MAY FIBER JUNKIES SHOW AND TELL

Our monthly Fiber Junkies meeting NEVER disappoints.....the creativity and talent in this group is contagious and energizing.  Show and Tell highlights what each of us are exploring and amplifies our excitement of fiber art.

Kate just returned from an extended workshop with Carol Soderland at Pro Chem in MA.  The focus of the class was dyeing neutrals...though of course there was so much more.  Here are some of Kate's results.

She was asked by a nephew to create a banner for a group he belongs to related to an online game.  Of course none of us understood what that's all about, but reckon it must be similar to the now vintage game Dungeons and Dragons that our kids played.  This is a very impressive piece of work....most of it is applique images that Kate hand painted.

We also shared the results of our last meething which was microwave ice- dyeing.  Gen had GREAT success.

Denny brought several fascinating exercises that she worked on during a masters class with Hollis Chatelain.  Students concentrated their time altering designs using a wide variety of thread types.

Here's the prompt for the red piece above.  We were all fascinated with the concept and Denny's results.

Judy completed a piece made with a combination of hard to use dyed fabrics.  Our group often spends full days doing deconstructed screen printing.  We also did one marathon marbling retreat, both methods yield a lot of high energy fabric that can be difficult to use. 

We are so fortunate that Judy led our marbling retreat since she wrote two books exploring marbling fabrics. They are out of print now but you can see some of the images here.

She had several successful micro-wave ice-dyed pieces to show.

Val completed a small piece that features images made using soy resist and a potato masher.  Just another one of the techniques we played with at a recent Fiber Junkies meeting.

She too had great results with her microwaved ice-dyed fabrics.  We were surprised by the amount of crackling that many of our members achieved....thinking that would only happen with the traditional slow method of ice dyeing.

With one exception, all my microwave ice-dyed fabrics were failures. Luckily, this light green silk noil fabric (left) was transformed into an exciting piece (right).  

Be sure to stay tuned....this month the Fiber Junkies spent the day gelli and mono printing. After a slow start for me.....I was literally doing a happy dance by the end of the day as I rescued 3 previously failed pieces.  We have the most wonderful time together and I never go away from this group upset or annoyed if the technique we used that day didn't yield usable fabric......but it sure is wonderful when it does.  See you next time.......