The most exciting and a rewarding moment was when I was able to open the kiln and take a look at my stuff after each firing.

Painting on china was quite a different experience from what I have learned so far. Although it is an oil based paint, it does require many layers of glazes in order to achieve a deep and dark color value.

I really enjoyed doing painting on China. The most rewarding moment was when I was able to open the kiln and take a look at the finished product. After each firing you need to wait until the kiln cools down to open it, otherwise your china would crack. The best time for firing was over night. That way the kiln was ready to be opened first thing in the mornig before having my morning coffee.

The most interesting thing about china painting was that you need to mix the pigment with oil as you need it. You don't want to store large amounts of the pigment mix as it would dry out too fast. In order to achieve rich, and deep colors, few coats of paint and few firings are necessary. You are dealing with a very translucent medium which needs to be applied as very thin coats, that's why it takes few coats to achieve the color intensity as needed.

I was in the learning process and after taking just a few classes, I stopped doing china painting without getting really good at it. If you want to master anything with art, you must stick with it for many years. There is no way around it, unless you are born with the paint brush in your hand.

This entire template set consists of 8 templates created for designing your own quilting and applique designs. Each template is cut out of 1/32" clear and pliable plastic material for durability. The 'all in one' Design Essential Templates are 12"X12" large and provide great stability during drafting a design on paper or marking a design directly on your quilt top.

These brand new template set has been developed for all quilters to enjoy. This unique design concept will empower and inspire every quilter to create their own quilting and applique designs to be used with NO RESTRICTIONS. Each of the 8 templates in this set can be used not only to create your own quilting designs, but also  for marking the design onto the freezer paper and used as a foundation for an applique.

As a quilter and a pattern designer, I found myself desperately looking for some drafting tools and was unable to find many to choose from except for some geometrical shapes and french curves. I found that not satisfactory to an avid designer who has a strong desire to keep on the cutting edge.

If you enjoy using lots of gadgets, you will enjoy using these one of a kind templates. There are unlimited design possibilities. You would be able to create your own design variations. Once you learn how to play with them, the rest should be a breeze and lots of fun! These design templates can become very essential to every quilter, pattern designer, or a longarm quilter.

Design Essential Templates are available for shipping now!

A booklet on how these templates can be used in quilting patterns design will be available in September! Hands-on drawing/design classes on how these templates can be used to create your own designs will be available at QWM 2011 and IQF 2011 in Houston.

More classes on how these templates can be used to create your own designs will be available at most popular 2012 shows. The information will be available as soon as my schedule for 2012 is confirmed. 

"Glowing Hibiscus"  24" wide and 18-1/2" long by Arlene Kuchcik, Crete, IL

Artist's statement
The flowers on this wall hanging was photographed on a trip to Florida.
It is made with cotton fabric. It is appliqued, quilted and the tiny glass
seed beads are hand sewn. It is approximately.

When I first sewed this wall hanging, I felt it needed something, but could
not figure out what it was.  So I shaded the flowers with acrylic paint.  I
still didn't like it, so I shaded the flowers by using colored pencil over
the paint and then sealed it with Delta's Ceramcoat Textile Medium.  It
looked better, but was still lacking something, so I beaded it with tiny
seed beads.  Every bead on the leaves and flowers was hand sewn.  It took
quite a while to complete the sewing, but after I was finished, I liked it
much better. 

One flower is pink and has pink seed beads and the other has shades of deep
coral colors. The center of the pink flower has deep pink sequins and pink
glass beads and the coral color flower's stamens are gold sequins with deep
coral color glass beads.  Each leaf has a different shade of glass seed
bead. The deep blue background of the wall hanging really makes the flowers
glow now.

I guess if something doesn't work the first time, keep working until it's to
your liking.  There is a saying that there is no mistakes in quilting.  I
guess there isn't, because it worked for me.  I wouldn't give up. 

Arlene Kuchcik

Ar's Art n Design

Contact: ackuchcik@comcast.net

Watercolor was the most difficult medium to control from my experience with it. Although watercolor was the most challenging medium to work with, I really enjoyed experimenting with it.

Watercolor is lots of fun medium to play with, as you can achieve great results once you master this technique. I was very anxious to try all kinds of wet and dry mediums.

This painting is a color study of cold and warm colors mix.