepped out the nest as a placement print. I then was to create a pillow using the screen printed fabric. I made a grey raw silk piping for it and constructed an 18″ circular pillow. It was an excellent first attempt at screen printing and I can hardly wait to work out other color schemes, overlays, and repeat pattern work.

It’s February. How the heck, I am not quite sure. Time really does fly when you are having fun. But February already. Wow.  And as I am wrapping up midterms and diving into new and exciting projects (!!!), I have had a lot of time to compile an excellent list of music, which I’ve had on repeat for the last week or so. I thought I would share a few, because who doesn’t love discovering new music?

In The Dirt, S. Carey.

My boyfriend introduced me to him. Take a listen; you won’t regret it.

Hospital Food, David Gray

There is something so excellent about his voice. So very excellent, indeed.

Falling In Love At A Coffee Shop, Landon Pigg

I just found this song again. Everything about it is precious.

I Can’t Make You Love Me, Bon Iver

This is hauntingly beautiful. And his voice–so much raspy goodness.

About a week and a half into classes, I have started to get a firm grasp on the new techniques and skills I am going to be partaking in this quarter. And man, oh man, am I going to have fun! Lots and lots of fun, with a nice dose of hard work. But that is to be expected being a design student at SCAD. It’s a given.

We have spent the last three classes in my CAD classes learning all of the tricks and characteristics of Photoshop in relation to distorting, recreating, editing, beautifying, and designing prints. We are mastering the initial procedures so that we can eventually (aka next class) scan in some of our personal textural work, like my ripped paper floral pattern or yarn work design (http://hopehellberg.com/2011/05/25/tying-up-those-loose-ends/) and digitally enhance and edit it. It’s fascinating.

In my second Fibers class, my studio work, I am taking screen printing. I’m crazy about it. The process is tedious, but the work is really great. In order to screen print anything, you need to stretch out your fabric and pin it down to a long, padded table. Then mixing extender and pigment, you make your ink. You then have an aluminum screen with a polyester (sometimes silk) screen in which your pattern is either photo emulsioned on (learning this in a few weeks–yay!!), adhered as contact paper, or painted on using drawing fluid and screen filler. Then the ink is applied to the interior of the screen and squeegeed back and forth over your design. The results: quirky at times, but so unique. I have only been sampling and experimenting, but have a swatch to share. The greenish curved design is very textural and was made with the unpredictable method of drawing fluid and screen filler. The perfectionist in me died a little, but it gives a wicked awesome effect on the work. The blueish motif is one that I cut from contact paper and printed out. It is much cleaner, smoother, and defined. The overlaying of the two was just for practice in mastering the techniques, pigment mixing, and overall effects. There will be more to come for sure…eight weeks worth!