More Stamp experiments

After playing with my French cursive stamp and fabric paint yesterday, I decided to take a trip to Michael's today to see if I could find a few more, plus some other supplies.  There are still good deals to be had out there at Michaels!  They were having a BOGOF sale on stamps, and I scored 4 really nice wood block stamps for a very reasonable price!  Also found a stencil to use on the t-shirt I referred to yesterday, although I'm having some difficulty finding Batik-EZ by Crafter's Pick.  It's supposed to be available at Michael's, but we have a small store, and they didn't have it.  So I got on the e-mail to Michael's and Crafter's Pick to see where I can get it.  Meanwhile, I decided to audition my new stamps, using some of the fabric paints I have on hand:

The picture above shows a Clock face and a fern... I have learned that not all stamps do well with fabric paint... it floods too easily, as the Clock face stamp did.  I think I will also need to get some metallic inks!  But I love the fern, both in metallic as well as regular fabric paints!

Above is the silk scrap from before, with fern and clock face added... love the fern!

Here is the fern and a post card stamp, using regular fabric paint which I smeared onto several layers of paper towel.  I ended up patting the paper towel over the post card stamp to get better coverage.

 Here's a closeup shot of the fern with black fabric paint... not too much!

And a closeup of the fern on silk with gold metallic paint.

The fern with gold metallic paint on the cotton sample I was working on yesterday.

Finally, a closeup of the post card stamp with black fabric paint.  Can't wait to get my Dyna-flo paints next week so I can give them a try!

New things to try!

I'm always looking to expand my skill set... there is just so much to try!  Well, today I found a tutorial on the Jacquard Products website for a Collage Batik on a t-shirt, so I printed it out.  I was looking over the materials list and instructions, and placed a couple of orders for products.  Then I realized I had one item in my stock already that might work... a rubber stamp with cursive writing.  I had never tried using it, and I also had some fabric paints I decided I could use to try it out.  Here are a couple of pictures of my experiments... one on cotton that had been stamped with vegetables and thickened dyes, and one on silk that had been dyed with color hue silk dyes after I did some shibori stitching:

Both of  these were scraps that have been languishing in my stash, so what better way to use them than to try another technique on them?  I really love this stamp, and I now have a better idea of how to apply the paint... I poured some on several layers of paper towels, spread it out a bit, pressed the stamp lightly in the paint, then pre-stamped on another paper towel to remove any excess.  I used the stamp a couple of times before applying more paint... that way I had some sharp images and some faint ones.  Oh, and here's the tutorial for the shirt... I will be trying this as soon as I get the rest of the supplies:

That was my whole reason for testing the stamp... I have been wanting to branch out a little to find new ways to decorate clothing, and this tutorial has introduced me to a new (to me) product: Batik-EZ from Crafter's Pick, which I hope to pick up at Michael's tomorrow!  Stay tuned...

  

Mountain Campus Holiday Show - Day 1

The bowls were very popular yesterday at the first day of the Mountain Campus Holiday show... I sent several to new homes with happy buyers!

Here's my booth before the show opened... 

Here I am with my friend Cinde, who does gorgeous beaded jewelry.  She and I set up next to each other so we can chat during lulls between customers.  Today should be a good day... weather is supposed to be nice, and Saturday traditionally brings out a lot of shoppers to get started on their Holiday gift buying.  If you're in the Flagstaff area, try to make this show!  There are over 70 vendors with a huge selection of wonderful hand crafted items to choose from!  It's at Northern Arizona University, de Bois center from 9am-4pm.  I'm at booth 35, so if you attend I hope you'll stop and say 'hi'! 

Last show of the year!

I can't believe the last show of the year for me is this coming Friday and Saturday!  I have feverishly been cranking out coiled fiber bowls, have a large stash of hand dyed scarves as well as knit scarves, tie-dye and batik shirts,  Kindle Covers and hand dyed fabrics that will be available.  I will be at booth 35 if anyone plans to attend... hope to see you there!  Next week starts the big cleanup... time to catch up with chores that have been shoved to the back burner for so long!

Sign of a REAL dyer!

You have to read this!  Carol Eaton just proved she is a REAL dyer... you'll see what I mean when you read her post... amazing!  As I commented on the post, "when life hands you a lemon, make lemonade"!
You go, girl!

Holiday Marketplace

Yesterday was the annual Artists' Coalition Holiday Marketplace show, and we had a great turnout!  Starting at 10am, we had a steady stream of shoppers, and it only started to slow down around 2:30... my friend Cinde and I set up next to each other, and we both had great sales, along with a number of the other 25 artists/crafters I spoke to... woo-hoo!  Here are a couple of shots I got...

Shot of my booth space

My fabric bowls sold well, as did my note cards

Some hand dyed fabric by my friend Wendy

Cinde and her awesome peote stitch beaded jewelry

Thanks to all who came by yesterday, especially those lovely folk who went home with some of our handmade items!  

More fabric bowls

I have just begun!  But I wanted to share more... here are the 3 I have completed so far:

 I love the shape of this one... it's a wider diameter at the bottom, and I made it taller as well.

I'm almost done with this one using Christmas fabric, but I'm about out of clothesline, so it will need to wait until I get home from the store later today.  I learned yesterday that it is possible to splice the clothesline... I trimmed the frayed ends, then using a heavy duty cotton thread and needle, I stitched and wound to anchor both ends together before wrapping with the fabric.  Another thing I have learned... DON'T FORGET TO PUT THE CAP BACK ON THE GLUESTICK, SILLY!  They do tend to dry out if you leave them open... duh!

I must admit that I am totally smitten with making these, and my brain is working overtime to come up with other color combinations I would like to use.  If you are wondering why I suddenly veered off into making fabric bowls from my multitude of other projects, maybe this will help you to understand:

This is just part of my accumulation of fabric that is threatening to take over my studio and the guest room next door!  I have to do something with it, so why not these wonderful bowls?  More to come...