Shimmering Light

Like columns of shimmering light! 

I will be setting up dyepots this evening and cannot wait to dye more of this!  John's vacation starts tomorrow and I have him home to help me, and to paint the house, for the next two weeks. First up is to take all of the pastel silks, I dyed with exhaust baths, and turn them into dark rich lucious colors like the ones in the photo above.  Out with pastels in with yummy!

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!

Curing Pigment Painted Fabrics

Four different earth pigments were used in combination with soy milk to color this piece of cotton cloth.

I'm often asked "how long do I really need to allow for my soy painted fabrics cure before I can wash them"?  The anwser is depending on your climate/humidity a minimum of three to six weeks.

Tape was use to create resist patterns on the fabric. 

The real anwser is how long can you stand to wait?  The longer you wait the greater the permance of the dyes and pigments on the fabric.  Yes the hand of the fabric will change the longer you wait, the piece in the top photo has been curing now for about 10 years, and it's stiff enough after all of this time to almost stand by itself unaided!  I just found it this afternoon while sorting through a pile of fabrics that I had misplaced. 

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.

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

WIP - Hands 070412

Now with machine stitching.

I will be adding more surface embellishment to the piece once the heat wave passes, right now it's just too hot to do much of anything.

Hand Prints

Experimenting with hand prints.  Cutch dyed natural muslin cotton fabric. Machine Stitched.

Umbrels

Now with umbrels!  I'm still thinking about how I want to incorporate the indigo dyed silk organza net into this piece.

WIP - Queen Anne's Birds

Some detail shots of the stitching thus far.

Queen Anne's Birds!

Now with some stitching, I used a varigated thread in blues.

I have yet to decide if I want to include the indigo silk organza net layer.

My Creative Process: Decisions, Decisions

A few blocks of digitally printed silk organza layered over the digital image.

Medium value of indigo dyed silk organza net.

A very light value of indigo dyed silk organza net. 

I haven't made a final decision yet on the ove rall directioni of the piece.  I have, however, toyed with the idea of playing off the Queen Anne's Lace that's part of the digital collage.

Indigo and Rust

My Creative Process Part 3 of 4

The more I think about my creative process, the more I don't want to think about the it!  While I'm a process oriented artist, I'd rather be "doing" the process than simply writing about it.  So today, in pictures, this part of the process of writing about my creative process is all about auditioning a piece in progress.  And I'll probably post more photos in the next day or so as I work towards completing this piece.

Digital printed cotton fabric, printed from one of my photo collages, layered atop a piece of painted timtex.

I've been having a very hard time bringing myself to cut up, stitch, or otherwise use this piece of fabric.  And that is odd.  Odd in that I could easily print a hundred more of this collage onto fabric, paper, or whatever, so why not???

A digital piece of fabric that I printed from one of my photo collages, layered atop a piece of painted timtex.

And now with a digtially printed sheer silk organza fabric layed atop the other two layers.

And now with a layer of osage orange dyed silk organza layerd atop the previous two layers.

This piece will go through many auditions, layers, etc. before the first stitches take place, and once I start stitching I will then start auditioning more layers once again.

My Process Update

I'm behind the 8 ball, actually the truth is closer to I'm behind the 95F and I have NO central air or air conditioning 8 ball and in reality just didn't feel like posting an update today.  See everyone tomorrow!

Sketch and Note Books



Sketchbooks and notebooks all a part of my creative process, even for natural dyeing.  I keep swatches of fabrics in the notebooks with notes on how I acquired the color.

Area Show:43

Corn No. 51 was accepted into the MacNider's Area Show: 43, now to pack it up and ship it off!

8.5x11 inches matted and framed to 11x14 inches.
Natural dyed and compost dyed cotton fabrics, digitally printed cotton fabric, machine stitched.

My Creative Process Part 2 of 4

Stage 2 of my creative process is to take notes, if I haven’t been doing so already, and to start auditioning my materials for the new work/series.   

My drawing desk on which I keep a piece of white butcher paper.  I like the white paper as it allows me to draw on it, take notes, and audition darkers objects such as these letter press blocks.

For those of you following my blogs you know that I have a large inventory of supplies to work with: these supplies range from naturally dyed fabrics, to handmade papers (many I made myself), inks, paint, threads, beads, shells, rocks, etc.  Actually, what I have are collections.  Collections that I have been creating and adding too since I was about nine years of age.

Some natural dye materials for dyeing fabric and fibers.

Rusty objects for dyeing fabrics and papers as well as for inspiration.

 

Shell bits and rocks from one of my collections, these live on my desk.

As part of the creative process I audition many of the objects in my collections, and image library, sometimes it's a series of phrases I've read in a book that inspire a piece.

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!

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!!!

Future Art Cloth

A large tub filled with muslin that overwintered in the tomato garden.  Will be washing this batch tomorrow, about 30 yards worth, and then putting it through the paces for bundles and immersion dye baths.

Corn No. 54 in Progress

Corn No. 54 in progress, before stitching to show the patterning of the compost dyed fabric.

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!