Nos. 33 and 34: A Bit of Tie Dye

Well, sorta tie dye, sorta a bit of shibori. So, two 'ish' pieces. I began by folding and tying with rubber bands. 

No. 33 was done in the traditional way using slightly damp fabric in a plastic bag and pouring the dye mixture onto the fabric, then adding fixative later. I like the definite pattern here.

No. 34 was done as an ice dye with the fabric soaking in soda ash mixture before folding. I used Pro Chem's mixing red. I really like the texture of this piece. Curious how differently they turned out.

My next exercise is to use Decolourant to discharge some color from two pieces that I dyed some time ago, but do not like them. Thanks for visiting. Karen

Number 32

Sample Number 32 uses a technique I read about on And Then We Set It on Fire blog using cups, lids, etc. to create a bit more texture. I started with soda ash soaked fabric. I used some corks, a couple bottle lids and a couple small plastic containers and wrapped the wet fabric around each using rubber bands to hold the fabric over the objects. The fabric was placed in my dyeing colander and covered with ice. I sprinkled small bits of Dharma's #29 bright green and #22 cobalt blue dye on the ice, covered it with plastic wrap and waited til the ice melted. After rinsing and washing, this is what I found.

This photo shows an area that had been wrapped around a cork.

 Just having fun here in Westminster. Thanks for reading.

Karen

Number 31

I think I can change my goal for this project "70 and Counting" as I am almost halfway toward 70 pieces. This ice dye was done with creamsicle and mocha dyes from Dharma using the colander arrangment. The mocha could be too old - it wimped out here actually becoming grey in some places.

If you are interested in snow and ice dyeing techniques, check out the blog And Then We Set it On Fire at http:andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.com.  Ice and snow dyeing are the focus this month.

Thanks for checking in. Karen

So much to learn

As I am having fun. Below are the prints from my second venture with deconstructed screen printing. I like all the prints and am learning lots. In some of these, I think I 'squeegeed' too many times. I added some yellow dye for the 8th and 9th print, just to see how that would work. Nice enough. I added some red for the final print - it came out with tiny little spots because the red dye powder did not dissolve completely. I certainly want to do more of this technique -- hopefully next week. I love how the prints change. I haven't even begun to think how I will use these. Right now, I  want to play more.

Thanks for visiting. 

Here are the results from my first deconstructed screen printing exercise. (Blogger and I are having problems - I will label each to show the order of printing).

Print One

Print Two

Print Three

Print Four - used some of it

Print five

Print Six

The textures are great and will be useful in some new projects. I am fascinated by this process. Today, I started another screen design using four 'texture' pieces under the screen before I applied the thickened print paste with dye.

Here's the screen after I applied the dye paste.

I have to let it dry and hope to print with it on Tuesday.

Thanks for reading and hanging with me while I learn the newer Blogger. 

Karen

And it is said "it's simple"

After a belated post earlier this evening, I thought I would change the look of my blog. And I did. Not exactly what I wanted to see, but here it is. Maybe another day I will tackle this again. For now, I will simply try to stay up to date on blogging about my 70 And Counting project and stick to fabric things, not technology!

Karen

I'm back

I've been to Maine for a workshop (fantastic), the Eastern Shore for a quilting retreat (fun), and trying to catch up (tiring). So, here goes ...

My last ice dyed fabric and socks look good. And the socks are warm. I like the results even though I think I used a bit too much dye. 

 

Tomorrow I'll share the results of the deconstructed screen printing session. I need new photos to do that.

Thanks for reading and sticking with me.

Karen

Week Four

Autumn has arrived with temps in the 50's. It's time to get the socks out and time to dye a new pair. I love bamboo socks. So, I added a pair to a piece of fabric for a small ice dye. Here's the set-up before the dye. 

And after: 

While waiting for this to batch, I prepared a screen to play with as an attempt to do deconstructed screen printing. I am following directions by Rayna Gillman as seen in Quilting Arts, August-September 2008. Right now, it's pretty messy in the drying phase. More later. 

