More Ice Dyeing, a Vase of Flowers and Autumn Leaves

Continuing my ice dyeing experiments, I have tried several more colors which netted mostly good or great results:

Lavender Avocado Mandala

Brazil Nut stripe

Mermaid's Dream stripe

Lapis Diagonal Stripe

Plum Soft Orange Diagonal Stripe

I am now a firm convert to Ice Dyeing, thanks to Lynda Heines' class, and will be doing more as time permits.

Meanwhile, I have been working on a piece to show in this year's Prelude Exhibit at the Artists' Coalition Gallery.  I call it Vase of Flowers:

This started out to be just the vase, but when I finished it, I decided it needed something else.  I looked at dried floral arrangements, but didn't think they would be what I wanted.  Then I came across some instructions on how to make fabric flowers using floral wire as the base, and set about to make some.  This took a little while, since I had other things I was working on and each petal had to be glued to the wire and left to dry.  I finally finished enough, and decided it was ready to go.  This will be on display in the gallery for the month of August.

And in preparation for the Open Studios Tour, I now need to start cranking out my Autumn Leaves batik shirts, which are always a popular item for the show.  Shown below is one from a previous year:

I think I am going to experiment with Brazil nut mixed, for a background color.  Then it will be time to fire up the wax pot and start dyeing!

So many inspirations, so little time!

Every once in awhile, I get a spurt of inspiration to try different things, so I'm used to these little bursts of creative juices flowing, but lately it seems like I'm really being charged up... much more than normal!  Must be sun spots, or my planets are all in perfect alignment!  Today I got hit with several ideas at once, but managed to stay focused on one long enough to see it through to completion.  I have been doing a lot of coiled fabric bowls lately, and decided to try making one with a piece of tie-dye fabric:

This was a fabric I had dyed in a class awhile back to demonstrate the diagonal fold... I had no immediate plans for it and knew I could always dye another, so I decided to cut it up to make the bowl:

I folded it in half and cut 1 inch strips, then I began with the left most strip and started coiling around my clothesline:

As I finished coiling each strip, I began with the next strip from the left side of the strips, continuing until I had used up all the strips:

 Here's the finished bowl, front and top views.  Finished size is about 7 1/2" x 2 1/4", a great size to try out my inspiration!  I plan to try using some of my swirl pattern on one as well, to see how the colors come out.  I really love making these bowls and have lots of ideas for different color combinations!  I think I'm going to call this one my "Rainbow Bowl"... kind of fits, don't you think?  

Fabric Bowl

Thanks to Sherrie Spangler's blog post, I tried my hand today for the first time at making a fabric bowl:

I really love how this came out, and it was not too difficult!  I had one or two things I had to overcome, but Sherrie's tutorial was very clear and easy to follow.  This one is 8" across and about 2 1/2" high... not huge, but a nice table piece, and it was just right to help me learn the process.  I will definitely be making more of these, especially since I have an ever-growing stash of fabric that I really must find a way to use up!  I have loved fabric bowls for years, and just never found good instructions for making them.  I can see making a lot of these in the coming months... especially during the winter, when my studio calls to me!  Thanks, Sherrie!