Results from a Two hour Screen-printing Demo

Last week, I gave a screen-printing and surface design demonstration at the Elverhoj Musuem in Solvang. It was a lot of fun to share some of the techniques I use to color cloth. I generally don't have a preconceived plan. I just let the fabric evolve. Most of the time, it turns out well. Sometimes, it needs more layering. Occasionally, it turn out ugly and you just have to cut it into smaller pieces.

I had a very interested crowd and they had great questions and suggestions. The two hours flew by and only one piece of fabric was fully developed. I let the fabrics batch for 24 hours, added more dye and batched for another 24 hours. I promised to post the before and after photos of the fabric, so here they are along with a brief description of what was used.

Before: Vinyl shelf liner shapes were stuck to a silk screen. Thickened dyes were used to print onto denim fabric.

After: More thick and thin dyes were added. This will become a shopping bag.

Before: Thickened dye was used with a thermofax screen.

After: Thickened gold dye was added.

Before: Thin orange dye was used to stamp the circles. Thin fuchsia dye was sprayed into the center of each circle.

After: I filled the white area with thick green dye.

Before: This started as a drop cloth. I used thick blue dye to screen-print a design made with blue tape stuck to the screen. It turned out pretty ugly.

After: I added more thick gold dye. It's still ugly but I think there is still hope for it.

This is the only piece that was completely finished in one pass. I used sponges to spread thin dye and thick black dye to stamp the ovals.

Of course, I didn't get as much done as I hoped to, so more dyeing was done the next day at home. Thin dye was poured and blended onto white denim. This will become a shopping bag.

This piece was dyed at home. The writing was done on white denim with black dye in a squirt bottle. I splashed fuchsia dye on the background and sprayed with water to blur and blend everything. As it turns out, I like the back of the fabric better. I'm currently making a shopping bag with this fabric. I'll post it when it's finished.

This piece was dyed at home. Blue dye was poured onto the denim fabric. Thickened wasabi and purple dyes were spread around. This will become a shopping bag.

There will be one more demonstration at the Elverhoj Museum on January 28th at 2:00 pm. This one will show you how to Make Stamps. Our exhibit will be hanging until February 5th.

What are you passionate about?

We recently remodeled our kitchen and dining room. Some people think that sounds like fun, but in reality, it was a lot of stress and work. I wanted everything, but had to stay within a budget and the two are often at odds. I have to say that we really did a great job, we came in under budget (gasp) and the kitchen is both beautiful and functional.

While the remodel was happening, my whole life revolved around it. There was a lot of creativity involved but it was a very different type of creativity. When the remodel was done, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I had a hard time getting back into my normal creative activities. I was experiencing a major creative block. I tried not to worry about it too much. I started dyeing and screen-printing fabric, yards and yards of beautiful fabric! It worked, one thing led to another and the creative block is a distant memory.

Fiber art, photography, and dyeing are all at the top of my list of passions. Between the three, my creative needs are usually satisfied.  I don’t think my inquisitive nature will allow me to stop experimenting with other mediums though. People that know me well expect a lot of questions. I’ve actually tried to stop being so inquisitive, but it didn’t work (haha). I guess I need to add knowledge to my list of passions.

If you find yourself in a creative slump, figure out what you are passionate about and start doing it. The rest will come.

If you would like to see some of my new work, I’ll be part of a juried exhibit at the Elverhoj Museum in Solvang, CA. The opening reception is November 19^th from 4:00 to 6:00 pm. The exhibit will be on display until February 5, 2017.

 Several people have been inquiring about my blog. It made me realize that I missed it and want to give it another go. So, ask any questions you want . . . I understand.

Fabulous Fiber Pins

Of all the items I made for the boutique at the Elverhoj Museum, the fiber pins were the most fun to create. The first examples are felted using wool roving. A surprise package arrived in the mail from my buddy, Susan Italo. She gave me some of her solar dyed CVM Corridale wool. OMG, I couldn't believe how luscious the colors were. Thank you Susan!

