Hope springs eternal

February 03, 2011

Even with slush a sunny day is beautiful.

Spent the better part of the day visiting my old stomping grounds observing student teachers in Upper Darby. Nice to see old friends and watch student teachers learn how to make art available to young students. Nicer still to leave before the end of the school day and get to the studio in time to do a little work! I am sure there is a way to eliminate the sun glare on the window, but it helps capture that fleeting time when the shadows stretch blue across the pink snow just before the whole field turns blue.

I did get here in time to take a few snap shots of the fruits of my "spring cleaning". I found small pieces of deconstructed and clamp dyed shibori that I could make into pieced scarves. Have not had time to have them professionally shot but will share them hot off the serger.

This shibori clamp dyed raw silk had been in my sample drawer for at least a year. It's use hadn't suggested itself to me until last week. I find the combination of colors and textures really exciting. The raw silk is lined with a deep sage colored silk gauze.

I only had a small piece of this deconstructed stonewashed crepe, but it was enough to form this new piece. The serged lines are really pleasing to me through the sheer pale chiffon.

Philadelphia Winter 2/1/11

February 01, 2011

It is hard to remain up beat when the weather is so dreary. The orchids help and the realization that some of my favorite pieces come from experiencing this weather. I actually really like grey or gray in my palette, just not in my daily weather.

This piece makes me think of the ice covered puddles when the ice is thin enough that if forms bubbles and you can see down to the weeds trapped underneath. It was made on a balmy summer day, but I remember walking on those puddles and breaking through them. It always gave a satisfying crunch.

I was also experimenting with using mixed colors that involved MX boysenberry which strike on one side of the crepe de chine and not the other. The pinkish area on the right is gray green on the back. A great advantage in a scarf. Two for one.

This piece is called "New Jersey Turnpike" and is based on my memories of driving up this highway on gray days like today and seeing the red brambles pushing their way through the sometimes equally gray snow.

It was shown at the Textile Center during Inside/Out, but appropriately enough it is now in the collection of a Jersey Girl.

Now off to the grocery store before all the streets freeze up again and become truly treacherous.

One thing leads to another

January 30, 2011

I have often been asked where I get my ideas from. For me it is almost always a visual cue, but seldom one that I use directly. Last year I experimented with snow dyeing. I photographed the Sedum in the back yard of my studio building prior to the big storms that I did the dyeing in. I love the variety of forms and colors that they have throughout the year and found them particularly fetching when lightly dressed with snow.

About a month later we had a big blizzard and I had been reading about snow dyeing on the web and so had my opportunity to experiment. I experimented with a range of different silks and was quite taken with many of the pieces, but several were disappointing. I know that many quilters use their snow dyed cottons cut up in their quilts... but I am not a quilter. However, as I was applying for membership to THE ARTCLOTH NETWORK and these were the right size for artcloth and so I decided to have a go at it.

I was only mildly interested in the results that I got on the 15mm Habotai. There was not enough contrast to hold my interest, so after washing and drying I soda soaked it again, let it dry and stretched it on my print table. I didn't photograph my steps, but I will show you details from the finished piece that illustrate them.

I made a deconstructed silk screen using deep red and released it using a pale golden beige color. I love deconstructed printing as you never really know what you will get and it sets my imagination free. Also my work habits are much more intuitive than pre-planned so it suits me.

The fabric now had a lot more going on in it. While it was still stretched I begin to paint back into it using foam brushes and also drawing on it using the extruder full of thickened dye. If you look in the lower left hand corner of this detail you can see that I also drew on it with Jaquard discharge paste... from a squeeze bottle.

At this point I usually let the piece hang out on the table for a few days while I try to decide if it is finished or not. This one was so riotous and so full of what I think of as the energy of nature ... and if I remember correctly I may have had a deadline for Artcloth Network, that I stopped after these steps. Many times I fuse and stitch back into a piece, but not this one.

So I am not sure if even I see the reference to the original Sedum in the snow image... but that was the thought process. Of course the only snow reference in this artcloth is that it was snow dyed. It is 91"x53" and was part of my successful submission for membership in Artcloth Network.

Snow Dyeing

January 28, 2011

Well we have enough of it, snow that is, but I was too busy yesterday to work with it. So I will post the results from last years experiments.

