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Archive for April 1st, 2009

The Rest of the Shibori

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

One thing I haven’t mentioned is how well and happy I felt during this workshop. I have been working hard and stuck at home, chained to my computer with too little time to be in the studio. This workshop was such a treat for me.

These are the remaining pieces. Remember the ugly candy striped organic cotton? I under painted, over the red and then shibori wrapped it and put it in a bath of dye mixture from left over painting. We didn’t know how it would read. It was green. The chevron design is created by folding the fabric and twisting it on the pole. The organic cotton muslin is very dense so you cannot get the finer shibori lines.

torturedorganiccotton

Here is the back side, if you want more subtle.

torturedorganicbackside

Here is a detail:

torturedorganicdetail

Here is another beautiful shibori piece that was underpainted with a gradation.

underpaintedshibori

This piece was first folded and clamped with jar lids and dyed. Then it was folded in larger folds and clamped with CDs.

jarlidcdclamped

I had four sort of square pieces of fabric. I layered them and folded them and clamped them with blocks of wood that Mr C had cut for me. They were dyed in one of the blacks. These will definitely get more work done to them and perhaps appear in a quilt together.

blacksquareclamp

blacjsqclampdetail

These last few pieces (above and below) were quickly folded and tied or clamped pieces that would not take up a lot of space. With 16 students, you could not always get a pipe in the dye bucket. In fact, I brought an underpainted piece on pvc home with me. I hope to mix up some dye tomorrow and finish it. This piece was folded with rubber bands around it and dyed in the violet.

violetfolded

Here is a detail – yum.

violetshiboridetail

I have spent the rainy day at the computer, again. I had a pile of registrations to handle. I think I am caught up for a few days.

Windows

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

My regular readers know that I am part of an online challenge group, 12 X 12. It was my turn to select the theme and I chose window. There is some amazing work popping up on our site. Be sure to go over and look through our windows.

In 2003, Mr C and I enjoyed a hiking trip in the Scottish Highlands (where I developed an affinity for single malt!). One of the highlights for us was taking a boat out to Iona where Christianity had it’s formation in Scotland. It is a Celtic thin place — a place of spirituality and tranquility. I took this photo which has been in that place in my brain where I store images that are important to me.

ionaruins

Here is my very literal interpretation – not going abstract this time around. Because of my hectic schedule, I had to take the keep it simple route.

ancientcelticwindow

I printed the beautiful, yet wonky stone ruins on lutradur coated with Golden’s Digital Ground. You can print more intense photos on lutradur with this coating. I fussy cut the structure and fused it to a background that I created from my hand-dyes and machine stitching. I then thread painted the structure. I love the wonkiness of this and the beautiful angle of the remaining stones.

Come back tomorrow for more shibori.