Preparations. . .

I've decided to set the green hand dye aside for the time being.  Too much obsessing that got me nowhere!

I also figured it might be a good time for some therapy sewing, a la Rayna Gillman.  This one won't be a scrap quilt, but I am using up a stash of color gradations I made a few years ago.  Throw in a good bit of solid white, and I hope to end up with a quilt for Michelle.  So far, I've got eight strip sets at least partially constructed.  Here's two after I did a diagonal cut- I'm thinking I need to do another one of those.

I've also started getting my supplies together for next week's workshop with Carol Soderlund, Dyeing to Discharge.  I have. . . 

my respirator, gloves, an old sheet (press cloth), thermofax screens, and a sketchbook. . . 

shibori supplies, containers, buckets, my little drawer unit full of stamps and stencils. . . 

two kinds of black commercial cotton, a couple of black tees, a bolt of Hoffman lawn, a bolt of bamboo/cotton, some silk yardage, and a bunch of not-so-stellar hand dyes I hope to remake.  Think this will all fit in the back of my Prius?

I had almost everything on Carol's two page list.  Today I'll get the rest, just some Press and Seal, gallon zip lock bags, some Sharpies, some lightweight gloves, and another kitty litter pan.  I figure by this time next week, I should be totally exhausted, with a brain ready to explode from all I've learned!

Today is a few hours of work, then getting ready to leave for Moab tomorrow for a friend's wedding.  The next ten days on my calendar are jam-packed!

Heat Wave = Time to Dye!!

We have had triple digit temperatures for most of the past two weeks, so I decided to take some time off work for the specific purpose of dyeing fabric.  I sweated, had to take breaks in the air conditioned house, but I got about fifteen yards of fabric dyed.  I never tire of the process!!

This time I decided to set up a studio in the garage, since I wanted to do some soy wax batik also.  It worked really well- I had two tables and a TV tray, which gave (usually) plenty of room for my equipment and room to work.  Here's the setup after I was done, with all the fabric ironed and folded.  I never did get around to taking any pictures when I was actually working!

I had room to lay plastic on the floor of the garage, and also my Ikea drying rack.  The best part about the setup is the table on the right.  I got it at Walmart, it was labeled for tailgating parties.  It's sturdy, it folds up to half the size for storage, and it was very reasonably priced.  I put a 2 by 4 piece of plywood on top, covered that with a couple of towels and plastic, and it worked great.

I did some solids, flat dyeing on the table. . .

(except the four on the far left are multi-color pieces, I just squirted dyes on).

These are the best of the soy wax pieces.  I was especially happy with the one on top- I used a sponge in the soy wax, and it held the shapes very well.

I also had fun doing some clamp Shibori pieces.  I now have three sets of acrylic triangles, and two sets of squares.  I also found some round plastic carpet casters that worked great to do circles.

The piece on the left I just drew with a tjanting.  It looked great wet, not so great once it was washed and dried.  

I experimented again with flour paste resist- something I'd tried on silk a few years ago, and wasn't happy with.  I was so happy with the first one, I did a second and also tried oatmeal resist.  I think I like the flour better, but both are cool.

My favorite is the one in the middle- pale green, with dark blue veining.  The one below that is the oatmeal resist.


I did several flag folded pieces with the acrylic shapes, and loved how they came out.  I ended up dyeing two colors on each- here they are at the end of two dye baths.

The bottom right piece was done with the square shape.  The green on the left was originally a boring scrunch dye without a lot of texture, so I flag folded it and discharged in a bleach bath.  I really like how it came out, I think I will be doing more pale scrunch dyes that I overdye in a flag fold.

And I had to have something to wear, right?  This is a light rayon poncho from Dharma- I was hoping for a pastel Monet effect.  As much as I diluted the dyes, I should have diluted them more, it is a little brighter than the pastel effect I was hoping for.  But I'll still wear it!

Now I just have to figure out how I'm going to use all this fabric!

I'm linking this post to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  Take a look at what all the other fiber artists there have been up to!

