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Archive for the ‘Discharging fabric’ Category

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Trial and Error

Monday, October 25th, 2010

After mistakes and some experimenting, I finally got a piece of fabric that I am happy with. You can click it to see it enlarged.

After the last failure, I decided to mix up some turquoise dye with thiox discharge paste. I have done this in the past to get turquoise deposited where the fabric is discharged. For some reason, turquoise does not discharge. Remember that a couple of weeks ago, I was discharging black fabric. I had some paste mixed up and sitting in my dye kitchen. I blithely added turquoise dye and went to work.

I wore my respirator!

And after the fabric dried, I ironed it and then threw it in the wash. Guess what? I ended up with a piece of rust silk with no marks at all. Well, I forgot that thiox paste is only good for about 24 hours. Duh.

My next experiment was to mix dynaflow paint with the de Colourant paste. I made more marks on the rust silk.

After I steamed it with an iron, I could see from the back that the rust had discharged.

When I washed it, I got the subtle verde green color in the first photo. I am very happy with it.

I am working on two projects that need to be completed by next Monday. The other is for a juried show at my church, Trinity Episcopal, titled: Mirror, Mirror, a show of self portraits.

I did a self portrait a  few years ago for a Quilting Arts challenge — a Picasso version of my younger self. I decided to do an updated version and mount them together – sort of me – 50 years apart. The older me is more colorful! Here they are with the newer version a work in progress.

I have been having fun and feel very energized after a fallow period. The studio is a mess which means I am in creative mode.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, Discharging fabric, Juried Shows, My creations, painting fabric, self portraits | 6 Comments »

An Exercise in Futility

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

The fiber sketch for today is Leaf Shadows.

Today, I started work on preparing some fabric for the rusty Twelve X Twelve challenge. I have this piece of rust colored silk/cotton blend.

I notice the back of the fabric has a greenish patina so I thought perhaps it would discharge to a green color.

I used a new discharging product called deColourant. It is non-toxic and non-smelly. You print, paint or stamp with it. Let it dry and then iron it to discharge the dye. The more heat and steam, the more the color is removed.

I stamped with corrugated cardboard, netting and a random dotted stamp. I dried it with a hair dryer and then ironed it. I first used my old Black & Decker and then I used the steam iron. And them, I blew a fuse!!

Anyway, this is the result.

Since I didn’t get any green color, I threw it in a bath with turquoise Colorhue dye. Well, I love this!!

Unfortunately, this is a cotton/silk blend and the Colorhue dye only works on silk and wool. So when I washed it, all of the color was gone — except on my hands!

Tomorrow, I will mix up thiox with turquoise dye and try that.

By the way, the deColourant comes with added color which is deposited when the dye is discharged. I was sent a couple of samples – plain and mustard yellow. I have other colors on order. Here is a link to the supplier, Kandicorp.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, Discharging fabric, Dyeing, Sketchbook Project, Surface Design Techniques | 7 Comments »

An Alternate Universe

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

I often feel that I exist in an alternate universe that is connected to another, but is upside down and in reverse. So that is what I am trying to portray in this discharged piece.

I dreamed about doing this all night. I was going to hit the studio early this morning and get on it. Life intervened. I had to do an SDA website update this morning and so I didn’t get started until after lunch.

I drew the pattern on freezer paper and ironed the circles to one side and the remainder to the other side.

I used a chlorinated gel cleanser to remove the color. It was a nice warm, breezy day do I was able to do the work out on the patio.

Now, I have to work out how to quilt this. I think I will do hand stitching on the planets.

There is no fiber sketch tonight. On Wednesdays, Mr C and I have dinner at Trinity Cathedral, followed by a class. Tonight we started a class on the writings of David Abram. He writes about the cultural causes and consequences of environmental turmoil from a very spiritual point of view. He has done a lot of study with indigenous people and it strongly informs his writing. He gave a lecture at Trinity last week-end, and I was captivated and spell-bound.

Posted in Discharging fabric, My creations, Spiritual Life | 9 Comments »

Good Things

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

I am really pleased with the discharge tests that I did today on two hand-dyed black fabrics. On the left are the pieces discharged with thiox. On the right, I discharged with chlorine. I am so excited because the color on the far right is exactly what I am looking for in the piece I have in mind. The two pieces on the left in each case are a cotton sateen dyed with Dharma’s Jet Black. You can see that they are a darker black. The pieces on the right were dyed by me using Prochem’s Cotton Black 602 A which has a very blueish tint.

I now have an author profile on Amazon. You can see it here. What a hoot! You can also get my blog delivered to your Kindle for a $1.99. That is an even bigger hoot!!

I bit the bullet and entered Allegro into the SAQA Beyond Comfort exhibit. I am number 55 so quite a few people have already uploaded images. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. This is my first time to enter a SAQA show.

We got our plane tickets today for our trip to Japan next year. We are leaving on March 19th and will be there for two weeks. I am so excited. Something really big to look forward to. I have wanted to make this trip for so long. There is still room in the tour. Here is a link: Saber Japan Tours. Jerry Saber, like my husband, worked for GE, and lived in Japan.  His wife is a textile artist.

I also sent two quilts off to Chandler, AZ for the Art Quilts XV Needleplay.

Here is my Fiber Sketch for today. It is a composition on a monoprinted background.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, Discharging fabric, Sketchbook Project, This and that, traveling quilts | 8 Comments »

Indian Summer Glorious Day

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

Today, four members of STASH, drove out through the Columbia Gorge and across the river to the Washington side to visit the Maryhill Museum of Art. It sits up on a bluff above the river with nothing else around. This was my second visit. It has an eclectic collection of things ranging from incredible chess sets to French Fashion Dolls an every thing inbetween.

The drive was gorgeous – not a cloud in the sky – everything was sparkling.

After passing through the verdant gorge, on the eastern side, you are suddenly in the high desert landscape dotted with windmills. I love the juxtaposition of the windmills and the natural sculpture of the hills.

We are usually greeted by the peacocks in the parking lot, but we didn’t see one until we sat down to have lunch.

I will show you a bit from each of my favorite exhibits. They have an extensive collection of Native American crafts and utilitarian objects. These are storage cases made from painted rawhide.

There are lots of gorgeous baskets.

There are several vignettes of 1/4 size fashion dolls dressed in outfits designed by french fashion designers.

I think my favorite place is the sculpture garden:

I have a ton more photos which I will upload to Flickr some time when I have a moment.

Here is my thrown together fiber sketch made from scraps from the discharged crows. I finished the crow which I need to adhere to the canvas. I want to paint it black, first. I couldn’t decide how to made a berry for his mouth. I ended up felting one.

For now, I am a tired old lady and am off to bed.

Posted in Art Dates, Discharging fabric, My creations, photography, Quilting Friends, Sketchbook Project | 4 Comments »

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