The rain has stopped here - we had a bit of blue before sunset. Hope you are dry and cozy. Karen

Week Three

Parfait time. Not with calories, but an exercise from Ann Johnston's book, Color by Accident. Using a plastic pretzel barrel container, I began by pouring sun yellow dye solution on one piece of fabric. 


After that batched for a while, I poured soda ash as fixative, waited just a bit, then scrunched a second piece of fabric on top and added mixing red dye solution. 


After waiting a bit, it was time for more soda ash, then turquoise dye solution and a final dose of soda ash. I let it batch for a few hours before rinsing and rinsing. Nice. I want to repeat this with another trio of dyes.

My last piece for Week Three was an ice dye. I used a set-up that I saw somewhere on the internet using a plastic colander to hold the fabric, ice and dyes placed in a large bowl. This works best for smaller pieces of fabric. I used kelly green, cobalt blue, strong orange and violet. Looks lovely. 

Ice dyes usually surprise me in nice ways. The next time I repeat this, I'll take a photo of the set-up.

Thanks for visiting. Let me know what you want to try.

Karen

Week 2.5

Already, I am posting a bit late. Sorry, family issues needed attention. All is better now. Back to the dyeing adventures.

A few years ago, while in Oregon, I bought some potato dextrin to use as a resist. Finally, I dug it out and tried on two pieces. They are okay first tries with this resist. 

The first piece was from Week One using thin yellow and blue dyes on wet soda ash fabric - not exciting. I mixed the potato dextrin using a recipe and spread it on the fabric to dry overnight. Didn't quite work. A thicker batch of resist would have cracked as it dried. I had to twist and crumble this piece to get breaks in the resist. I brushed on a medium print paste with indigo dye and let it dry overnight. I got some texture!

The second piece was white fabric previously soaked in soda ash and dried. I used an edged tool to scrape lines in the wet resist. After drying overnight, I brushed on medium thick indigo mixture and let it dry. Next day, I soaked the fabrics to remove the resist - that was the easiest step. I will repeat this technique with a thicker mixture of resist and one day try a flour resist.

Here I mixed a "thin" mixture (dye concentrate and urea water) and applied it, leaving white areas, with sponge brushes on damp soda ash soaked fabric. The dye mixture spread and created nice shapes and textures.

I used thin dye mixture here, but on dry soda ash soaked fabric. Okay, but not quite what I hoped it would be. I can always print on top of this. Hmmm.

All of these examples were created using exercises in Ann Johnston's book, Color by Design. This is why we practice again and again, often by mistakes. I just love messing about with fabrics and dyes.

More to come.

Thanks for visiting. Karen

Results from Week One and Two

In Week Two, I took my 'blahs' from Week One and played with them. 

This was first dyed flat in a shoebox by squirting turquoise and sun yellow all around. It was okay-ish, but not enough texture. So ...

I decorated it with Elmer's blue gel glue and let it dry. I did shapes, squiggles, letters and dots and lines. It took a while to cover this 12" x 21" piece of fabric. Actually it became rather meditative. It took a good while to dry.

I brushed on thickened indigo dye (dye with print paste) and let it dry. After drying and rinsing, I got more texture and interesting shapes. Nice, but I need to run it through the washer to get the rest of the glue out.

Number 3 started as an ice dye. I expected interesting results just like all my ice dyes in the past. However, it came out quite blah. The dye powder may have been too old, who knows. So I scrunched it into a stocking toe and steeped it in indigo dye. 

I am happier with the results - more texture and actually more green than this photo (the camera insisted on blue.) I have been working on greens to take to an October workshop with Susan Carlson.

This one started folded up and bound with rubber bands in turquoise dye. After a bit, I unfolded it and folded it differently, then poured on sun yellow dye and waited. Not at all what I hoped for. A bit boring. This may have been a subconscious piece -- I have been dealing with some neck problems this year and going to physical therapy. Some of these shapes remind me of my vertebrae that are suffering with arthritis.

