"Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent, and independent; with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play."~~Henri Matisse
Here are photos of my booth in Bloomington, IN along with my friend Cynthia who was my helper for 2 days. I think she enjoyed getting out with people for awhile.
We demo-ed painting with Tsukineko inks in the bottle. They are wonderful to paint with! They don’t change the hand of the fabric like acrylic fabric paints do. If you mix them with aloe vera gel to paint with like we do, you have the ability to spread them and blend them.
I am starting some new work. Put colors together and piece. Hmmm…not really satisfied with the salmon-ey orange color with the blue….I’m using my handy dandy 3-in-1 Color Wheel Tool. I also sell these now, so contact me if you need one.
I decided to paint it using either Setacolor or Dye-Na-Flow paints. I had forgotten how nice, fluid-y, and pigmented Dye-Na_Flow paints are. It was the perfect paint for this project. I might have used a different color though. Now I have cheddar as the color for my art. Well, I’ll be doing some other things to it that will tone it down a bit. Hopefully.
Some of you might remember these pieces of jar lid resist fabric I posted pictures of a couple of weeks ago. Well, those white circles were just too much contrast for me. I wanted to paint them bronze. Last night I sat and meticulously painted each circle. But not all bronze dyes are made alike…as you can see in this picture…
..it’s too brown! Today I tried some transparent acrylic paint to make it go more golden…
This is more what I had in mind. I prefer to use dye paint, but acrylic was faster….just how many days do I want to put into this cloth? I still may mix some yellow dye paint and try it.
In other news, I have been working on my Visioning goals this week. I got two small pieces stitched and matted, and worked on one experimental sample, then started another.
Ever have a period of days where you feel like you are just messing up everything? That’s how my week feels so far. And yesterday I said I was looking forward to a productive week…that was before I washed out my dye painted silk scarves and found they were much too light. I was dyeing the way I thought someone said on a list, but I must have missed some things or totally misunderstood what they were saying. They will have to be done over. Then today, determined to get back to work on the kits for Rosa and Friends (see post here) and finish them, I attempted some discharged black cotton this morning. Evidently, my dishwashing detergent is too old, because that didn’t work either, and they will have to be discharged again. And these were fairly large pieces. Sheesh…maybe I’ll just go back to bed! And both days it was hot and sweaty to be outdoors. I feel like I am getting nothing done this week! I hate it when this happens. Well, one bright spot in the week…I made this piece of cloth yesterday that I think turned out pretty cool…the only thing wrong with it is that it is a really cheap thin piece of fabric!
Previously painted with red, yellow and blue Dyna-Flow paint, I screened (soy wax design) it with Lumiere pearl turquoise and black Setacolor paints. It looks very rich in person.
I am working this week. I am preparing for a fabric dyeing class this weekend at the Rend Lake Visitor’s center. I have been studying and writing my handout and getting kits ready.
I have also been playing/working in my room. My new best friend is gesso. A friend of mine had given me several books of home dec samples. Being the little hoarding and can’t-waste-anything person that I am, I have found a use for some of these pieces. I usually work fairly small, so these do come in handy. (When, oh, when will I work larger?) I am taking the large florals and painting them with gesso, then painting over that with the Adirondack iridescent paints. I love the whitewashed feeling the gesso does to the fabric. The paint is not put on solid, but a bit randomly. You’ll see. I am using these pieces to frame other small pieces of art. I like the look. Now to find a way to mount them for hanging. I glued (PVA, acid free) the gessoed, painted home dec fabric to matboard, but have stopped there so far. These pieces are not stitched yet. The only problem I see so far, is that the lovely gessoed florals are mostly covered up, but I do like the “framing” look of it.
I am thinking “Fragments of a Life”. What do you think?
Again using scraps…home dec fabric, gesso, acrylics, stamping, dyed craft paper, torn paper from a photo, screening, painted dryer sheets, hand dyed fabric, calligraphy pen. This started with a georgous earthy hand dye I wish I could repeat.
I think I will be adding more to this one. I am thinking more background texture. The home dec fabric pieces have a lovely ragged edge on one side (shown here on the bottom), from cutting them out of the book. I would like to utitilize that.
I am looking forward to soon spending a few days dyeing, painting and screening with soy wax out in my patio…if this cold, rainy weather ever clears up!