Long Weekend (in the Dyepots!!)

I have a long weekend, and so far have spent at least one solid day in the studio.  I got my next Tangled Textiles piece totally done- but no looking at that until the reveal day on the 18th.  

I bought a circular rayon scarf from Dharma a few months ago, and finally got around to dyeing it.  Yeah, the red and gray that I've already posted.  Something about the scarf bugged me- not the dye job, but the size.  I decided it was too wide, so I cut it in half- and now I had two almost identical red and gray scarves.  I like the colors and patterning, but I don't need two!

So I cooked one half in a Thiox bath.  All the gray turned to white, and the red areas turned yellow.  At least that's what color it was when I took it out of the Thiox bath.  After I took it out of the washer, it looked like this.  Yuck.

If it had stayed the yellow, I would have had lots of options for overdyeing.  This not-so-lovely color (straight out of  a baby's diaper, I think!) left me with limited choices.  I did manage to find something I thought would work out of the Dye Book, though.

Three hours later I had this.  Better, but still not enought zing for me.

So I went through my stencils and picked out a couple of Paintstik colors I thought would blend, and went to work.  By this afternoon, I had this!

I ended up using three colors instead of two- I highlighted the copper squares with gold on two edges.  I'm happy now, it feels done.

One interesting side note- if you look closely, you can see the thread I used to finish the edge- it's on the left in the photo.  I used cotton thread, figuring it would dye with the fabric.  Apparently it has enough polyester that it won't dye, or at least not much.  It's not obvious, though, so I'll still wear the scarf- with a great deal of pleasure!

I also started another quilt, but Blogger is being a pain and taking forever to download photos.  So I am calling it a night, maybe it will be more cooperative tomorrow.

Motivation

is something I have been sorely lacking lately, hence the dearth of posts.  I have been feeling flightly, unable to concentrate on much of anything.  I go down to the studio, ditz around at something for fifteen minutes, and leave.  Pathetic.

At least I can say I'm motivated in other areas.  This weekend I decided I was going to put the carpet cleaner I got for Christmas to good use.  We got the living room and our bedroom (which is huge) done.  Not perfect, but a great improvement.  We also rearranged the furniture.  I got daring- it's on a diagonal, NOT lined up along the walls.  I've watched way to many HGTV design shows!

With nice clean carpet, I wasn't about to have a dirty dog running around.  So Sadie the Border collie got a haircut and a bath.  Unreal how much hair that dog has, especially in cold weather.  While she doesn't enjoy the experience, she does act like she's feeling better afterward.

So now that I've bored you with my weekend doings, I do have some fiber pictures.  The scarf I used the DeColourant on is still waiting for its second layer of screenprinting.  This is a scarf that was ugly, then got a couple of overdyes that greatly improved it.

I'd thought I'd use the DeColourant with metallic gold for the next round, and I probably still will.  I used it with regular DeColourant on another scarf, and I could hardly tell the difference between the two.

I've also been slowly working on the first piece I'm doing for my ECHO group.  I finally made the stamps with the spiral design I've been playing with, using sticky backed fun foam.  It does work rather nicely!

 

The third stamp is one I did using an idea from a book I got last year, on making surface design tools with household objects.  Those are corn pads, just stuck on a piece of acrylic.  

Doing these, I learned that if I pay attention to how I cut, I can end up with two spirals that are slightly different.  Look closely at them and you'll see what I mean.  The unbroken spiral on top is actually the other part of the stamp directly below it.

Another work week tomorrow- then next week I am in southern Utah all week for work.  I'll be paying a visit to the Superior Thread headquarters while I'm there!!  Maybe I'll get some motivation in some warmer temperatures--

Catching Up

I have been working at art, although I haven't posted much of it here yet.  Here's my attempt to catch up!

The Interpret This! group comes to an official close tomorrow.  We've been posting our favorite piece from the year, along with thoughts about the group and how it affected our own creative process. My piece posts tomorrow- I had a really hard time choosing one.  Some were easy to eliminate, but there were three that stood out for me- not because they were perfect pieces, but the learning that went with them.  Click here to see what everyone has to say and post.

