Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 07, 2014

Birds in Tree with Madder Lac


Madder lac natural dye extract screen printed, using deconstructed screen printing techniques with my Birds in Tree Inverse Stencil, onto cochineal dyed cotton fabric.


Birds in Tree Inverse Stencil taped to the front of a traditional silk screen for deconstructed screen printing!  Stay tuned for more on this technique!!!

Learn more about these techniques in my eBook and Video series 
Mark Making with Nature!!! 


Tuesday, April 08, 2014

Pigment Painted Fabric


Panel One


Panel Two


Panel Three

Earth pigments on silk crepe de chine fabric.  Now to get them ready for stitching!

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Natural Dyed Hexagons


Natural, compost (bundle), and rust dyed cotton fabrics.  The dark red was obtained using a Turkey Red recipe.


I started these hexagons using my natural and compost dyed fabrics in March of 2005, the weekend my mother died actually, and found them last night while I was looking for a missing stack of colored papers.  This couldn't of happened at a better time as I am currently working on a new body of work called "Faded Memories: Stitched Stories of the Prairie and Plains" for an upcoming solo show at the Sanford Museum in Cherokee, Iowa.

This new body of work will encompass both traditional and digital techniques, and to say that I found these hexies made up already would be an understatement! The hexagons are from a pattern known as Grandmother's Garden, which seems rather appropriate for this new body of work!

Friday, January 31, 2014

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Black Friday Sale!!! eBooks, DVD's, Academy, and More!


Black Friday Sale 2013!!!
 
DVD Set $69.95
Digital Download $39.95
eBook Combo $19.95
 

Black Friday Membership Sale!!!
$299.00 (non-refundable)
Join me and other artists in 2014! 
We will be taking fabric from ordinary to extraordinary!!!
 

Stitched Stories, Mix Media Prints,
Fabric Bundles and More!!!
 
 
 


Thursday, October 31, 2013

Gelatine Plate Printing with Natural Dyes


This is from several years ago, I have a geliplate my best friend Brenda got me for xmas last year that I really, really need to use! I'm thinking some earth pigments and my Black Birds in Tree stencil onto fabric for starters.  The plate in the above photo I made myself, here I'm using lace and trims as resists for the print which I made onto fabric.


Cotton fabric, that I do believe I compost dyed, osage orange on the gelatin plate with some lace trims gave a nice resist pattern.  After curing and washing the osage orange color is about 30% of it's orignal brightness on cotton fabric.  Now to find this piece of fabric in my stash and audition some threads for stitching.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

August Natural Dye Blog Crawl and a Challenge

I will be posting Augusts blog crawl list on the 17th, and I'm adding a challenge for those that want to participate - Indigo. 


Dye something with indgo, but just don't stop there dye something with indigo and then overydye it with yet another dye.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Friday, November 23, 2012

What is Old is New Again!


I used to draw and paint with these paints almost exclusively as a child growing up, so imagine my joy that Hobby Lobby was carrying these as kits.  I asked, no most probably they won't be carrying the single tubes, which is a shame because I ReALLY want a tube of red violet paint. 

I'm hoping that this will be the anwser to my fabric marker woes, I can control a paint brush but the fabric markers bleed, bleed, and bleed some more, and the marker tips themselves... well don't get me started!

Anyway, I will report back as I will be using the black color, and probably exclusively, as to how these interact with natural dyed fabrics.

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

WIP - Untitled


I started this piece a good eight or nine years ago and completely forgot about it, well this week is it's week to come to life. 

Layered rust, indigo, and compost dyed, silk, cotton, and cotton linen blend fabrics.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Washed!


Washed and dried and as soft as can be!


There was very little wash out of the pigment, proving that the longer the cure time the better.
Front view.


Back view.

Composting Fabric and the Issue of Rot


Yes even "I" have to deal with the issue of rot from time to time, I know many of you throw these pieces of fabric away, why I don't know but I have heard from many of you that you do so.   Me, well I'm weird in that I look forward to the holes, the tid bits scraps left in the washer and dryer, as they are layers in my mind. 

