Left Over Black Dye

I had left-over black dye from last week's screening of the spirals. Can't let it waste away. Consequently, on Monday I decided just to play. This is only the second time I have worked with black dye or paint. I do not know why I never tried to before. I think that will change now. I recently bought an 250 ml bottle of black Seta color.

My first experiment was to use one of my fabric tools -  a brayer with rubber banks wrapped around it. I used it to print on a silk organza scarf. This was followed by printed with twelve erasers attached to a piece of plexi-glass with velcro on another one of these scarves. Usint the velcor was something Jane Dunnewold told us about when I took her Complex Cloth workshop about 10-11 years ago.

I was going to over dye them until my artist buddy, Chris, came over yesterday morning. She said leave them as is. When I showed another two artist friends in Tubac yesterday afternoon, they concurred with Chris. One even order a stamped version and requested that I use maroon instead of black. What do I know?

I next played with several small pieces of cotton that I had dyed previously. The next two I thought I had already steamed and washed out. However, after playing with the black dye, I steamed them and discovered new brighter colors popping out.

Like I said, I was just trying different tools and not worrying about creating a finished piece. I figured I could just cut them up for some of my fabric collages. I even tried using a sponge brush with one of my silk screens; which I did not like - too much dye through the screen. Again Chris surprised me, she said that these two should be framed or mounted and sold as is. I guess I need to filter my left brain. What do agree with Chris or should I just cut them up and use them in collages?

Below is another piece I experimented with. I do not like the middle section, but I think parts of it have possibilities for collages.

I do not know whether I like the front or the back of the last piece the best. Again, I do not think I had steamed and wash it before applying the black dye. That is why the front and back are different.

Front

Back

Which one do you like?

September Studio Highlights or What the Heck I 've Been Up To

September was a productive month.  On September 10 and 17, I taught an Introduction to Art Cloth course in Tucson. One of my new favorite techniques that I adapted from Make your Mark: Explore your Creatviity and Discover Your Inner Artist, a book by Margaret Peot is applying paint using a brayers wrapped with  paint using a brayer with rubber bands wrapped about it on two pieces of commercial fabric. On the first fabric pictured below, I then stamped over the brayered layer with carved erasers using citrine Lumiere. On the second one, I sponged printed with the same paint. Let me know what you think of the results.

In September, I spent many hours working on the Sonoita Elementary School project. I drove out to the school three times (one hour and ten minutes each way) to get some help with sewing jeans strips together for mounting the twenty second graders' quilt blocks.

One day, a mother and I spent five hours pinning and sewing. I finished this wall hanging last week. Since there is no place in my home to hang it to photograph, I laid it on my bed and stood on a ladder to snap a photo. Once it is hung at the school, I will be able to get a better shots of it.

My DH was so impressed with the finish product that he wants to keep it. I told him that was not possible. However, it certainly the best compliment he could have given me.

I also finished the top for another quilt square for the desert beauties collection: the lantana. Some of the lantanas have flowers that are all the same color and others have multiple colors. I decided to depict the one that has different colored flowers. Below is a picture of two plants in my garden, followed by my quilt square.

The Great Gelatin Print Experiment: Part 2

As stated earlier, art cloth #2 used 5 or 6 of the small gelatin plates.

Art Cloth #2, Steps 1-2

• Rust gelatin prints
• Rust squished brush strokes

Art Cloth #2, Step 3

• Turquoise irregularly shaped prints using a weatherstrip stamp to minic shapes of some of the gelatin plates.

Art Cloth #2, Step 4

• Applied light yellow-orange glaze

Art Cloth #2, Step 5

• Metallic light turqoise stamped on with sponge

Art Cloth #2, Step 6

• Mellic copper mixed with glass bead gel which was applied with a stencil brush using a freezer paper stencil of spirit people motifs

Art Cloth #2, Step 7

• Metallic light turqoise stamped on with sponge over spirit people motifs

I am not that thrilled with this finished piece. I think it is the dark green rock shapes. Do you like it?

Also, I think Step 6 looks better in the photo than it did in person. The spirit people looked more prominent to me when the piece was on my design wall; however, maybe I should have lived with it a little before added the turquoise sponging over them. One thing I noticed as I took pictures of the steps is that the work almost always looked better in the photo than on the design wall. Any thoughts?

The Great Gelatin Print Experiment: Part 1

About a month ago, I made a plate of gelatin according to the directions in Rayna Gillman's book, Create Your Own Handprinted Cloth. Several of the pieces I printed have been used in fabric collages. Last week I decided I wanted to experiment with using gelatin prints in art cloth for my Creating your own Stamps and Stencils for Art Cloth class at AZ Art Supply in Tucson. (BTW ART CLOTH is cloth TRANSFORMED by adding or subtracting color, line, shape, texture, value, or fiber to CREATE a compelling surface.)

Therefore, I made another gelatin plate in a large foil cake pan, ran a knife along its edges, and turned it upside down, and pounded it to come out of the cake pan. WRONG!!!!! I was supposed to lift it out. Instead of one big sheet of gelatin, I had one medium piece and a lot of smaller, irregularly shaped ones. Thus, began the great gelatin experiment. I decided to square up the largest pieces so it resembled a rectangle. I did this with a paring knife that I keep in my studio. I used this gelatin plate and 5 or 6 of the other gelatin pieces for art cloth #1 and I only used the smaller gelatin plates for art cloth #2.

Art Cloth #1, Steps 1 - 3

• Turquoise gelatin prints
• Smaller rust gelatin prints
• Rust prints using eraser stamps

Art Cloth #1, Steps 4-5

• Blue-violet and violet monoprints using large gelatin plate
• Blue-violet and blue spiral prints using eraser stamps

Art Cloth #1, Step 6

• Applied light mauve glaze

Art Cloth #1, Step 7

• Metallic copper spiral prints using weatherstrip stamp

Finishing Sun Prints

Below are the results from adding some layers to the sun prints I did earlier. I use some of the new stamps and stencils I cut and real geraniums leaves. The lines on the green piece were created using needletip applicators.