Probably the one I had the most fun with is this one, because I learned I can do realistic!

This one still makes me smile, I love the colors.

I also thought a lot about choosing this one-

I loved how the hand dyes created a foggy, mysterious world behind the fence.  I think it evoked a mood, one of my criteria for my choice.  But in the end, the fact that I used my 'fall-back' of strip piecing made my decide against it.

Although this group is ending, four of us that participated and one other artist are working together in the coming year.  We will not be doing the same pieces, but rather critiquing and encouraging.  The blog is private, which we hope will foster honest communication.  We had our first work-in-progress weekend, and I am happy with how it is going.  I think it will help me with my biggest frustration from the past year- namely, developing my own voice!  My goals is to use my own hand dyed and printed fabric in wholecloth quilts, a specific size, exploring symbols within the context of an overarching theme- seasons of life.  I'm glad we are only looking to do four pieces over the year- I could not do a monthly piece again!  I'm hoping to be more disciplined in my approach, and try to use my sketchbook as a tool to develop the pieces.

That lime green fabric you saw on my last post ended up in a third dye pot.  The second dyeing helped, but it was still a kind of blah fabric.  So I swirled it (from Benn and Morgan's Tray Dyeing), and poured turquoise dye into the bottom of the container.  I'm happy with how it ended up--

I'll only be using part of this, so I think I'll make a 'frame' to audition and figure out what part I want to use.  Since I plan to make all my pieces the same size, I can use it all year.

I've also done some discharge samples, and figured out that discharging isn't an option with this piece thanks to the turquoise dye.  I think I will be using white paint greatly diluted with fabric medium to give me the ghost images I want to print on this.  Shiva paintstiks will also be part of it.

I tried to get this new book through inter-library loan recently.

It looked really interesting, and helpful if I'm exploring archetypal symbols in my work.  I was told I'd have to wait six weeks to request it again, since it is checked out.  So I went to Amazon, where I'd first seen it for about $25.  No any more!!  It's not available from Amazon, just from other sellers, starting at $30.  I looked around, and everyone else was the same or higher.  On a whim, I checked out Barnes and Noble's website, and found it there for $24.  I didn't hesitate, bought it right then.  I hope it's delivered this week.  If it turns out to be a dud, I guess I can re-sell it on Amazon- they had used copies starting at over $100!!!

I have some silk scarves that I've discharged with DeColourant in the washer right now.  Photos when they are done!

Why I Dye

The picture does not do it justice!  This is cotton, dyed with a yellow from Pro Chem that I've never used before, golden yellow from Dharma, and charcoal gray from Dharma.  The combination of yellow and gray makes some of the most glorious greens I've ever seen.

Originally I was going to use the Pro Chem yellow with cerulean blue in a snow dye to get the green I want for my next piece.  When I put the blue dye in the yellow, I could see immediately it wouldn't work- I had a bottle of baby puke or baby diaper (take your pick).  I did the snow dyeing, but not until I'd mixed up my trusty lemon yellow from Dharma.  (More on that later in the post.)

After I did the snow dye setup, I figured I might as well use some of the dyes I have in my dye frig just for fun.  I took the Pro Chem yellow 114 and golden yellow and splattered them across a length of cotton.  I wanted to add something, so I looked to see what I already had mixed up.  I almost grabbed light red- then I saw the charcoal gray sitting in the back.  I grabbed that, and liberally doused the fabric.  I left it to batch overnight, just scrumpled up in a container.

I washed it out this morning, and loved what I saw after I ironed it.  Those lighter spots up at the top just glow against the darker values!

My snow dye was much less successful.  It came out yellow, not green.  I now know why you don't use old snow to dye- it has STUFF in it.  Yes, it all rinsed out ok, but still- what a pain.  After rinsing, I dumped the fabric in soda ash again to soak, while I mixed up more lemon yellow and turquoise dye.  I laid out the fabric on plastic, and sponged on color where I wanted it.  