Thanks for reading. More to come.

Karen

70 and Counting

Yes, it's been a long time between postings. I hope to be more attentive in this new year -- my new year.  Ten days ago, I celebrated my 70th birthday, complete with purple hair. 

It was temporary and I have a lot of the stuff, so I can experiment more. It was interesting how many strangers came up to me with compliments. Fun, fun, fun - which is what birthdays should be.

As I was reviewing my life and thinking what is next, I decided I needed a project that could run throughout this new year. "70 and Counting" was born. My intention with this project is to create at least 70 unique pieces of fabric through dyeing, printing, discharging, overdyeing and all other methods I can play with. My intention is to document all my efforts and to blog twice a week. One reason for this effort is to use the many techniques that I have tried or learned in classes or read about in books and magazines. You might know the routine: take a class, get all excited with the learning process, return to reality where life crowds our time. So, as one of my chocolate wrappers says "What are you waiting for?" Here I go.

 
In Week One, I focused on greens using turquoise and sun yellow, dyeing four small pieces, 12" x 21". One, an arashi wrap on a medium pole, turned out nicely. The other three turned out weak and boring - to be addressed in Week Two. I feel a bit out of practice with these dyes.

More later this week. Yes, I realize that a lot needs updating on this blog -- soon. Enjoy the lovely September weather.
 Karen

Acceptance

is a wonderful thing. I just received notice that my entry was juried into a SAQA regional show - one of 38. It is a great feeling to be chosen for an exhibit. But, and isn't there always a but, reality means that I still have to get up and do the work needed to make more art to enter into more exhibits. This is what I love to do -- make the art. I am reminded of an interview with a pitcher who had pitched a perfect game the day before and said it was wonderful, but he had to get up and pitch again in the rotation - the perfect game was a very nice stat but did not change his 'job'. My job is to make more art, whether my quilt was accepted or not.

Rejections bruise and need to kept in perspective - they are not value judgments, just the choice of that particular jury. It is hard when we receive no feedback on the why. We cannot dwell on the possibilities. We need to get back into the rotation.

My quilt (that cannot be posted until after the exhibit) that was accepted taught me a lot in its making. First of all, I wasn't immediately drawn to the theme - Tarnish. It just felt hard, and winter is hard enough. After our regional meeting, I decided to give it a try with my own interpretation of Tarnish and in a shorter time frame. I asked for some feedback from some friends - some loved it and encouraged me - a couple had too many suggestions on how I 'should' do it. Both gave me things to ponder and made me stretch to create what was in my mind. Daily work brought me to the solutions I wanted to finish the piece. And I truly feel it is one of my best.

The exhibit will run from May 2 through June 1 at VisArts Kaplan Gallery, 155 Gibbs St, Rockville, MD 20850.

Phone:(301) 315-8200

 

Exciting stuff -- now it's time to get to work on the next right thing. Thanks for reading,

Karen

Oops

I don't know what happened in the previous post. It sorta ends mid-sentence and would not let me edit past a certain point. Ah, technology.

Here's the next part of my dyeing experiments. First, it's nice to know that the dyeing process works with the room temps below 65 degrees. The temps outside are way cold.

I played with arashi shibori as outlined in Elizabeth Barton's online class, Dyeing to Design. I used three different sized pipes. I like the results and how easy this was to do.

I hope to make something with these as soon as I finish a piece for the SAQA exhibit.

Stay warm and cozy if you are surrounded by cold and snow. I'll try not to be jealous of people in warmer climates. Keep creating from your heart. Karen

The snow is over,

at least for a couple days. Our total was about 12", more than enough to need attention. The sun came out brightly and helped melt a bit where the plow guy had salted, so my car is ready to go.

I spend my snow days dyeing more fabric. Some pieces I hope to use in a quilt for a SAQA regional exhibit - they turned out close to what I wanted but will work. Then I took advantage of all this snow to try snow dyeing. Here's the set up. I piled the snow on and packed it down, then poured the dye concentrate on the snow and waited.

