It's a good feeling. . .

to have everything done. The label is sewed on Passages I, Magnification: Ginger Beer is mounted, backed, labeled, and ready to hang. I am happy with how it came out.



I love the texture I got with the tissue paper. I will definitely use this again. The only thing I would do differently would be to mix black paint in with the gel medium, so the canvas looks really BLACK.

I've been so focused on these projects for so long-- what next? I will have to have some handwork while I'm in Florida, otherwise I will go nuts. Maybe time to get out the knitting needles?

Ten more days and counting until I hold Michelle myself. In the meantime, I'm waiting for a picture of her wearing one of the tie dye onesies I did!

What a Day!

i keep a sort of journal next to the bed, where I note what art project I've worked on that day. For obvious reasons, most of the entries are weekends. When I went to write down everything I got done yesterday, I surprised even myself. And, all this was done in between phone calls from Sean with the latest updates about Michelle!

I got Magnification: Ginger Beer cut to size and stitched around the edges. The next step was the canvas- clearly, black would be the best background but I didnt' just want solid black paint. I did undercoat the canvas with black paint, but then I applied torn strips of black tissue paper with gloss gel medium. Here it is, just starting to dry--



and here all dry, with the edges turned to the back and more gel medium applied.



This gave me just what I wanted, texture.

I also got the sleeve made and sewn on the back of Passages I, and the labels for both pieces printed out and ready to be sewn on today.

I grabbed the tee and silk scarves I'd thrown in the Thiox bath last week, for anther round in the dyepots. I got a nice fire red and golden yellow scarf, another that's blue and violet, and the last one is camo or baby diaper poop, depending on your mood. I hoped to get the green I've gotten by mixing golden yellow and charcoal gray- but it doesn't work that way on silk, apparently. I may hit this one with another color, maybe the red.



The tee, and another I just got from Dharma, are in the washer now.

Mother and baby continue to do well, hopefully they will get to go home tomorrow. I'm glad they've got plenty of people who can come stay with Marly during the day until I get out there. Ten more days!

What I Learned This Weekend. . .

---Turquoise dye REALLY does not discharge- no matter how long you cook it in Thiox! I was trying to un-dye a tee that I totally botched with the addition of gray over cerulean blue and turquoise. The gray is now light blobs of a sickly yellow, and the turquoise is still turquoise. A couple shades lighter, but that's all. I think I'm to the point of overdyeing it in a black or navy immersion bath.

---Turquoise doesn't come off silk scarves, either. I thinkI'll hit this one with grape next.

---Hand stitching can be a great relaxer. My 6 by 9 piece is well on its way, all by hand except the edges. And, I can take it to work and keep my hands busy during meetings- another bonus!

That's it, no pictures tonight. Later!

Magnification, Part 2

Wow, it's only mid-day on the first day of my long weekend- and I have something that is worthy of a post! After getting the usual errands done this morning, I've been playing again with the painted dryer sheets and black felt. And I like what's developing!



The bottom one is the first I did today, the top one the last. With the bottom one, I was using multiple dryer sheets fused together. I just cut freehand, and fit the pieces in like a puzzle.

The second one, I decided to play with one of my recurring shapes, a circle. I found three different size circular objects I could use as a template with my soldering iron. Once I had them arranged and fused to the felt, I made the marks with the iron- working very hard not to cut through the felt. I only had one slip-up.

After this piece, I decided I liked the look of single layers, overlapping rather than multiple layers of the sheets. So I just freehand cut shapes, overlapping at times. Again, once they were fused to the felt, I cut the marks with the iron. I like the movement I got in the last piece.

Now it's on to the sewing machine, to see what stitching will add. I'm not sure if I will hit these with a heat gun or not.

I upgraded to Elements 7 this week, and the interface is waaaay different than the version I've been using- 4. I won't be able to figure this one out without a book, that's obvious at this point.

More playtime today, maybe even a little in the morning. We are headed up to Scofield in the afternoon, to spend the Fourth with friends from Price who have a cabin there. They shoot the fireworks over the lake, and we'll have a front row seat. Pictures of that later!

Magnification--

is the name of a challenge our WAQ group is doing for a gallery show this fall. It's only a small piece, 5 X 7, mounted on a 9 X 12 painted canvas. I've had an idea percolating in my brain for awhile, and this week I finally got started.

First, I painted a bunch of the dryer sheets I have been saving for months.



I only did a couple of colors, since that's all I'm using for this piece.

I've wanted to use my soldering iron to cut the dryer sheets, so I pulled this book out of my library where it has been sitting for months, and read up on the basics.



This morning, after a yummy breakfast of homemade sourdough pancakes and strawberries, I sat down to play. I learned that the best way to iron the dryer sheets is between two sheets of parchment. I made a base layer on a piece of white fusible felt, then started playing with shapes and mark-making.



This was enough to make me decide that it's fun, and if I do anymore of this, I'll need to get a respirator.

Next I decided to play with the same colors on black felt. I also did some stitching on these; the green is cotton thread, the pink is polyester. I wanted to see if there was any difference if I hit it with the heat gun.



I definitely prefer the black as a base layer. I was also glad that the polyester thread did just fine under the heat gun, since I have more colors in that than I do cotton.

So now it is on to the actual piece. I decided I'm not going to cut the dryer sheets while they are on the felt- it is too easy to inadvertently cut the felt in the process. So I've layer several of the sheets, and fused some Misty Fuse to the bottom piece. I'm thinking I can cut my shapes, and then fuse them to the felt.

I also think that next time I paint dryer sheets, I will use a foam brush instead of just smooshing the paint around in a bowl with a bunch of the sheets. I want more control of the color, and that seems like the best way. It will definitely take longer to paint, but I think it will be worth it.