 

It is now scrumpled up in a container, batching under a heat lamp.  I won't wash it out until tomorrow afternoon, since turquoise likes a longer batch time.

I also grabbed three silk scarves I've had sitting in the studio since I rust dyed them last fall.  They came out ugly- so what the heck, I decided to find out what happens when you mix MX dyes with rust dyed fabric.  I soaked the scarves in vinegar, then chose colors.  One got charcoal gray, one got turquoise, and one got that baby puke/diaper color I'd mixed up yesterday.  After nuking them one at a time, they got washed out with the cotton.  Here's how they came out--

An improvement for sure.  I was floored at how turquoise the one scarf is- I figured it would  be more brown-y, since the whole scarf had a tan undertone.

I also decided the turquoise scarf needed more- so I screened on some DeColourant, using sequin waste.  It is now hanging on the design wall, drying.  I'll iron it tomorrow to see what happens.  Since turquoise is notorious for NOT discharging, we'll see what this new product does.  And regardless, I think I will do some more screening on this scarf.

So, to answer the question at the beginning of the post- how else could I get such unique, glorious color?  I don't worry about running out of a fabric, I can always create more since I keep a pretty good record of my dye sessions.  It may not be identical, but it will definitely blend and coordinate with anything I created with the same dye colors and similar process.  And, as Margaret Miller, says, why use four fabrics when you can use forty?

Slowly. . .

I'm getting back to 'normal' after ten days away from work and my other routines.  Today I've been playing some in the studio.  I got the edges zigzagged around this little piece I finished while I was in Florida--

I knew I'd need something to work on while I was there, so I threw together this little piece figuring I'd do the handwork.  Call it a sample or test piece for my 12 by 12 group for 'Prairie'- it's loosely based on a photo of prairie grasses.  The 12 by 12 piece will be similar, with different fabrics.  And it won't be hand embroidered!  I'll use this one in a demo for my Surface Design group meeting in November on how to mount and mat small fiber pieces.

A new product came up on a couple of my fiber lists- Decolourant Plus.  I saw an ad for it from Quilting Arts online, I think, and it piqued my curiosity.  When list members were offered a free sample to try, I jumped on it.  First I tried it on two notoriously difficult colors to discharge- turquoise and fuschia.  Here's the results-

This was an already-quilted sample.  I applied the Decolourant with a foam roller using a light touch, I didn't want it in the 'valleys' created by the quilting.  The bottom part is with just the Decolourant, the top part is with the Decolourant Plus, which adds a color in addition to discharging the fabric.  I got a Deep Purple color.  I rather like how that looks, I'm not too crazy about the discharge with just the Decolourant on turquoise.  Here's a closer up look at that--

Then I tried both of them on a scrap of fuschia fabric, using a thermofax screen and a stamp.  I like the effect on the fuschia better--

You can definitely see the discharge effect on the flip side of the purple.  I for one like being able to deposit a specific color if I want, I think I will be trying this some more.

A couple of people have done this just with sunlight.  We don't have any of that right now, it has been cloudy and rainy all week.  So I now have two different black fabrics with Decolourant on them, sitting under a heat lamp.  If nothing else, it will dry it quicker- and maybe I'll luck out and it will discharge too.

On a not-fabric related note- I think I mentioned recently that I've finally joined the bandwagon and bought myself an iPod.  It's turning out that I don't listen to music much on it, but I do lots of other things!  I found a free app called 'Lose it' that a number of reviews said was very helpful for losing weight.  It's nothing but a food diary and database of calorie and nutrient counts, but it's amazing the difference it can make when you track that.  One week into it, and I've lost a pound and a half.  I'm taking this slow and easy, and not making huge changes to the way I eat anyway.  I guess I'm lucky in that I don't much like junk or fast foods, and I love fresh fruits and veggies.  We'll see, but I'm hopeful I can keep this up and be at my goal weight next March.

And now I'm off to try something I've sworn for years I'd never do- knit socks!  Judy convinced me that it is fun, it can be done without double pointed needles (which I hate)- so I got some yarn and size 3 circular needles.  First step is to figure out the toe-up cast-on- you'll know my progress (or lack thereof) later this weekend!

