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Archive for the ‘Surface Design Techniques’ Category

New Studio Update

Thursday, October 27th, 2016

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Here is my corner of the new studio. There is space for me to work on the cutting table and then my print and ironing table is closest in this photo. My paint caddy is to the left of my work space. There is a utility sink for us to use in the common area.

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I should explain how this space is set up. We are sub-letting the ground floor of a live/work space. The upper two floors, which would normally be the living space, are occupied by a group of women who make wedding gowns and do other wedding related activities.

Our space had to be sectioned off from the entry area and a room where they meet with brides and their entourage. We contemplated having walls built which would have included a design wall for me. That proved to be expensive and would have a big time lag. So, instead we hung off white draperies from poles that hang from the ceiling. Lisa needed the wall space for her paintings. She rented this space to do her fine art painting. Here is the space showing her work in progress. My space is just to the right of where I was standing when I took the photo. You can click on photos to see larger versions.

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There is a wall of windows which limits wall space but gives nice daylight. Lisa works in this area, too.

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Mr C took some of the shelves from my old studio and put them up for Lisa to have for storage.

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The actual footprint for my studio stuff is smaller, but it is a big room where I can breathe and move things out when I need more space. We are going to make a portable design wall with insulation and pvc pipe that will be double sided and can be moved easily.

I always had a problem with parking in my old studio. I have never had a problem here. It also has air conditioning for the summer. I love that there are other creatives coming and going.

Today, I finished an old project as my first project in the new space. I used some deColourant Plus which is discharge paste with color added.

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I started this t-shirt a while ago as a demo that I did for a guild group. Today, I added color to the rest of the letters which is freezer paper ironed on to the shirt.

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This is not a very good photo, but you get the idea.

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So, I am gearing up to get some work done.

 

 

Experiment Update

Sunday, April 17th, 2016

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As you can see, I got some beautiful fabric, but the color magnet did not work that well because my dye was too concentrated. Here you can see very faint circles that I screened on to the silk.

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Here is the cotton – none of the stenciled designs showed up. I need to do a more dilute dye solution and then, where the dye magnet is, the color will be darker. Back to the studio!!

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Experiment in Progress

Friday, April 15th, 2016

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I have been making short trips to the studio to try out an experiment on silk and on cotton. It involves dye painting so I first soaked small pieces of silk and cotton in soda ash and water.

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I hung the fabric to dye and went back this morning to stencil some patterns on the fabric using Jacquard’s Dye Magnet. It is really goopy, slippery stuff so it is hard to get clean images.

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I left it to dry and went back this afternoon and spread some full strength dye concentrate on the fabrics, which I had layered. I covered it and will leave it to batch for at least 24 hours.

 

Week One of Printing on Fabric

Thursday, February 18th, 2016

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Last night was week one of a printing on fabric workshop that my friend, Allan Oliver, and I are teaching at Trinity. We have two wonderful assistants, both named Liz!! Mr C and I went down in the afternoon and raised two tables on pvc pipe. Then, I covered the tables with plastic, two layers of felt and muslin. I set up tubs for water to wash screens and stencils.

I also set up a sample for a demo to show how to layer designs with paint. I sponge painted a background.

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We had a full house, many of the participants were men! I think everyone had a good time.

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We have a big empty bulletin board where we hung work to dry.

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Here are samples of some of the best work.

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Today, I am just plain pooped. It has been a busy week so I am taking it easy.

Printed Fabric Bee – August Edition

Tuesday, September 1st, 2015

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I didn’t realize I had been away from blogging for so long! It was a busy end of August! Above is the print I did for Deborah Boschert who was the queen bee for August. She proposed an architectural theme in blues. I picked up some nice stencils at Quilt Knit Stitch and used this one that looked like bricks for a building. The base fabric was a light blue and I sponged on an indigo color.

 

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Debra uses a simple house shape in her work. I made a freezer paper stencil of that shape in 3 different sizes and used a blue green paint to add the houses.

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Here is the 6 inch piece for the giveaway.

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And the mosaic of the prints done so far.

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For a chance to win the collection ( I am sure more will be coming), leave a comment on the Printed Fabric Bee Blog.

I am still having severe pain in my right knee/leg. I am having an x-ray and seeing the ortho doc on Friday. Hope to get some answers and relief.

One thing I did last month was to finally finish the kid quilts made with my daughter’s line of fabrics. Here are the girls with the quilts after they arrived in upstate NY.

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We also did a bit of a remodel in the bathroom where we wanted more storage. A huge mirror was removed and medicine cabinets installed. We painted the room a soft gray and put up wallpaper on the cabinet wall. The wallpaper is from a line of removable wallpaper designed by my daughter, Lisa. We love the whole thing.

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While Lisa and Clay were out of town this past week, we got to have this cute little guy stay with us.

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Right now, I am in the midst of finishing up the current homework for my online master class. Perhaps I will post about that tomorrow.