GIRLFREIND ART CAMP RESULTS

Now back at home with all my fabrics washed, pressed, and ready to fondle.

 Interestingly, I ice-dyed some Liberty of London solid light pink fabric that I wasn't planning on using for anything else.  The three pieces on the right are the results.....amazing how well that fabric took the dye!

 Here's some unsuccessful pieces...top is the 'right' side of an older tan print...I often over-dye these dated fabrics with mixed results.....the 'back' side of the fabric is where the best designs are created. But even these two bottom pieces are pretty boring. 

 Here's an ice-dyed piece of 100% wool......I sure wish the appx. 15" x 15" piece would have been bigger!

Good results on this second batch of eco-printed wool felt.  The vinegar water had now had time to develop a rust tone after we threw in a bunch of rusted items.

You can see where this same fabric in the first batch has less brown/rust tones....both are pleasing to me.

I can hardly wait till next year....hoping I continue to be invited!!

8TH ANNUAL GIRLFRIEND ART CAMP

The cold and rain clouds that hung over me at Daytona Beach have followed me to Arizona!  However, that didn't deter us from enjoying our 8th annual Girlfriend Art Camp at a friend's home.  She's a snow bird, her husband is back home in MN working, so it was just us gals. 

 We started with a bit of eco-printing....using several varieties of eucalyptus
and geraniums.

 We brewed up some iron water using these rusty items to add color to our water/vinegar steam bath done in a turkey roaster.

 Various sides of dowels were used to roll our foliage laden fabrics before processing them for about 2 hours.

We use shrink wrap over the fabric which tightens as it heats, helping to keep the foliage in good contact with he fabric.

 As usual, I often work with wool, here's one of my better prints.....before the rust developed too deeply.

And a few more....

 And a view of more pieces that thrilled us.

This one wasn't wrapped tight enough, but I personally love the mysterious design.

Come back tomorrow.....we have more to show.....

FUN MAKING FELTED BASKETS

With non-stop rain and foggy, foggy conditions, it's the perfect day to hunker down and create.  Before the holiday shopping begins in earnest, my Woolworth art gallery inventory of wool felted baskets needed to be expanded.

The Fiber Junkies have had a number of meetings lately working with acrylic paints. I took advantage of the work time to mono-print quite a lot of wool felt.  This piece was made using the edge of a hotel key card, dipped in paint.  

 The baskets are made by fusing two layers of felted wool, or in this case, the lining is ice-dyed bamboo rayon that I over-dyed with indigo using a shibori folding technique.

Some of my botanical printed wool felt was used for this basket.

 These last two small baskets are made using the same fabric combo as the first larger basket. 

It's more tedious than it looks because besides fusing, I've edge stitched the layers together and often times adding some dense stitching on the bottom.  

I have to admit....I didn't get all this done in one day.....some of the pieces were fused and cut out the day before....as I said, it's time consuming...but really enjoyable.

GIRLFRIEND ART CAMP

It sure has been awhile since my last post......I haven't been idle!  Actually, time flew by as I enjoyed our 7th Annual Girlfriend Art Camp at a friend's home in AZ.

My two buddies had never eco-printed so with instructions sent ahead of time, Nan got an iron/rust pot started.  Basically one soaks metal objects in a solution of vinegar and water for a week or so.  It's used in eco-printing when a darker image is desired.

I brought a bunch of dyed wool fabric samples to print on. Instead of using square cedar shake shingles as presses to hold our fabric/leaf layers, we had to substitute long narrow wood shims.  We used two on the bottom and two on the top.....challenging since they were uneven in depth.

Here's one of the layers....instead of dipping the leaves or fabric in the rust water, these layers were spritzed with a vinegar and water solution which also helps to develop definition of the prints.

The size of the shims required two people to wrap with string....here Sue and Nan are securing one batch.

 When possible we secured with binder clips in addition to the string.  We also used shrink wrap which provides a tighter bond when it simmers in the vinegar/water bath.

 Here's a look at some of my prints. Nan had some rusted nails and stars that were fun to use as well.

I'm totally in love with silk noil and have been using it for ages in garments and wall art.  You can see by the horizontal lines that this narrow piece was accordion folded to fit between the shims.  The fabric was dipped in the rust water prior to adding leaves and folding.

