The Fiber Junkies have been meeting monthly now for about 10 years. There's been a few changes in membership as life's circumstances have demanded....but we remain an enthusiastic, dedicated six member unit.
This month we met in the dream studio of Susan Webb Lee , believe me.....it's the largest & best equipped one I've ever seen.
If you read my last post, you may have already guessed what our subject was....yup, shaving cream dyeing. It's a technique that's been around for a very long time, but surprisingly, Judy was the only member who had experience. A true pioneer of surface design, she used to teach it in a segment of her mixed media workshop.
Denny was the first one to jump in.....spreading the foam onto a plastic tray with short sides. We all followed suit.
I have to say, my hands have never been softer at days' end!
I got mine spread and started to drop dots of Dye-Na-Flow onto the frosting filled looking pan.
Susan's husband generously made 'rakes' from wood pieces and nails for us to create patterns.
Isn't this pretty? Now it's ready for printing.
This summer we did some string printing. Some of my rejects were the ones printed on wool felt. Since I use so much of this material to make felted baskets, it made sense to see if better images could be developed on the wrong side.
This wasn't successful either. What I learned: use more color!
But later by working with some of Judy's Createx fabric paint and felted wool, better results were achieved. (Center pieces bottom row)
Others were getting good results printing on cotton.....so after using a LOT more Dye-Na-Flow........
........and other tools to develop patterns, I began to print successfully on cotton.
These colors were swirled with the end of a paint brush.
Denny, the brilliant experimenter she is, brought some stencils to lay directly on her colored shaving cream. Isn't this spectacular!?!
Then she tried some resists and thermo-fax designs.....we were blown away by her cleverness and fabulous results.
Gen showed us some tricks she utilizes for her paper & fabric prints. She's dropped several different colors of Dye-Na-Flow onto a piece of glass. The paint was then covered with another piece of glass, pressing the two together as seen above.
When the top layer of glass is removed...the suction created these textured veins.
A bonus method since one can obtain prints from both pieces of glass.
I've spared you from having to look at another 30 or so photos......hoping that just these few will inspire your own play day. One tip....avoid the more expensive 'blue' sensitive skin shaving cream.....buy the cheapest cans you can find, they work great.
Visit these blogs to see what other artists have been working on this week: Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday & Sarah's Whoop Whoop Friday.
8 comments:
Your group truly does do innovative things. We've done shaving cream painting in our group but not with stencils or screens and the glass thing--genius! There will be experiments coming up around here again! Thanks!
I've repeated it over and over.....the Fiber Junkies is a fantastic group.....meetings are the highlight of each month!
What fun! I've done some shaving cream, but the use of stencils and masks was really clever. Your group takes things to the next level in the most entertaining way.
Wow..how clever doing the glass tip!!!! Great tips and love seeing how you all work!!!!
That glass technique is quite impressive. I may have to try that. You sure have fun with your group. Do you always experiment with a new technique?
Norma asked if we always experiment with a new technique...... The answer is yes and no....we always experiment.....so even old techniques become new techniques when creativity hits. AND...because we've been meeting for 10+ years....obviously there are some tried and true dyeing/surface design methods we repeat. Though my blog posts feature the results of our play dates.....the biggest bonus is the friendships that have developed.
I've tried the shaving cream before but I had not heard of smooshing the pain between the two panes of glass. That could be a fun way to spend an afternoon some time. Thanks for sharing these techniques!
OOO, I love that last technique with the glass. Got the panes, got Dynaflow paint, got fabric . . . I could try this right away!
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