But what to do with the larger pieces that are thin and fragile?   Simple back it with a sheer iron on interfacing and go forward!  If need be used double sided interfacing and press it to a stronger piece of cotton fabric or canvas, when I've needed to do this I've used cotton flannel fabric as I love the way it needles for hand stitching.


Some tidbits of fabric from the dryer, I have a pile I collected from the washer drying on a rack.


More holes and I can't wait to stitch them!

Later this evening this batch of fabric will be placed into a dyebath of cutch and walnut, once it's achieved the appropraite tone of "sandstone" I will wash it, dry it, press it, and then cut it down to size. After all the logistics of placement is figured out I may back it with a sheer interfacing such as Misty Fuse (my favorite) as I really don't like putting netting/tull over the face of my textiles.



If you want to throw your fabric away I understand, I really do!  It simply does not fit with your vision and I know how difficult it can be to work with fabric, fibers, yarns, threads, etc., that do NOT fit in with your vision.  If it's way cool rotted stuff just send it to me instead of throwing it away, I promise I'll turn it into something wonderful!

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

More Holes



More holes, cannot wait for these peices to come out of the washer to see what they look like!

Oxidizing Fabric


Three four yard plus pieces of fabric that have been sitting out all winter and spring in the garden area waiting for me to do something, anything, with them.


Can't wait to see what this piece looks like after the washing machine, am hoping for some serious deterioration!  After a run through the washer then it's off to the alum pot and then time for a dye bath, am planning on something using walnuts and cutch for these pieces.


Saturday, July 07, 2012


WIP - Queen Anne's Birds now with more stitching.
It's now cool enough I can stand to be in my studio for more than five minutes to get some work done

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

My Creative Process Part 1 of 4

I recieved an email from a follower earlier in the week asking me about my creative process, how do I get started, etc.  The email contained all sorts of questions, images of her very lovely work, etc., but the gist of the story is how to start the creative process for a piece.  The more I thought about it, and wrote to her, the more I realized that I there was a blog post(s) in the anwser.

For my latest series of stitched stories, Corn, I started out by looking at images in my photo library.


And I start thinking about the theme, what in the photos captures my eye design wise?


I also spend thousands of hours staring at fields, ditches, corn plants, grain bins, silos, etc., in varying light and seasons studying how the light moves and bounces across the objects, studying how they change shape and form in different lighting.

The next thing I do, and this can be days, weeks, months, or even years later, is decide if I want to work in fabric/fiber, encaustic, or with paint.  I admit sometimes I work in all of those mediums just to see how it'll turn out in the end, what I thought might be a great idea for fabric bombs and turns out to be exquisite when worked up in wax!

 More tomorrow!





Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Natural Dyed Fabrics

Screen printed natural dye extracts onto cutch dyed silk dupioni.

Screen printed osage orange onto cochineal and lac dyed silk crepe de chine fabric.

I've been looking for a piece of natural dyed, compost dyed, mono and screen printed silk fabric I surfaced back around 2006, I'm finding everything but that particular piece of fabric!!!

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Fabric Stash 053112


I'm still sorting through my fabric stash of natural and compost dyed fabrics trying to find a lost piece of pigment painted fabric.  I still haven't found the piece I'm looking for, I may just have to repaint some fabric so that I can work on my project!

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Constructed Cloth Yo-Yo's



Silk throwster's waste made into a sheet of constructed cloth backed with a piece of my silk chiffon fabric that was compost dyed. I made the fabric in December and didn't get any further with the project, last night I was browsing through my flickr and was greatly inspired by Nellsembroidery constructed cloth Yo-yo's and thought I might try it with some of my own constructed cloth made from silk throwster's waste. They are wonderful!

I will be using these, and some that I'm manipulating, for a new canyonlands piece I'm working on.