The pins below were made using a stiff sheet of felt as the base. I stitched and drew on the sheet with markers and added a variety of thread and yarn. I cut it into shapes and dipped it into melted UTEE and heated it some more. I then added a background of thick felt and stitched it together with beads.

I'm currently working on tote bags. Photos will be shown in the next post.

Making up for Lost Time

A number of things have happened to me in the last few months that prevented me from creating much of anything. I'm finally feeling better and am making up for lost time.

Three of my quilts were juried into the Redefining a Material World exhibit at the Elverhoj Museum in Solvang from November 14 - January 24, 2010. The opening reception will be this Saturday, November 14th from 4:00 -6:00 pm. If you happen to be on the central coast of CA in the next few months, stop by the museum to see the show. You'll probably recognize the image on the front of the postcard because it was in the design stage in my last post. I was finally able to finish it this past month along with another "cellular" quilt called Macrophage. Below is a detail shot.I also made quite a few postcards and pins to sell in the boutique. Below is one of my needle felted postcards.

It feels great to be back!

Painted Fabric

It's been a very exciting week. Lots of new work in progress. I've been having fun playing with paint. Here are a couple of the pieces I've finished for the Fibervsion Christmas Exchange:

This piece is a commercial fabric that had white on white roses. I bought it with the intention of painting it. It has 3 layers of different paints. Some areas are highlighted with metallic Lumiere.This began as a plain white pfd fabric. I applied metallic Lumiere to the cross section of pool noodle and stamped the large circles. I then stamped with sponge and a rubber stamp. Once dry, the metallic paint acts as a resist. I wet the fabric and applied green, blue and yellow Dye-na-flow all over. I sprinkled salt on top and added another wet layer of fabric on top and squished it all together. The top fabric picks up the excess paint and leaves you with a pretty soft pastel version of the base layer.

I removed the excess paint from my sponge and bottles with this piece of fabric. It didn't take too long for me to notice the wonderful colors and textures developing. I finished the piece by rubbing and scraping both transparent and opaque paint onto the surface and then used stamps to add additional texture.

It was actually painted in this horizontal orientation, but I flipped it around 9o degrees counter clockwise and loved the composition. I instantly saw a landscape and decided to add a palm tree that was left over from another project.

What do you think? Should I continue with my landscape vision or chop it up and use it as fabric?

This piece actually began quite a while ago. It was two silk-screened prints side by side. I decided to embellish it with more paint and texture and blend it to create one long piece. all the shapes are outlined with Lumiere.

ELVERHOJ MUSEUM: The reception was a lot of fun. It was so exciting to see our work hanging in such a fantastic venue. It truly looks amazing. I was very proud of all of us. I am very thankful to be part of such a talented and friendly group of artists. I sold one wall piece during the reception and quite a few postcards. Pieces of the Past (posted on Aug 19th), will have a new home in January. Fortunately, I know the new owner, so I've been granted visitation rights! LOL Cathi, I hope you enjoy the piece as much as I enjoyed making it!

Fiber Postcards

Today was a busy but fun day at my Fibervision meeting. We unveiled our Revisioned Challenge pieces. All were wonderful, some amazing. Mine isn't quite finished yet . . . so I'll post a photo when it is done. We prepared our boutique items and fiber pieces for the Elverhoj Museum. Here are 4 of the 28 postcards I will have for sale.This one was made by discharging the fabric with bleach. Then red foil was added to the design.The background was sun-printed and stamped. Silk flowers and leaves were stitched on and a little foil was added to the flower center.This piece was transferred from a photo of a rock wall. The cracks are heavily stitched for a three dimensional effect.The background was sun-printed, then stitching and foil was added.

If you are planning a trip to central California (Solvang, Danish capital of America), stop in to see this exhibit. It is called "Color & Cloth Redefining a Traditional Art Form". It is going to be amazing, if I do say so myself. I have two pieces on exhibit. I think there are around 50 pieces. Our reception is on Friday, November 16 from 5 - 7 pm and we have a panel discussion with the artists on January 6th. Hope some of you can make it!

