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Archive for October, 2009

Shibori Scarf Workshop

Saturday, October 31st, 2009

scarvesdrying

I think you can consider yourself successful when your students do better work than you do!! Above are a few of the first round of dyeing.

Everyone had such a good time. I brought extra scarves and so everyone did a second and some whent for thirds.

Here is the one I did to show them how to. I used scarlet (which is really fuchsia and I added some black to it), green and black. After it was unwrapped, I spritzed it with some chartreuse.

gerriesamplr

Here is some student work during the first round. This is Lindsey from Bend, she is the sister of Katy who you will see later.

lindseytiger

lindseydetail

This is Forrest, my lone guy student. He was making gifts for family members. He did some beautiful work.

forrest

joanbuell1

Here are photos of the second and third rounds. You can see that they just got better and better.

orangearashiwrap

chartreusewrap

The reveal. When there is a lot of white showing, I had them add more dye with a brush or eye dropper. Kayla did a beautiful job on touching this up. I didn’t get an after photo.

kaylareveal

Painting with blue dye.

bluewrap

Adding some green.

geenonbluewrap

Love this – wish I had photographed the reveal.

lucsiouswrap

This was a chiffon scarf done by Katy. She used chartreuse and black with some dribbles of yellow.

chiffonwrap

Here is the reveal. It is really gorgeous.

katysscarf

Nice dye painting.

joans2wrap

The reveal of Joan’s second scarf. (That is Katy in the background.)

joan2reveal

Here is Lindsey again. This coral and black was stunning.

lindeycoralblack

This was loads of fun and very gratifying to see what my students could do. I think they are all going to order some dye and scarves and play at home.

I must get cleaned up and order pizza to take to the Barnes’ home for some Halloween fun with the M & M.

More Colorhue Dye Play

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

habotaitestpiece

This is a piece of habotai silk on which I did some test printing with stamps and an aspen leaf thermofax screen. You can click on it to see it larger. I then dyed it with some pumpkin and yellow.

I decided to use the aspen leaf for one of the scarves. I really wanted to use the citron green that I mixed up the other day, so I screened the leaves with red paint. That has to be one of my favorite color combinations.

citronredaspenleaves aspenleafdetail

While I was working on this scarf, I had a chiffon scarf that I was using to test colors. I had poured all the left over dye from the other day into a pot and painted the chiffon. It was a really cool blue/black which I though would look good with the citron. The texture of the chiffon made an interesting design as I pulled the foam brush over it. I really love this piece. I had some trouble photographing this. The color is not really true.

citrongreenchiffon citrondetail

I decided to do a test shibori on a habotai scarf that I bought for the workshop. I used rubber bands to wrap around the pvc pipe. I used blue, pumpkin and the citron. I like it.

3colorshibori 3colorshiboridetail

I am already feeling much better on my second day of treatment for the gastric inflammation. Thanks for all the well wishes.

My friend and fellow art quilter, Bonnie Bucknam, has started a blog. Right now, she is blogging about her project to make quilts for an orphanage that she visited in Guatemala on a trip with Nancy Crow. Check it out. She also sells beautiful hand-dyed fabric.

Rainbow Fish School

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Rainbowschool

At least that is my name for it. I should have made a new fish screen, but c’est la vie.

Part of this challenge was to do some subtle dimension. I put an extra layer of batting under 3 of the fish and stitched it with water soluble thread.

trapuntofish

Then I added the batting and backing and quilted it. A light sponging with water removed the trapunto sponges. It is very subtle, hardly noticeable.

I did some more playing around with printing on silk and adding the Colorhue dyes after the paint had dried. I want to make a scarf for an auction to help a young woman with breast cancer who has no health insurance. She is a friend of Clay, Lisa’s partner. When will this madness end. Health care should be a right not a privilege.

I ended up having to  call the Dr’s office today. I have been having pain in my upper abdomen. I  took ibuprofen for a week for the tooth ache and now I have gastric  inflammation so I am on a med to decrease the acid in my stomach so that it can heal. If it’s not one thing it’s another!

I’m Here

Monday, October 26th, 2009

fishbubblewrapdyeing

I had a hectic few days. I hosted the Oregon Fiberarts Critique Group on Saturday so there was the frenetic getting ready and providing coffee and treats when every one arrived on Saturday morning. Our guest critic, Alice, was our cathedral arts director until we ran out of funding for the position. She did a great job. I got a good kick in the butt. First of all, the only work I had was really safe work that I had done for the Twelve X Twelve group and them SDA member’s show.

Her biggest advice to me was to kick it up a notch and not be so safe. I had already begun to think about this. I really have had a problem getting something going in the studio so I think I just need to do the work and spend more time with perfecting some techniques. I need to go back to where I was before I did my solo show which took me off track.

Enough soul searching.

Right now, I am having fun whipping up a piece for the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge. The theme is an animal. I don’t really do animals. The most abstract one I could think of was a fish. I wanted to try a new technique with the Colorhue dyes which involves printing with Lumiere paints and then applying the dye. The pain acts as a resist.

For the background, I chose a lime green silk from my stash. I shose some paints from my collection.

fishpaintpalette

I then screen printed with a thermofax screen that I had made last year.

screenedfish

They were a little more purple than I wanted, but looked iridescent which was good.

Here is the fun part. You lay the silk on bubble wrap. Then paint it with water; that makes the silk adhere to the bubble wrap. Then I painted with 3 or 4 colors of the  Colorhue dyes. the result is what you see at the top of my post. It is still wet and needs to dry on the bubble wrap. I think I should have used the smaller bubble wrap, but it is still very fun.

I have to go finish getting our supper ready. We have to eat early and go to theology class tonight. I have a very wonderfully smelling slow cooker soup going. Chicken, black beans, corn, salsa, mushrooms, cumin. I am going to garnish it with sour cream and avocados.

Studio Fun

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

aspentrunkspostcard

I needed to get my studio tidied up because I have 10 artists coming on Saturday for the Oregon Fiber Artist’s critique. We meet twice a year. I know somebody is going to want to see where I work. I went down there this morning and instead of cleaning, I did another expressive drawing and finished one of the post cards. I forgot to get a photo before I stuck it in the mail. It is for someones 50th birthday. I love putting a stamp on them and just sticking them in the PO box. I have never had one get lost.

I finished the Aspen trunk postcard in my free minutes today. I am loving the Colorhue dyes. They are so easy to work with and give instant results. I dyed the back of the tree trunks to give them more definition. Looks so cool.

My expressive drawing today was a variation of the first workshop, using the non-dominant hand, which is the left for me. So we start with a drawn shape using paint and brush.

leftdrawing1

Then, you stand back and decide what lines to add.

leftdrawing2

Then you keep adding lines until it seems finished.

leftdrawing3

It is very freeing, especially using the left hand.

I forgot to show this lovely postcard that Beate included with the things I purchased. It is very beautiful.

beatepostcard

By the way, I managed to get my studio in pretty good shape. My office is still unsightly; I will hit that tomorrow.