We didn't stop with just eco-printing....come back to see what else we did.....

EENY MEENY MINY MOE

Besides the fun and learning experience of creating one's own fabric, for me there's that challenge to develop wall art from the diverse materials. 

 That may take some 'marinating'.....as several combinations stare back at me from the design wall. Eventually one speaks louder than the other and the designing begins.

 The images on this 6" x 8" piece of silk derive from processing a couple of leaves, secured between thin sheets of wood, simmered in vinegar water for 2 hours.

 The base of the wall art is a vintage linen napkin. A gift from my good friend Kate which I transformed by ice-dyeing.  Because the material was naturally fairly flimsy, it was machine stitched to a light weight non-fusible stabilizer.

The eco-printed silk was secured to the linen and some hand embroidery has begun to help highlight a couple of the leaf prints.

Please check back and see where this goes......

PRINTED BY NATURE

After shuffling around a limited number of eco-printed fabric pieces, this piece finally came together.  Each botanical printed silk noil and cotton section is surrounded by strips of rust dyed silk noil.

To prevent distracting from the subtle prints, the metallic machine quilting was kept very simple.

PRINTED BY NATURE  31" X 27"

AVAILABLE HERE

Eco-printed leaves/ferns/pine needles processed in iron water on silk noil and cotton.  Machine quilted.

Thank you for stopping by.....check out what other artists have been working on this week:

Linking to:  Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday, Sarah's Whoop Whoop Friday, and Crazy Mom Quilts.

TRY, TRY AGAIN

Well heck, I've been trying to incorporate some interesting digital prints into a new piece.  This is probably my 4th attempt. And darn it, those pictures just do not want to play nice.

 I've had this eco-printed hunk of silk noil sitting out tempting me ever since it was created several months ago. 

 The companion piece is this lighter cotton which acted as the carrier cloth.  It had been dipped in blue dye, placed on top of the leaf material that was arranged on the silk noil.  The pieces were rolled onto a wood dowel and processed in a simmering vinegar/water bath for about 2 hrs. Notice how the blue dye transferred onto the silk noil...cool! 

Happily several pieces rust/spices/vinegar-dyed silk noil created way back in 2015 were lurking in my stash.  

 The auditioning begins......and instantly it became apparent....nope those photos are not working!

 Okay....onward, those pesky digital photos will continue to linger.  That's okay, I've been enjoying creating what I call 'hodgepodge' patchwork.  The goal is always to utilize as much of my dyed/printed fabric as possible.  Leaving little or no small scrap leftovers which probably won't coordinate with a future project.

There's a lot of trial and error as the pieces are arranged...obviously with an eye to creating a pleasing design, interesting visual impact, and color balance that allows the eye to travel around the piece for the viewer to enjoy it in its entirety

Check back to see the final layout, won't you?? 

WHEN GIRLS PLAY

Twice a year my pal Judy and I have had the good fortune to spend a few days with our very good friend Kate at her place on Folly Beach.

It's common knowledge that I'm definitely the most directionally challenged person in the universe.....but wait....Judy Simmons is another one. Honestly, no matter where we go together....even if we've been there numerous times before....we always, and I mean always take a wrong turn.  Every trip from Asheville to Folly Beach, unless Kate is in the car with us....we miss the turn off to go over the bridge to Folly.....and we are always flabbergasted that we missed it.  This time we didn't.....and it's documented here. 

 BUT.....that didn't mean our trip was flawless, oh heck no! From Asheville to Charleston, it's basically a straight shot south on I26.  Alas.....somehow we ended up going West on I95...toward Savannah.  Seriously!!  No one can make this up. If there is a choice of roads encountered while driving....whatever I say.....one should ALWAYS do the exact opposite. Why I even express an opinion is a mystery since I'm rarely correct. But since Judy is no better, well....our outings are always good for laughs and logging unnecessary miles backtracking.  And before I go onto to another subject......I should confess.....we found ourselves going South when we should have gone North.....as we were driving home.  Totally true!

This is the view from Kate's deck.....what's not to love....unfortunately she still has a lot of debris left in the marsh from the recent hurricane.

Since we dyed fabric non-stop for 3 days, there's a lot to report....therefore I'll be sharing our results in several posts.  

