Off Loom Weaving and other projects

 I recently created my second off loom weaving, using a foam board card as my loom. It was a little more difficult to use compared to a regular loom, so I bought an easel loom for future projects. But I do like how it turned out... love using a variety of yarns and wood to add texture and visual interest!

Right now, I'm busy building my inventory for our annual Flagstaff Open Studios tour scheduled for

Aug 28-29.  

This will be the 12th year I have done the tour, and always love seeing friends and shoppers, and visiting with some of my fellow artists.  This year, we will have 5 at my friend Cinde's house, so it should be a fun weekend.

 

I'm also continuing to create my spirit dolls, which seem to be selling well at Sedona Artists' Market... I was hoping they would!  Here is my latest, "Wild Child" who will be going there Friday with a few others I've blogged about in past posts:

So, what's next?  Well, a couple of years ago, I tried my hand at eco-printing... you can see my post about it here. 

 I made a bunch of cards, then tried several scarves, but as usual... moved on to other things, and haven't done anything else with it since 2019.  But recently, I was inspired to do some tea-dyeing after watching a great video on a tiktok post, and did a few tries with tea I rescued from tea bags... not great results.  But my friend Jana of Little Cabin Soaps is an avid tea drinker, and she has donated loose tea from a local shop that she had in her stash.  I did my first experiment with it yesterday, and got great colors, but not the great designs I saw on tiktok.  So I'm going to combine some of the loose tea with leaves from the yard and see how that works!  It involves clamping together a number of papers with leaves sandwiched in between, and steaming or boiling for a couple of hours, so I'm re-assembling my equipment and chemicals to do a batch this weekend.

But that's not all!  I watched another video that creates prints with leaves, AND adds some dye to the mix to give it more color, so that's on my list too!  

I will "show and tell" pix in my next post, so check back soon... I don't think I'll be able to wait long to share the results (if they come out!).  Meanwhile, hope you are enjoying your summer!  We've had a very good Monsoon season so far this year... lots of rain, even had a lightning strike nearby take down our internet for 3 days, but the moisture is so welcome!

Until next time, Happy August!

Eco Printing with color, stitch meditations and Shrekkie

I have continued to create my eco print scarves, and decided to experiment with adding just a tinge of color to the scarves with my Procion MX dyes before printing.  Love the results!  At some point I hope to get into using natural dyes, but the process is more than I can learn in a short time, so this is my solution for now:

Pale coral pink

Seafoam green

Palomino Gold

Robin's Egg blue

I am soooo in love with Botanical printing!  It really makes me happy to be able to capture nature this way... 

With the change of seasons, I am busy collecting and storing leaves for the winter months, much like a squirrel gathers acorns!  But I did let myself use one of the oak leaves for a different project:

If you follow my blog, you may remember that I was doing a lot of hand stitching back in January.  Then I got busy with other projects, and haven't done any since then.  But I have seen examples of using real leaves in collages, and decided one of my beloved Oak leaves deserved a chance to show off, so this came about recently:  Leaf hand stitched to a fringed square and a hand dyed background, with a fern leaf stamped in metallic paint.  I happened to have a frame handy that was just the right size, so it now sits on a side table in the living room, to celebrate Autumn.  I think I will be getting back to stitch meditations with the onset of cooler weather... they just go together!

 I posted last month that we had to let our sweet Bubba go, which was very sad, but his health was deteriorating and wasn't going to improve.  So now, we have just one kitty left, Shrekkie.  

Shrekkie came to live with us in 2010, after spending some time on his own.  His original owners moved away, and left him with neighbors across the road, but the household was quite unsettling to him, so he decided to be a vagabond for awhile.  Before long, he was coming around our house and yowling, which caught my attention.  I kept water on our deck for our cats, and he would come up to get a drink almost daily.  I began sitting on the deck in the morning, and gradually we made friends.  By October, I had coaxed him into the house, and he has been here ever since.  Now that he is the sole cat, he has begun to spend evenings snuggling with me on the floor while I nap in front of the TV, and he seems to be perfectly content to be the last kitty.  I still miss my Sweet Bubba, but Shrek is doing a good job consoling me, and dispensing love and affection!

Prelude, Bubba and yet another new project!

August 3 was the Opening Reception for this year's Prelude exhibit at Arts Connection Gallery:

Shown here:  Dolores Ziegler, who works in acrylic paint and collage; Cinde Dalhover, our
host for the upcoming Flagstaff Open Studios Tour; me, and Louise Waller, who works in a multitude of 2D and 3D mediums.  We are 4 of the 7 artists who will be at Studio 11, located at Cinde's home.
Here are the 2 pieces I submitted as examples of my work:

The jacket has since sold, and been replaced with another.  

For those in the Flagstaff area at the end of August, we will be at 9815 E. Townsend Winona Rd Saturday and Sunday, 8/24-25, open from 10 am to 5 pm.  Come see us!

On the Bubba front, I will say that he has fully recovered from the issues he was suffering a couple of months ago.  He still occasionally has slight digestive issues, but nothing compared to what he went through.  Thank goodness! 

Meanwhile, back at the studio, I have started to take my first tentative steps into learning Eco Printing... using leaves and foliage from the yard to make impressions on paper and fabric.  I did a lot of lurking on facebook groups, poring over posts in pinterest and google searches for information on the process before taking the plunge.  I first learned how to tie-dye almost 22 years ago, and there was a lot more straightforward info on process for tie-dye!  With eco-printing, it seems like no two artists use exactly the same processes or methods, and it makes learning a bit of a challenge.  I am convinced that if I keep at this for 22 years, I might have it figured out, but it will take continuing to study and experiment.  But I am encouraged by my first efforts!  I started (thanks to my friend Beth in Maine!) by trying a batch of watercolor papers cut to a size I could use in cards:

I was truly amazed and thrilled when I unwrapped this first batch, and it hooked me!  I know that I will be doing many more of these, and have submitted two to the gallery to be juried in, since this is a totally different medium from my usual work.

Next, I decided to try 2 scarves - a chiffon, and a habotai silk.  The initial results were very pale, almost not noticeable, so I steeped them in leaf "tea":

I also used some strips of muslin, dipped in an iron solution that were part of the bundle I steamed.  I didn't get pictures of them at that point, but decided to experiment a little after with steeping the muslin in a "tea" I  brewed from the leaves used in the printing process.  And I made a batch of black tea, so I could compare the two.  Here is a shot showing one of the muslin strips as it came out of the steaming bundle, one that was steeped in black tea and one steeped in leaf tea:

Now I know the leaf tea has more color, but that could be totally different next time!

Now I have to start saving and drying leaves, to carry me through the winter!  I love that I have a large variety to harvest right in our yard, but also plan to go on leaf gathering trips around town to scoop up some that don't grow in our yard... leaf lady is coming!  Stay tuned for further developments, and news about this year's Open Studios tour!