Here's the result, folded in half to show different parts.

It's okay. I definitely need to play more with this. I feel more confident with the ice dyeing technique. I've done more of that and feel I can control the colors more. I will think about

58 days til spring

and it's snowing AGAIN! Yes, it's pretty, but ... old.

I am ready to do some snow dyeing later today after some more snow falls. I have been participating in Elizabeth Barton's class, Dyeing to Design, through Academy of Quilting. I have seven bottles of dye already mixed and have been dyeing some fabrics for a new piece. Elizabeth says that dyes will keep in the fridge for a long time. That has not been my experience, but I am willing to give it a try during this class. It is handy to have the dyes ready when you are ready.

The first lesson in this class was about value. We dyed an eight step gradation of black and then were to make a small quilt using just those fabrics. Here is my gradation (made from a mix of three black dyes - I did not have enough of any one black).

And here's the quilt I made from the gradation. I like it, but may add some more paint on the heron. It's about 10" x 18".

 

I hope you are staying warm and cozy in this crazy weather, as someone on another blog referred to it as "overzealous" weather. Karen

Two posts in one day !!

Tonight was the opening of the Patches and Patterns exhibit at our local arts council. It is an exhibit of quilts mostly from the women who worked on the barn quilt project. The opening was well attended and I sold a quilt. Hooray! one of my followers came and loved a small piece. They are such generous and kind people. So, A New Beginning will have a new home after the exhibit.

Thanks for good friends and people who like our art. Karen

Ah, a new year

Okay, so I am a bit late here on the 9th. I hope your new year will bring you happiness and great creativity.

I'm not one for making resolutions, but I like the idea of having a word or a phrase as a theme for the year. I have bounced around many options -- lighten up, bloom, listen, explore, Yes!, clarity, grow. The one phrase that keeps coming up in my morning pages is "live out loud". It fits. It can have many meanings and can change during the year. Right now, it's about being true to who I am, doing what work calls to me, living fully and especially getting out from under that bushel basket. Time to let the world get to know me better. That is, right after I get to know me better.

Abigail and I started the new year together. We played all day on NYEve, going to the Visionary Arts Museum, having a very yummy lunch at our favorite Paper Moon Diner, having dinner at the monastery (where everyone was so pleased to see her), stopping at her home to see Mom and Dad (their request), then home to get warm and cozy and watch a DVD. The Paper Moon is a funky diner in Baltimore with a great menu. The exterior and interior are decorated with all sorts of stuff hanging from the ceiling, glued down to the walls, stuck on every inch of available surface. Here's the outside, notice the flower containers.

And here's the ceiling:

In the midst of our fun, we also shopped for a pattern for her prom dress so she could make a 'practice dress' of muslin. We had to improvise a bit since no one pattern met her idea. Abigail did most of the work - it's been a while since she used the sewing machine, but we skipped the zipper.

I think she will be the belle of the ball!

On another front, I just started an on-line class, Dyeing to Design, with Elizabeth Barton through the Academy of Quilting (they have filled the void since QU closed). The first lesson included dyeing a 8-step gradation of black. It was a challenge to keep the dyeing pots warm as we were in the grip of the Polar Vortex - my apartment never got above 64 degrees. The gradation looks good. I  like the mottled effect.

A funny note: we've had a good bit of snow in the past month, just perfect for some snow dyeing which totally slipped my mind until all the snow had melted. Maybe if we get more snow, not that I want that. Enough is enough for me.

With the Vortex gone, I did get out yesterday and today to walk. After those single digit temps, 26 degrees was a piece of cake.

Enough for today. I hope to blog more, I'll try. Thanks for sticking with me. I just wish there was a blog site that could read my mind in the shower.

Did you make any resolutions? Do you choose a word for the year? Share if you like. Stay warm and safe,  Karen