GIRLFRIEND ART CAMP - PART 2

After whittling down the excess number of photos from our art camp days.....here are a few that might provide some inspiration.

 After disappointing results over our first ice-dyed fabrics, the duds were selected for further enhancement.  We used mostly acrylic paints, some full strength, others thinned.  Stencils, stamps, texture plates, etc. provided the designs.

Nan found this treasure at a salvage store.....some sort of printing plate we think....it had sturdy raised metal motifs, attached to a wooden base.

She placed one of the pale fabric on the plate and dabbed it with a mixture of several colors of paint using a sponge rubber pounce. (Click to enlarge)

 Here's another one of her pieces, created using a variety of stencils.

 By now you can see how pitiful the fabric turned out that first day....again....since we followed the procedure I've used numerous times, it's still a mystery why they dyed so poorly. 

However.....if there's one thing Fiber Junkie Denny has taught me.....if you don't like the results the first time.....do-overs are the solution....and do-overs can be done more than once!  I applied torn painters tape to this piece......

.......then painted the fabric with thinned acrylic paint using a small foam brush.

This is a flexible rubber place mat.....

.......which was placed over my pale, ugly fabric. Using an old plastic awards/credit card, full strength metallic paint was pressed through the circular cutouts.

 Some of our fabrics were rayon, which also didn't color well.  Yup....I'm still scratching my head, esp. because rayon always dyes beautifully.  The motifs were added using stencils, mixed, thinned, and full strength acrylic paints.

Of course I had to ice-dye some felted wool.  This National Nonwoven's 80/20 'woolfelt' began as a peachy color.....some is still visible after the dyeing process.

So....I thinned some paint.....

 ......and using a basket weave stencil to transform it into what I now consider a usable background.

Gwen used a plastic coated wire grid (used for landscaping) to provide the background design on a piece of muslin.  Next, she stenciled ferns and a firefly. Dang....I didn't get a final photo....it was adorable after adding some brightly colored flowers.

Happily, we did have success with our next batches of ice-dyeing.....here's just one example.  

Another year ended on a satisfying note....good friends, good conversations, good food, good art......  I'm already looking forward to next year! Nan has gotten interested in making glass.....hummmmm....a whole new area of art to explore.  Grab a couple of pals and organize your own art camp....for a day, a few days, or a week.....happiness is sure to follow.

Check out what others have been creating this week:   Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday,  Crazy Mom Quilts, Whoop, Whoop Friday,