Swapped Not Traded

Today was the opening reception for our Swapped Not Traded ATC show. We had a pretty good turn out and had fun introducing newbies to the concept of ATC's. The room was surrounded with our framed ATC collections and there was one interactive wall that held the cards available for trade. Everyone could use the supplies to make an ATC, then swap it for one on the wall.
We meet one day a month to swap . . . so if you are interested and live around Santa Barbara, let me know.

Here is my SIL and son creating ATC's. You can see some of the framed collections in the background.

Syd found these hanging vinyl holders that were perfect to display the ATC's. Here are a few of the ones available on the interactive wall.

Received good news today. Two out of the three pieces I submitted to the Elverhoj Museum were juried into the show. Yeah . . . . it's going to be a great venue.

I also submitted ten pieces to the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum. Only five artists are chosen for this exhibit, so I'll be amazed if I get selected. I figure the more they see Fiber Art, the more accepted it will become.

A couple of weeks ago, I emailed a few fabric designs to Robert Kaufman. They were interested in seeing more, so I mailed off a complete package, but still haven't heard back from they yet. It would be very cool to have a fabric line with my designs. They may not be interested, but I figure I would rather try my best and get rejected than not try at all.

As you can see, I've been racing from one deadline to another and I still have a UFO Exchange quilt to finish in three weeks. I'm seriously looking forward to retirement!! Unfortunately, that is a long way off.

Color and Cloth: Redefining a Traditional Art Form

I know, it's been a while since I posted, but I have been extremely busy. So much to do . . . so little time. I suppose I could have started sooner, but as much as I hate to admit it, I work well under pressure. Deadlines seem to keep me focused. I have two shows I've been preparing for, one is at the Elverhoj Museum entitled "COLOR AND CLOTH: REDEFINING A TRADITIONAL ART FORM". The second show is an interactive ATC show entitled "Swapped Not Sold" at the Art from Scrap gallery.

Kathy and I had a lot of fun at our guild challenge last week. As usual, there were some fantastic quilts made. Pat made an elegant rendition of "Memoirs of a Geisha" using kimono's acquired on a vacation to Japan. Darilyn relived her childhood memories by making "Saturday Night at the Drive-In". She had a giant Godzilla on the big screen with silhouetted cars in the foreground. Very clever!

Kathy and I heard wonderful comments like "This was the best challenge ever" and "Everyone left with a smile on their face". What more can you ask for?

Bill Dear brought some fantastic props from movies and commercials he wrote and/or directed. What a great guy!

These are the skeletal remains of mommy and daddy. They are from a scary movie recently finished and waiting to be released.

You may remember "Vince", the crash dummy. Bill was the director of these commercials for eleven years.This "Meat Cleaver" was the most popular "prop" of the evening. Many people had their photo taken with this attached to their head. It has four metal rods that holds the cleaver in place.
It was great fun, but I'm glad it's over . . . It was a lot of work!

I Survived the Presentation

My quilt presentation went pretty well. A couple of friends told me that my face was redder than my shirt and I spoke a little too fast. I'm glad it's over and I'm sure the next time will be easier.

Overall, my quilts were well received. When I presented my first finished quilt, I hear several gasps of surprise because it's way too nice for a first quilt. I think they enjoyed seeing my non-traditional quilts. Several people stayed afterwards to talk with me. One said my quilts were better than many of the speakers that we have and several asked me if I would teach a class.

At this point in my life, I don't have enough time to spend on my own artwork. I can't imagine teaching. Maybe when I retire.

Remember the turquoise wax painting. I added another layer of crayon and another wash of color. I also added some accents with Red Tsukineko Ink.

Here is the finished painting. I like it even better now. I think it has a lot more depth.And here are several of the ATC's after I cut it up. I really like the movement. I've finished these three weeks early, I don't need them till September.

Now I have to finish two quilts for a group show at the Elverhoj Museum from October - December.