fiberhart

Batik and Monoprinting

I mentioned in the last post that I spent Saturday up at a friend's studio. She lives in Heber, which is a lovely, not-too-long trip through Provo Canyon. I had to stop and take a couple pictures of the fantastic fall colors, as seen by Bridal Veil Falls.





I do love this time of year. The cooler temperatures feel great after 90 and 100 degree summers. The colors on the mountains are lovely. The only drag for me is knowing that winter is on its way, and I will be living in a sea of beige and gray for the next six or more months. Unless it snows a lot, in which case I will be fighting slick roads and all the hassles that go with it. Not my favorite season by any stretch.

I took a lot of fabric, both already dyed and plain PFD. I never got to the PFD, and didn't even finish all the dyed fabric I took. I did both soy batik, and monoprinting. I wanted to make more fabric in similar colors to some I did in the batik workshop this summer. Blues and turquoises--



I have three or four in these colors.

Then I wanted to try monoprinting. Here I used construction fencing, red dye on yellow fabric. I got two pieces from this, here's the first--



And the second--



The bits of turquoise were not intentional. I had these batching with the turquoise peices in plastic, and they bled. Ah well, I'm going to cut them up anyway.

This is my favorite. I just smeared print paste on my plate, and then squirted turqoise and ecru dye on the paste. The colors were running before I ever got the fabric on the plate. I think I started with a light yellow base, you'd never know it now! Then after getting the fabric on the plate, I remembered that I hadn't soaked it in soda ash. So I just dripped a soda solution on the fabric with a brush. It seems to have worked!



I did other pieces, but the patterning is so subtle that it didn't show up well in photos.

One more note from Reno, sort of- my brother and I are both book addicts, and I always have to check out his bookcase to see what treasures he might have. I found this, which has been on my Amazon wish list for awhile-



This is the best book on the creative process I have found yet. Paul let me borrow it (his is a signed copy, the author spoke at Cal State Fullerton when Paul was an srt student there), but I will be buying my own copy. It just speaks to me in a way that other books on creativity have not. I highly recommend it.