first fruits

"subtle (for me)" would have to be the name for this lot. I used up all the remaining old dyes and can see which colors suffered over the winter and which held their ground.

 I now also know which of these cloths have a bit of poly snuck into the weave. I'm going to iron this lot tomorrow and they will almost all go up for sale in the store.

New colors have been mixed, new crayon poured and proven and a whole new batch of cloth is soaking in the sauce. Everyday this week will be a dye day as long as the weather (and my  stamina) holds up.

I did a lot of hand stitching on the big WIP this weekend too, despite my misgivings. There's nothing to say I can machine stitch right over everything if I decide to.

no eyecandy, yet.

Nope - no wet previews. I don't want to disappoint myself or anyone else. We'll just let this batch come into it's own when it comes out of the dryer; everything is in a cold water wash right now. Keep in mind the dyes were old and tired.

I have a large number of vintage damask table napkins and thought about dyeing them in sets of eight clear bright colors to sell in sets for prayer flags to be embellished as you wish with stitching, printing or other surface design techniques. I won't match the patterns...there are too many but they will all be close to the same size and hemmed all round.  Let me know if you are interested in a set for $30.00..well, let's see what the dye devils have wrought first!

warming up leftovers

Before  I could mix up new dyestock I prepped a small lot of cloth to use up the leftovers from last year. They were stored optimally in a small cooler and I took them out for the first time yesterday so they've had a full day to come around to ambient temperature.

The method was a hasty "dunk it in here" parfait affair -  I was anxious to get the squeeze bottles cleaned and ready for the new colors. There are all kinds of cottons here from an embossed upholstery woven to some squares of humble, unbleached muslin. I'll give this bunch until tomorrow morning....





I made a big mess and am not inclined to clean it up right away. It's hot, I'm tired and there's a lotta later in today still.

so far so good

After a few hours stewing in it's juices I rinsed this one in cold water to flush off the excess dyes and to not disturb the soywax in the process.


I actually left a few pins in the thing having missed a few corners here and there in my basting frenzy so I had to be a cautious and gentle washer woman. A firehose would have been useful. Keep in mind this is four by six feet and three and four layers thick in places.

The balmy Georgia spring day has turned ugly on us. Thunder is rolling and the sky has turned all dark and broody.

Most of the wax is out of this one now and I am really pleased with the potential of the process so far. It's dark here, soaking wet and I've hung it over the rolling rack in the rain.

There will be some discharging and painting in a few places that are still needing to be pulled together design-wise.  Correcting value deficiencies this way is more fun than it should be.

post-lunch/pre-nap

yes, I remembered my bartender's apron and gloves.
The entire piece is crammed into a two gallon steel tub along with about a quart of dye and a gallon of special sauce.   I'll do the reveal later today or tomorrow.

not a crime scene clean up unless the big piece turns out really sucky. this will be the first table mopper of the season, formerly a pristine 24" square vintage damask table napkin. I wonder what the mistress of the household would have thought!

waiting

It's hot enough outside ...the dyes are out of the  refrigerator and this piece is well and thoroughly waxed . I let the soywax get very hot and in most places it's penetrated through to the plastic tablecloth underneath.

When we get back from lunch, I'll don the gloves (don't forget) and apron and mix up the monkey blood I have in mind for overdyeing this...pictures later.

basting sails

All of a sudden, it's shorts weather, and once chores and running around were out of the way, I took a chunk of this day off to do some more basting.

Some people may thing it a terrible waste of time but my basting stitches are like Attilla's march and  so I'm perfectly happy snipping and ripping if something needs relocation. I don't even bother sinking a knot at the end of a thread; a back stitch or two will suffice. Pins are such a pain.

I'm going to work on both these large pieces at the same time and have plans to do some some soy wax resist and direct dye painting on both pieces before I make any decision about if, and how, any permanent stitching, machine or hand, happens.

larger issues

 

there's just no telling where larger spaces and room to work will take a person.



several of the tablecloths in that lot are what I would call "service weight". Although they have a beautiful pattern loomed through, there is almost no diagonal give which made me think it would be a good base to build on ..but it's so starkly white.
The empty space has as much presence at the shapes I've basted on....there are more.

(6'x6')

blizzard

There's a snowstorm in my studio! I lucked into an enormous lot of damask tablecloths on ebay last week. I am going to have to haul this and the rest to the laundromat for a harsh thrash before any dyefest can begin..there's starch, fabric softener and other loving touches that will get in the way of a good dye result.

