fiberhart

A Mixed Bag

I finished all my pieces yesterday. The batik was a smashing success, I got crackle and better control of my lines. After waxing the entire surface of the sunflower pieces, I scrunched them (trying to avoid the leaves) and applied some chocolate brown dye. After ironing out the excess wax (quite the process), I steamed them for close to an hour. After drying, here's what I got:





I think with some quilting and beading, these are rather respectable practice pieces. Next, I want to try a more abstract look without thickening the dyes. That will take planning, not my strong suit.

The red kitchen utensil batik also looked great after I knocked down the in-your-face red a bit.



I think I like the movement those straight lines add to the piece.

The deconstructed screenprints are another story. I obviously did something wrong, because the dye washed out almost completely. Here's the turquoise piece after steaming. Up close, I can see bits of the green- but that's about it. Compare this photo to the one in the previous post and you'll see what I mean.



On the white pfd, the green became a very pale, ghostly gray; on the multi-colored hand-dye, it pretty much disappeared. I'm not sure if I didn't get enough soda ash in the print paste, or what. Next time I will use dried, soda soaked fabric. Despite this disappointment, the process is too much fun to give up.

An additional note- Ive been thinking about what I did with the deconstructed screen prints, and think I have figured out why they washed out. I re-read the instructions for making soda print paste, and realized I just stirred the dry soda ash into the paste- I neglected to dissolve it in water. Dumb, dumb, dumb. There is a fine line between working quickly and intuitively, and being just plain impatient, and I crossed it yesterday. Hopefully the soda ash will have dissolved by now, but if I still see granules I'll add some urea water. AND use soda soaked fabric until I use up that print paste!!

We have gone from 90's on Friday and Saturday, to 60's today, with rain. Funny how a temperature that feels balmy in the spring can feel downright cold at the end of summer. We have tickets to see Three Dog Night tonight- in an outdoor venue. Here's hoping the rain goes away so the concert can happen. I love taking my kids to see the bands from my youth in the 60's!!!