Undyeing, Part 3

I got more quilting done yesterday- and also ended up ripping out some.  This piece really is demanding that the thread colors be carefully chosen, and when one part was screaming for attention, I knew it had to go.  Fortunately it wasn't that big of an area.  I also had to run to Dave's Bernina to pick up some more thread colors.  I'm hoping to get the quilting done this week, then face it and ship it off to Grand Junction.

Three or four years ago, I dyed and printed this two yard piece of raw silk.

It has sat in my fabric storage ever since.  The screenprinting doesn't work together, and I couldn't figure out what to add to make it work.  I'm just not experienced enough with printing, especially on larger pieces of fabric.  So last night I decided to try discharging it with thiox to see what happened.  I folded it into a square, and then put it between two pieces of plexiglass with rubber bands to hold it.  I honestly wasn't expecting much to happen, since I'd used turquoise dye at least once on the piece, and turquoise is notorious for not disharging.  Imagine my surprise, then, when the edges discharged to a lovely greeny-gray- and not that long in the pot.  So I chucked the whole thing in the thiox pot, no manipulation, and let it stew for a good half an hour.  Here's what I got--

What a difference!  There are ghostly lines from the first dip in the thiox, which I like.  There is really nothing left from my first efforts with dyes, which works for me just fine.

So now this piece is stewing with a bunch of rusty objects.  When I see how it rusts, then I will decide whether or not to hit it with a tannin bath- then hopefully I will have fabric I like to make another top.

Oh, yeah- and on top of all that, I got my copy of Jane Dunnewold's new book yesterday.  What a visual treat!  That will be my bedtime reading for the forseeable future!

Undyeing, Part 2

I got the cotton/linen fabric all washed out, dried and ironed.  I'm rather mind-boggled by the final result:

It's blue and white, for pity's sake!  The blue is definitely paler than it was before, and all traces of yellow or green are gone.  I decided that this is for clothing, I'm calling it good and cutting it out.

Since I had the thiox pot going, I threw in a couple of silk scarves I'd dyed before and didn't like.  Here's what they looked like when I dyed them last fall--

Ugly!!  I overdyed the yellow/orange one in red, and it was still ugly. So I threw them in the thiox pot, and left them in for about half an hour.  The one on the right turned out very nice, I'm keeping this one.

The patterning is really subtle, but I like it.  The blue/purple one is still rather ugly--

Honestly, I'm not sure if anything can salvage this one.  Just for the heck of it, I think I'll do some soy wax batik, then overdye it in very dark blue.  I'd do black, but I know you can't get black with MX dyes on silk.  What the heck, I'm only out a couple of bucks if it ends up in the trash!

Dyeing and Undyeing

I dyed this piece of cotton-linen blend fabric over the weekend.  I did it tray style, with lines of color across the scrumpled fabric.  I did not jump for joy when I was ironing it.

I wanted paler blues, and more limey greens.  The colors look dull, which I decided is mainly due to the fabric, not the dyes.

So, after looking at it on my table over the weekend, I decided to discharge it in a thiox bath.  I got everything out on the grill, and plunged the fabric into the bath.  Success! I thought.  The blue and green disappeared, the only color left was a bit of yellow- no problem!!

But wait- what's happening!!?  The fabric sticking up above the bath is turning --

BLUE????

The longer the fabric is exposed to the air, the more blue it turns!

I added thiox every fifteen minutes, stirred, but it didn't matter.  When I took it out of the bath, the blue returned.  Lighter than it was before, and now it looks like it's just blue and yellow.  No, it wasn't turquoise, it was Dharma's Cerulean.  So we'll see what it looks like after a hot wash in Synthrapol.

I've never had this happen with Thiox before- although my experience with it isn't extensive.  I don't remember reading anything about this phenomenon in any of my surface design books.  So if you have any idea what is going on, or if I should just forget about discharging Cerulean blue, please comment and let me know.

