Thursday, July 02, 2009
little bits and barter (image updated)
File under "things you will find when shoveling out the studio". This little (10x10) grid play started with a piece of that strange, dense cotton batting that was too heavy and dense to go inside even a small piece. It took dye wonderfully and I have another half dozen in various colors.
I was whining to the QA Choir yesterday (lesson learned, btw) about the time and energy that marketing ones art takes these days and wondering about the state of Barter in the fiber art world. Tell me about your experiences if you've had any, good or bad.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
strange skies
Friday, June 26, 2009
the trouble in new techniques...
...is not getting carried away with the doing of the thing and not thinking about ways to integrate it into the real work of art, the intent and the design of a piece.
There's some debate about whether this stuff is light fast enough to bother with, much less incorporate in any kind of art so I'm going to put some of these pieces out in the sun to bake with tape on them just
to see what gets lost over a set period of time. Anyone recognize my failed batik attempt?
The fade and glow reminds me a lot of the doodles I used to do in art school using Dr.Ph. Martins superdooper intense watercolor concentrates. The stuff cost like blood but I had a mess of them and used them too excess at every opportunity. Hey, it was the 60's!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
doodling dots
Karma Approved Work.
I know I missed doodle wednesday - I was waiting on 20 minutes to work with a new technique.
The results make me think of encaustic - something that's always drawn my eye. Here we have encaustic in cloth. sort of.
Actually, it's Sharpies treated with rubbing alcohol.
...a whole new alphabet of color and ways to fling it about.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
dotz
Monday, June 22, 2009
hand dyes for sale
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Summer Solstice Dye Fest & Father's Day Feast
I am in the home stretch of a two day dyeing extravaganza only slightly relieved by a short stint at the local ER.
The last of almost about 40 individual pieces averaging 3/4 yards and up are rolling around in the dryer right now.
The color mood was generally restrained - I think the age of the dye powder is beginning to show
especially because I have not been able to keep them in a cool place.
Things ranges from midnight moodiness to the sublime and quite a few ridiculous. All and all I'm quite satisfied.
It really was too hot to be working midday on Saturday but I pressed on brain baked and a good portion of those pieces went back in the vats or under the Softscrub on Sunday.
Oh yeah, Saturday evening I took my son Jake to the emergency room to have an abscessed insect bite on his forearm lanced before it got a moments worse. He'll be fine.
There are at least a full dozen new Sugar Dyes in colorways ranging from emerald forest to desert sands. You can see the pattern woven into the damask in this picture. I was actually ironing this stuff in the heat.
If I seem a little possessed it's because I will have very little time for this kind of fun in the future - my Beloved, father of my finest creations, my chef, my personal shopper and all the kitchen cleaning elves are leaving - Jim has been called back to his real job!!
The boys came by today to spend some time with their Dad, eat some food and do some laundry. It was a wonderful day.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Measures of Pleasure
I did some more machine stitching on this with a dark, metallic thread to help define the layers a bit. The handwork I have planned may or may not work - it will be easy enough to pick out if I change my mind. I'm thinking this could be a small study for bigger things hinged on the same techniques.
Don't you find that things that are a pleasure to work on turn out well more often than the things that fight and struggle and balk you along the way?
And sometimes, no matter what you do, a wishpot will just go bad to the bone.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Random Acts of Dyeness
I know getting too excited about hand dyes before they have been washed and dried can sometimes lead to disappointment but I have good feeling about this group.
Odilon's pallette was ringing in my brain I think.
and sometimes you can tell it was a great day at the Dyeworx when the table mopper turns out like this one.
All's Well
We were home from Dr. Nick's by 8:45. By 9am I was stuffed with breakfast and nodding off on the couch blissful with the leftover anesthesia. Everything is peachy and that's all I'll say about it except that everyone reading this should ask their doctor when they should have a colonoscopy. My husband's baseline screening at aged 53 saved his life. What more could I add?
By noon I was well enough to don the mask and gloves and mix up some new colors and just get crazy.
The whole cloth piece above is a commercial table cloth I got from OHCO for 2$. It's 5'x5' and I guess that 100% cotton label was telling the truth. We'll see what washes out and what remains.
More wishpots taking on new hues.
and a bunch of miscellaneous cottons from sacking to lawn. These were all soaked in soda ash, allowed to dry and then layered into the jars with several colors of dye. Something new abrew.
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