I worked on a variety of fabrics - all silk. They were all soda soaked and taken outside wet in containers that they were squashed down into. I believe they froze as the snow fell on them, I left them outside for several hours.

Snow dyed with MX and fiber reactive sitting on a silk screen

3 small bubble silk chiffon snowed dyed in the same container

15MM habotai draining on a silk screen over the sink

Next I brought the in to the studio and squirted them with premixed mx and some liquid reactive dyes.
I did several smaller pieces in the same container. They will become scarves that I call silk boas. I will post some finished ones below.
I let them drain over the sink sitting on a silk screen
I just left them to sit like that over night and the next day I packed each lump of silk in a large zip lock bag leaving the last inch of it unzipped so steam could escape and nuked them soaking wet for 2 min. in the studio microwave

Each of the silks took the dye in their own ways. I was most pleased with this heavy weight silk organza that is still hanging just as it came out after being washed and dried. I am not sure if I will ever work back into it, so it is pinned to the curtain that hangs in front of my bookcase. Waiting for me to have a vision of how to finish it.

Here are the snow dyed boas.
You can see that these were done on a crinkled silk chiffon.
I really enjoy choosing the color to serge the edges with.

Ways to Finish

January 25, 2011

Screening with thickened dye on top of deconstructed first layer

Rolling a third layer of dye using a foam roller

I frequently use a photo silk screened image to layer on top of the deconstructed marks. Then I might use a foam roller to add another layer of color.

Because I switch back and forth between powdered MX dyes and Liquid Reactive I use the bullet steamer to set the dyes. If I am doing a really small piece I will steam them while still wet in the microwave. Other wise I let them dry over night on the the table and then roll both the drop cloth and the silk around a card board tube and steam for about 30min.

Silk organza Faux Kimono with serged edges

Once they are done steaming they get washed in the washer and dried in the dryer.

The final step is serging... I love having the option of the color choice for the rolled edge.

Still Making a Scarf

January 23, 2011

Typically I would have gotten about as far as I did in yesterdays post in one work day in the studio, depending on how long it took for the dyes to dry between layers. I will over print if they are still damp, but not wet, so that they don't smear.

I use lots of things to draw with... the image on the top was dip dyed blue, then stretched and brushed with brown and now I am using a squeeze bottle to draw on it with.

The image in the center shows fabric that hangs off the edge of the table so I am using an extruder to draw over the foam brushed edge.

The image on the bottom shows the extruders. I get mine from my vet as they are used to give animals liquid medicines. I pay about $1.00 for them and they are great to draw with.

Making a Scarf

January 22, 2011

I almost always start by stretching the fabric on a large padded table that I have in the studio.

Typically I have made a deconstructed silk screen using thickened and dried reactive dyes and I transfer this to the stretched silk with more thickened dye.

Kerr Grabowski taught me this method and I love the marks that it leaves on the silk. I print the screen the length and width of the pinned fabric and each time I print it the image changes as it is essentially a monoprint process and the dried dye is dissolving with each transfer.

Once the first layer is down I decide how I want to work back into it. I can draw directly, screen another layer, roll on dye... there are lots of ways to attack this surface and I have no set pattern.

Happy 4th

July 04, 2009

It is a gorgeous breezy day here in the studio.. something to truly celebrate in what can be hot and humid Philadelphia. Working on organza for another kimono ... while trying to ignore the tantalizing smell of barbecued chicken wafting in the open windows. I increased the amount of dry dye powder in the paste to make the deconstructed screen, using SH for the thickner and released it with F. Worked much better than recent attempts and held the dye for 6 full screenings.

Seaweed

June 29, 2009

Mixed up a nice bronze/green and screened back into the discharged piece using the same circle screen. Followed that with a deeper blue using the tree bark screen. Will finish by drawing darker circles.

Soda Ash Surprise

June 29, 2009

My first day as a blogger. I forgot a piece of discharged chiffon that I was soaking in soda ash. It stayed in the soak overnight and this morning it had a warm pale coral that hadn't been there prior to the soak. This piece was was discharged 2x, first with Jaquard paste... then steamed but not enough discharged. Next I printed it again this time with Thiox paste and steamed while the paste was still quite wet... and I lost almost everything. I feel a bit like Goldilocks. Now I am going to dye it again using the same screen I used to discharge it.