Batiking Again!!

I've spent all day today in the studio, doing more soy wax batik. Both of the sunflower pictures are outside, for their last drying before I steam them. I did another piece of fabric with kitchen utensils, and did some discharge with discharge paste.

I used discharge paste once, a long time ago- the stench from the ironing was awful. The bottle of discharge paste has been sitting on my shelf ever since. Now that I have a steamer, no need to deal with the stench. I used some big foam stamps on a silk scarf I dyed a few weeks ago, on the turquoise not-so-hot piece I did at Anne Munoz's workshop in July, and a piece of black fabric I pulled out of my stash. Here's the black fabric before steaming, waxed and discharge paste applied with a sponge roller.



The three pieces spent twenty-five minutes steaming on our barbecue gril burner, and these were the results. The black turned a sort of gray, very different from discharge pieces I've done with dishwasher gel.



The turquoise, my least favorite piece from Anne's workshop--



And the green silk scarf, I think much improved with the leaf motifs--



While those were steaming, I started on the two sunflower pieces. Here's what they looked like after the first dye applications. I decided to use thickened dyes this time, hoping for more control of my lines. I think it worked.



And, lastly, just a fun piece batiked with a potato masher and a pastry blender. I started with bright yellow, added golden yellow, then went to Chinese red. I think I'm going to do one more color, that red is just too garish.



It's about dinner time. I'll steam the sunflowers and red piece after we eat. So, more pictures of the completed fabric tomorrow!

Success!!

Well, the dyeing of the back turned out great- beautiful shade of red, with patterning, but not too much. So I will be taking it over to Lisa later this week.

I also did some stenciling on one of my discharge pieces. It is very visible in a photo I took, but it is much more subtle (or difficult to see) in person. I think I am going to try stenciling the same images on another piece that is not as dark. So, no pictures to post this time.

I am taking several days off this week, hopefully to get some real work done. Summer is about over, and I feel the need for one last hurrah before Labor Day. So, a very long weekend it is. Can't wait--

More playtime. . .

Despite feeling like I have to devote entirely too many hours each week to the job that supports my fiber habit, I have been applying myself, and seeing some work come to completion. My journal quilt lacks only the sleeve and statement, and that part I think will come easily- it has been simmering on the back burners of my mind since the beginning of the year.

Bentlee spent Friday night with us, and yesterday we did a few more discharge pieces. This time, I was smart and labeled the different black fabrics so I know which one to get for the discharge effect I want. This is two pieces from Egyptian cotton- my favorite fabric, and my least favorite discharged! I did another monoprint with the faux paint tool.



Bentlee did this one, a combination of the faux paint tool and a toothbrush. I think part of it may be a self-portrait!



The next two are Quilter's Only cotton, and I like these the best for discharge. Left on long enough, the dishwasher gel goes almost white in some places, and the rest gets a nice rusty look. Bentlee did the first one with a variety of sponges to apply the gel.



The second I did, using a large sea sponge to apply the gel. The picture doesn't do justice to this one- it truly does look like an galaxy in outer space. I'm going to try adding some sheer elements to it, and see what happens.



The last two were done on Kona cotton, wrapped around a large piece of PVC pipe. The first one I just wrapped and scrunched, tying it off with floss. I think it looks like tree people, something out of Harry Potter!!



The second I gathered with parallel rows of basting stitches, wrapped around the pipe, and then tied with floss. I left the gel on this one quite a bit longer than the previous piece.



And, I played with one of the tissue paper pieces I posted about a few weeks ago. This is the one with the tissue paper still intact. I took the silk organza I dyed last weekend, and cut different size circles. I'm still debating whether to fuse them on as circles, or to make them a little wonky. And, I may decide to quilt first, then apply the circles, then quilt some more! Karoda asked in the last post if I had any plans for the silk and cheesecloth- here's the silk! And the cheesecloth will figure in something- but not this piece, I don't think.




Now to keep the momentum going. If I get the Journal Quilt off in the mail this week, that would be one project completely off my to-do list.