Lots of things in the works

Quite often, I tend to work on one project at a time... seems like it's more efficient and allows me to crank out things at a faster pace.  However, once I have done my last show for the year, with no shows coming up until the middle of next year, I like to spend time experimenting with new techniques, or trying new twists on old favorites.  So here are some shots of a few things I'm working on right now:

This is a lousy photo, but the best I could get... I have traced leaf shapes onto muslin in preparation for batiking them, then I will overdye with background colors.  After I batch the piece, I will wash out and hand paint the leaf shapes with dyes.  This is a variation on the normal method I use, and I decided it would be fun to see how it turns out this way.  I'll post more as I progress with this piece.

This is a 1/2 yard piece of muslin that I decided to try dyeing a little differently than I usually do.  I would normally pre-soda soak the fabric, scrunch it up and pour the dyes over, letting it batch for an hour before the rinse/launder step.  Today, I wanted to see what would happen if I put ice cubes over the scrunched and dyed piece, thinking that the ice cubes would serve to dilute the dyes as they slowly melted.  I see a little difference between this and regular scrunch dyeing, but not a whole lot.  No fear... I have several other ideas in mind that I plan to try over the coming months.  And in February, I plan to publish them on a blog where I am a Resident Artist... keep a look out!   

Here, I have created a basket weave on a dyed scarf using soy wax, and when my order comes, I plan to use Dy-Na-Flo to overdye the unwaxed area.  I have discovered that multiple dye baths don't work on silk like they do on cotton, so I am playing with fabric paints to see if I can get a good result without leaving the fabric stiff... more on this soon!

As you may have seen in recent posts, I'm also doing a lot of stamping with fabric paints and rubber stamps, and plan to do a lot more of that as soon as the Dy-Na-Flo arrives.  I'm probably going to need to order a lot more of that... poor planning on my part, but I didn't realize that the fabric paints available in today's market are far superior to any I tried 15-20 years ago!  Progress... anyway, I'll keep you posted on my progress!