"Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent, and independent; with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play."~~Henri Matisse
I took a shortcut while I was getting the shop ready to open. Being so busy, I thought maybe I could get by. But I was not satisfied with sliding by….so I took everything down and did what I should have done in the first place!!!. I painted a big gray stripe across the wall to camouflage the boards and the conduit.
It looks soooooooo much better!
If you scroll down to the New Mixed Media post on October 17, you will see the beginning of a new mixed media piece. I am going to go back to that process and show the next couple of steps and you will see it beginning to change and transform from the initial fabric and paper collage.
First stage: Gesso on the top part, then paint and some gesso on the bottom part
More paint on the bottom part, then oil pastels on the top part...a shape has been sketched in place
I love using oil pastels…I guess it’s the whole blending with my fingers attribute that I like. I seem to be able to do it better that way than with paint and a brush. It’s definitely more up close and personal. With my finger I can make the pastel go where I want it. I have even been known to apply liquid paint with my finger and rub it in. Anything that gives me a bit more control and blending.
Now more elements are added and some ink lines...
And then it will sit while I decide what bothers me about it. It is not finished. More to come…stay tuned.
I went to the SAQA website today to post a plea on my Visioning page and while I’m there I am currently deleting 478 emails in my inbox. Do you know how long that takes doing 20 at a time? It’s taking a while. So I decided while I’m doing that I will post a blog post here and ask for YOUR help too!
I have my first solo show in October this year. I have a series of small (5″ x 7″-ish) works I will be mounting on deep 12″ x 12″ canvases. I will be painting the canvases before I mount the fiber work. I personally did not wish to paint the canvases a solid, flat color, but rather wanted to do swipes of color that had movement, feeling that this was more in line with the fiber work. But now my question is: what are others going to like? I really want to sell at this show and am now wondering which method will make the work more sell-able. Here is how the canvas looks at this point. Sort of wispy, worn, like the side of an old barn. But is this what people will want? Eeek! I really need help with this. And I know people can only give me their opinion and in the end, I still have to make the choice. But I still want to hear from you. And I will ponder any suggestions anyone has to make too.
And if you need a little distance….
I played last night at creating backgrounds for Roz’ class. I enjoyed it immensely. I did use some acrylic inks to splatter on the pages, but they seemed to dry v…e…r…y slowly, so I am not pleased with them. I am wondering if the brand or the age of the inks might be the issue. I used a Crafter’s Workshop circle grid stencil and distress ink pads to make the designs. Distress ink is probably not going to be waterproof going forward, but we shall see. I enjoyed playing with the colors and textures.
Mixed Media Visual Journal
I REALLY like the mixed media paper…not as heavy as the watercolor, but takes the wet media very well.
So now I am making a list of Golden Fluid acrylic paints I need…I pretty much used up the only yellow I had.
The next photo is the 140 lb. watercolor journal.
Here are some more bags I have stitched up. However, according to comments on the previous post, the boxed bottoms have won….so these will be getting pleats momentarily.
The series keeps on going…at least so far…
Machine free form stitching, hand blanket stitching, running stitch, paint, inks, Mykonos ceramic beads and seed beads
Some of this is acrylic paint, and some of it is dye. I have just left it to dry and not moved it because I am so enthralled with all the lovely colors! It’s very tropical. I can’t wait to do something with this.
I want to talk about paint. I love paint. I first learned about painting cloth from Mickey Lawler’s SkyDyes book. I bought the paint and colors she said to buy. That was Setacolor acrylic paints for textiles. I love them. I have since tried all the Jacquard paints and Golden Fluid Acrylics as well as screenprinting inks. I love to paint on pimatex cotton, a broadcloth with a high thread count. I think the paint looks better on this cloth. I love the ease of using paints. If I want to quickly change the appearance of cloth, I get out my stamps and paints and in a matter of minutes, I have the look I want. Paint dries fairly quickly. But a person can sink a lot of money into paints. The paint is also a surface treatment which does change the hand of the cloth some.
Now let’s talk about dyes. If you are a dyer of cloth, you already have what you need to make your own paint. You can make the paint very inexpensively. You are no longer working with pigments, as with paint, but now you are working with dye powder. There is a process with dye powder. If you are going to paint with dye powder, you first have to mix a chemical water that has a few different things in it. This is to help keep the dye paint wet enough for the batching time that is needed. Then you need to have a thickening agent to make your dye powder solution thick like paint. Since it is dye powder instead of pigment, there is a different consistency to it. If you are going to do layers of design, you will need to let each layer dry a bit, but not completely (remember,to batch, the dye needs to stay a bit damp), before continuing to add the next layer. (You could let each layer batch and dry between layers; this will take forever!) Dyes also love 70+ degree weather to batch in. Dyes do not change the hand of the fabric (this part I love). Oh yeah, one more thing: dye needs soda ash in order to make the chemical reaction. You must either soak the cloth in a soda ash solution, then air dry the cloth (start the day before you want to paint), or add it to your dye paint as you get ready to use it. This can be one long process!
So which is your favorite and why? I am basically thinking out loud here. I welcome anyone’s input if I have overlooked anything and I would like your take on painting with either medium.
soy wax screen design with ink
…can one collect? I have been saving them for quite some time. I painted these this morning. If anyone wants to take a guess how many there are in this picture….when I iron them, I will count them and the person who gets closest to the actual number will get a prize! So leave your guess in the comment section. How many painted dryer sheets are in these 6 containers?
I think I am in love with color. After dyeing 15 yards last week, some days I just sit and stare at the colors in the stack. Sometimes I stroke them to feel the softness. Am I obsessed? Maybe. I am enjoying the intensely rich colors. (I also tend to stick my nose in the freshly opened coffee can and take a deep breath, too…these are a few of MY favorite things…remember that song?)
I have also been playing a bit with soy wax. Isn’t this luscious? I applied the wax in a random abstract pattern.
It’s a clean-the-brush cloth that I screened over with Lumiere and Textile paints by Jacquard. It’s very impressionistic. Now put it with this aqua blue hand dye…
Yummm….I think I would wear clothes in these colors. When I got out my 3-In-1 color tool, I found that the scarlet red color is the complement of the aqua blue. No wonder I like it.
I have also been dabbling with breakdown printing. I will post some pictures later.