So....what the heck is this??  Each of us (unplanned) dyed a garment.  My idea was to first dye the long sleeved white t-shirt in iron water and then over dye in indigo.  Instead of a pretty rust color I got a drab pewter/brownish.....still have NO idea how that happened.  

But after removing all the rubber bands, I dipped it in our indigo pot and here it is drying....actually it's really not too bad, though not what I was aiming for.

Here's Judy's....she had previously rusted her t-shirt and brought it to indigo dye.....lovely isn't it?!

Kate got into the act by accordion pleating a lightweight cotton cardigan.

A larger than desired white area remained on the back so she used a foam brush to transfer a bit more indigo dye onto it.  Clever girl!!

I also brought along a very faded and stained pair of shorts to over-dye.

Now I have like new indigo shorts....or will when they are dry.

We divvy up the meal responsibilities...and we eat well....This was lunch prepared by Judy.....peppers/tomatoes from her large garden, along with chicken and shrimp salad.

We all just love how the fading sun plays on the marsh grass as seen from Kate's dock.

The day ends.....we are happy, pooped, and have blue fingers.

Visit these inspiring sites to see what others have been working on this week:  Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday, Sarah's Whoop, Whoop Friday, and Crazy Mom Quilts.

FIBER JUNKIES ADVENTURES - AUG. MEETING

A day in each month that we all wait for.....yup...it's Fiber Junkie meeting day!  Here's an overview of our very busy and productive time together.  Like last month, we each kinda did our own thing....with encouragement and cheering as techniques either did or didn't work to our satisfaction.

 We always begin with show and tell, along with coffee and fattening goodies....hey a gal has to keep up her strength!  Denny awed us with this massive, intricately pieced quilt top.  I don't know how she didn't go blind working on that black fabric!

 Gen continues to be passionate about creating gift tags.  She utilizes many surface design techniques on each.....making them true works of art.

 She also came up with a very clever way to recycle those used tags (such as from Christmas gifts).  Here she's torn pages from an old dictionary to give the back a new life.  A brightly colored marker can be used to add a new greeting or name.

 Val blew us away with this screen printed sheer.  All of the patterns are Val originals....she has an amazing collection of silk screens of her own designs.

 She also screen printed these leaves onto some heavy weight handmade paper. This is only the first step....she may indigo dye or otherwise continue to alter the paper with additional techniques.

I'm in possession of several rings of hand-dyed wool fabric samples which I thought might be fun to see how they hold up to eco-printing.

They were stacked with other fabrics/leaves/metal objects and here are some of the results.  My efforts weren't very impressive this time.

 Several years ago, Gen gave me a stack of rit dyed cotton batting.  It's not very sturdy nor is it very colorfast.....but I decided to see if it would print anyway.  I didn't use any mordant.....simply rolled it onto a wood dowel and steamed it. I got zip, zero.....nothing.....  Back to the drawing board for other uses of this colorful collection!

The cotton batting was steamed in a turkey roaster in a vinegar/water solution for about 2 hours.

This was a coarse cotton......again it was steamed without using a mordant and it didn't print very well.  I knew I was taking a chance without pre-treating and I simply wanted to see what might happen.  I knew the leaves I used are prone to printing well.....so the importance of the mordant was a valuable lesson.

 While my eco-prints were steaming and simmering....I played with the indigo vat Val had all ready for us.  Knowing my love of wool, Kate brought me numerous big hunks of dress weight pieces to play with.  This one was a solid white.....and this is how it looks after the strings that held the pleating came off....it's just starting the amazing transformation from green to white as it hits oxygen.  

 It was dipped twice.....folding in horizontal and then vertical directions....and this is what it looked like after drying.

 I folded this white wool hunk on the bias.....and I should have had some help as I didn't get it tied tight enough....thus most of the white has disappeared.  I'm not terribly disappointed.....it's simply a different look. 

 Denny played with eco-printing, indigo, and dyeing with resists.....her little successes are fluttering away in the breeze.

 I'll bet you want to know what the heck this is all about???  Well.....Judy has a special way to test whether or not a piece of fabric has been soda ashed.....and is willing to help those of us who forget whether the piece was prepared for dyeing or not!  She tastes it!  Kate needed to know and Judy accommodated her......what a group!!!