This is day 1 of a short stay-cation for Jim and I. This morning we are both doing chores but I am hoping to persuade him to a late lunch and a movie since the rain has put a cramp in his plans for the day.

I spent the morning filling the envelopes that have come rolling in with scraps and snips from baskets all over the place.
I feel like a crack dealer, giving away the "first taste" of hand dyed vintage cloth for free...and then, they'll be baaaack for more!   Off to the post office.

Richland WA, Huntington Beach CA, Berea Ky, Mascotte FL, Calimesa CA, Canfield OH, Wiscassett ME, and Crescent City CA – heads up! Your packages are on the way!

I'm also fooling with Colin's little Canon Elph since he has misplaced (somewhere in the hell of his possessions) my little Fuji. It's got too many options.

I recently started wearing a watch again because I am constantly (but silently) bitching out my customers for not knowing what date or time it is.

 It's a good thing I have a few days off.

 If one more fool replies "ten minutes ago" when I ask what DATE and TIME an incident occurred, I might hunt them down in whatever timezone they are in and slap them silly. 

And go ahead and give me another phone number without the area code, you huckleberry, and see what happens...THERE'S A WIDE WORLD OUT THERE!!  I feel better now...

the saturday mail

The replies have started coming in from the runner-ups in the giveaway and I never imagined that people would send me THINGS!  besides all the fabulous postage. Wonderful, wordless salmon songs by Jon Parmentier and a wonderful handmade sachet filled with Maine Christmas tree  balsam that just transported me and, yeah verily, led me astray to strong drink. (YO HO, I hear the pirates sing).

When I was growing up my parents found the resources to haul  all of us up to Cape Cod each summer for a week. The cheeky Hyannisport address might  impress some but we stayed in a cold water, knotty pine cabin. I did wave at the Presidential yacht as it motored by one day on it's way back to Hyannis next door.

 We slept in  wooden bunks that were just the size of a small man's coffin and I loved every minute we were there. One of my prized possessions was a little calico cat that was stuffed with balsam needles. To this day, the scent of seacoast pines does me way better than Calgon.

I couldn't sleep last night; fretful with small mother-worries, so I went downstairs and poured myself four fingers of some Pacific coast grape's blood and drank it down like medicine all the while trying hard to taste the wonderment promised on the artsy label when all I could find was red kerosene.

So I lay awake in the dark, mildly drunk, with my Ipod in my ears and the little balsam sachet balanced over my wakeful third eye, until about 4am.

Now the house is redolent with sausage and peppers and noisy with men working on machines and I'm getting sleepy and must nap because I have to work at 3:45.   Kefaya! Tonight I will start picking scraps for those envelopes.

true(er) colors

Yeah, I'm as shocked as you are at the discrepancy between this one and the one I posted the other day. That was shot flat on the bedroom floor with only the feeble light from the overhead fixture.

This up on the design wall in the studio with just overcast morning light - closer to the harsh  truth and revealing my usual shortcomings..lack of value changes and/or balance. But  I'm not going to flush the baby down the terlet just yet.The mother cloth underneath it all is especially disappointing.

I was looking at Shell Vapors again and paid attention to where my eye was going and when I happy with what I was seeing and where I gave it a pass and moved on, six square inches at a time.

There are maybe enough YESs here to go ahead and work over the NOs one by one. Haste makes scraps, although a lot of you are happy about that, aren't you.... :)

on the design floor

I hate to say it out loud but it looks like I evicted this cold from my head finally.  All advice was welcome and some actually used...like sleep, tea, and more sleep.

 When I got up this morning I had a vision of moving around shapes and colors. Since the design wall is presently unavailable I'm working on the bedroom floor. This is very tentative (and large) and I'm not going to stampede it.  pins only for the moment. I spent a good hour just looking at Shell Vapors last evening and want more of what that one evokes only stronger.





and some of us just lay around vogue-ing

naptime

We are exhausted.
I've been fighting with a cold since Saturday (that remedy failed me)  and it was a good thing I did not have to work yesterday. After filming the drawing I spent the rest of the day feeling like Jabba the Hutt looks. Today, a little better but needing a nap now. Solar flares, full moon and a perfect spring day....zzzzzzzzzzzzz.zzzzzzzzzzzz....

I went to the grocery store yesterday and stood in front of the cold remedies like a drooling dolt for five minutes unable to settle on any boxed  promises and then walked out empty handed. Today, a snootfull of VicksVaporub and hot tea per my sister. Earl Grey with a dash of lime & grenadine.