Small Art

I have been working on another 'Small Art' series the past few days. I started with a piece of Complex Cloth I created summer before last... I know, not too swift! But I'm getting there... anyway, this was a piece I dyed using Low Water Immersion, then bleach discharged with torn newspaper as a resist. I fused the fabric to pellum, then I fused on some of another LWI piece, added ribbon and yarn, stamped some with metallic fabric paint, then used various techniques to finish the edges. I will probably go in and add some sparklies before I declare them finished. Oh, and I have 2 more I need to bind as well. These are really fun pieces to work on! And I'm thinking I want to try mounting them and framing as wall art. I'll post pictures of the final result when they are done.

The T-shirt from hell!

I have been working... it seems like forever!... on 4 kids T-shirts, an order for my boss's wife, for their 2 little ones and 2 nieces. She wanted them for July 4th, so I decided to try some of the techniques I have learned and used over the past year: soy wax batik, and/or using freezer paper for resists. I'm afraid I will never do this pattern again, because it took waaaaaaaaay too long to get it right! Dyeing, flipping over, dyeing the other side, cleaning up back dyeing on the stripes, cleaning up ragged dye lines... you name it! So I decided to post a picture here with a warning: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME! Unless you really love to be frustrated! On the other hand, if you try it and succeed in coming up with a way to do it that doesn't require a lot of correction and clean-up, let me know!

Uncharted territory

At our playdate last weekend, Melly, our facilitator/teacher/inspirer, gave us a challenge: Cut into at least 2 of the fabrics we have created using Surface Design/complex cloth techniques; create a piece approximately 12" x 12". So today, I began my project, not knowing what the end result would be. I had one LWI-dyed piece from the playdate that I sprayed bleach over using sequins as a resist, and dishwasher gel to stamp some of the surface. It came out rather interesting, so I decided to use it as my main theme. I have cut out several shapes and pinned them over another LWI piece I dyed at the same time I dyed the cut piece. Here is what I have so far:



I cut away 2 of the stamped areas and pinned elsewhere on the main piece, then slashed some of the remaining fabric to create the 'rays'. Now it's time to let my imagination have a go at what I should do next.... more to come!

Surface Design Play date

Today, several of us got together at the local Community college for a dyers' play date. What fun! It was a beautiful, crisp, fall day! We got there about 9, and before you know it, we had fabric hanging from the line brightening up the quad area.






I worked on several pieces, and here are my favorites:

Autumn Leaves


Untitled - I spritzed bleach water over sequins on a LWI dyed fabric... kind of looks like deep space!




Discharge dyed on LWI-dyed fabric
using torn newspaper as a resist

Overall Pattern on LWI-dyed fabric



I was very inspired by the work done by the other gals... what an incredible amount of talent and creative energy! I hope we make this a regular event!

It's never too late...

August 23, 2007 - Awhile back, I took a week-long art course at our local community college. Among other things, the teacher introduced us to basic screen-printing, mono-printing, creating and using stamps, discharge dyeing and using soy wax as a resist. I posted some pictures at the end of the class to show a little about what I learned. Meanwhile, I got busy at home and started experimenting with what I had learned... mostly in the areas of screen-printing and soy wax. Here are some samples of what I have accomplished so far:

In this example, I created a screen of the owl, printed a blank shirt, colored the owl with thickened dyes, then waxed over the image. I then used Low Water Immersion to dye the background.















Below is a design where I used a stamp to apply dishwasher gel with bleach to a pre-dyed shirt.









In this example, I traced a design on an undyed shirt, waxed over the design, dyed the background using LWI, washed the shirt, re-soaked in soda ash, then painted the sunburst with thickened dyes.


















Here is another example where I traced a design on an undyed shirt, waxed over, used LWI to dye the background, washed, then painted the image with thickened dyes.






















I feel like I have reached a turning point in my creative life... not the first time this has happened, but it's been awhile! I will post more pictures as I continue my new adventure...