Thursday, July 24, 2014

Finally...My "Industrial" Fabric

Susan's final "industrial" fabric.

I finally finished my contribution to The Printed Fabric Bee's Industrial Collection. It was due to Queen Bee, Susan Purney Mark, three weeks ago. But, as sometimes happens, life and vacation intervened.

Detail

From the beginning, this was a bit of a challenge for me. First, it was the color scheme...neutrals. I have to admit, I'm sort of a color junky. I often admire artists that have the ability to work with neutrals. So very subtle...where one tends to pay more attention to marks and texture. Often subdued color artworks can appear to be more sophisticated. Then there was the theme...industrial. I admit that I don't get that inspired by all things industrial. Fortunately, Susan had a very loose interpretation of the theme. She was more interested in old industrial...rust, peeling paint, etc.

I decided to start off by monoprinting a piece of white cotton. I painted layers of transparent fabric paint on plastic film and then laid the fabric on top to pick up the paint.

Monoprinted background

To get the look of cracked and distressed paint, I covered the monoprinted fabric with a layer of wheat flour paste resist. While it was still wet, I drew designs in the flour paste. When it dried completely, I crackled it.

Manipulating the dried resist to form cracks.

Next I painted over the dried resist. The paint reached the fabric through the cracks and lines in the resist.

Painting over the dried resist.

After setting the fabric and removing the resist, the next layer of paint was applied with brayer rubbings. I slipped a hot glue block and a piece of wire screening under the fabric and rolled over these textures with a paint-covered brayer.

Flat textures to slip under the fabric for brayer rubbings.

Finally, I carved gear designs in Speedball Speedy Carve blocks and printed over all the other layers.

Carved "gear" blocks.

I'm quite happy with the result. Hope Susan and collection winner, Gabriele enjoy using this fabric.

Six inch fabric square that didn't make it into the collection below. But now done and off in the mail to the winner!!

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Searching for Roy G Biv III: Violet Update #2

Pottery from a gallery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire

I'm posting a bit early. I'll be traveling back to Virginia tomorrow after a fabulous vacation visiting family in Sag Harbor, NY and Kittery, Maine. I'll catch up with those of you posting VIOLET photos later on Thursday afternoon.

For those of you new to the Roy G Biv game (searching for the colors of the rainbow)... we are now up to VIOLET. To play along, post up to five VIOLET photos and leave a comment here or on Jennifer Coyne Qudeen's blog. You have through Saturday to post. We'll link to you for a fun and colorful blog hop.

My VIOLETS are from some recent travels including: Staunton, Virginia; Kittery, Maine; and Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Petunias from the Staunton farmers' market.
Cabbages from the Golden Harvest, Kittery, Maine.
Looking into Byrne & Carlson Chocolatiers in Portsmouth, NH.
Lavender discovered after stepping in the door of B & C Chocolatiers.
More delicious confections inside!
An inviting lavender chair outside a colorful restaurant in Portsmouth, NH.
A beautiful urn of petunias.
A crazy large purple ice cream cone in Portsmouth, NH.
Looking forward to seeing all your VIOLET posts!

Jennifer has a fun-filled selection of VIOLETS. I think those VIOLET Kisses would taste great on a real version of my ice cream cone (can you tell that I'm still on an Elimination Diet! :))

Fiona at Paper Ponderings has some enticing thoughts about unbound stories and a path strewn with VIOLET petals...so magical!

Maya at Million Little Stitches has a selection of Indian VIOLETS. Love the VIOLET house! I can only imagine a trend like that in Virginia (wouldn't it be fun!).

Lisa at arzigogolare shares some VIOLET views of the Experience Music Project (EMP) Museum. The building was designed by Frank Gehry. What an architectural feat! And as usual, exquisite photos by Lisa.

Sharmon at True Adventures of an Art Addict alternates floral VIOLETS with her exquisite artworks.

Margaret at Charlton Stitcher gives us a VIOLET view of her stitched work and a glimpse of her family holiday.

Mary Ann at Blue Sky Dreaming shares some artful stitched and painted VIOLETS.

The fun doesn't end with VIOLET ! Join in with these colors through the end of 2014:
August 21: Pink
September 18: Black
October 16: White
November 20: Brown
December 18: Blogger's Choice 

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Roy Reminder and Summer Fun


I'm a bit behind in my monthly Roy reminder. You can see that I've been busy having some summer fun with family.

So...here is the reminder...The Search for Roy G Biv (the colors of the rainbow) continues this coming Thursday, July 17. The color of the month is VIOLET. Hope you are out searching and plan to post up to five photos featuring VIOLET. When you do, leave a comment here or on Jennifer's blog and we will link to you for our monthly blog hop. It's lots of fun and we are always looking for more to join in.

Here are a few photos of this summer's project...small books of summer textures featuring teabag pages. If you want to know more about printing on teabags, read about it here. We made covers from brown paper and painted them...all the colors of the rainbow!

Poppy working hard on two book covers.
Kai's stripes became a plaid cover for his book.
Grandma printing leaves for the inside of her book.
We also printed with shells.
Poppy made tracings for one of her books.
A colorful selection of books!

Hope you are enjoying your summer too. I'd love to know about your summer art projects.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

The Printed Fabric Bee Industrial Giveaway


Susan Purney Mark was this month's Queen Bee and she requested fabrics with an industrial theme. You probably notice that my fabric is "coming soon". I am still working on it while juggling writing the Newsletter and getting ready to see my extended family (i.e. I'm undoing lots of teabags). I promise that whoever wins the giveaway...you will receive a piece from me!

Here's how you can be eligible to win 6" squares of this fabric collection. Go to either Susan's or The Printed Fabric Bee's blog and leave a comment under the post with the above photo. Susan plans to pick a winner on July 10 so hurry!!!

Happy 4th of July for those of you who celebrate!


Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Prepping for the Summer Art Project

Drying teabags on fabric.

I spent some time in the kitchen today preparing for this summer's family art project.

Teabags waiting for the boiling water.
Black and green teabags soaking.
Why waste tea? The teabags are drying on cloth and more cloth is soaking in the tea.

Every summer, I put on my artistic thinking cap and come up with a project to share with my nieces and nephew and other family members.

In the past we've:
This summer, I was inspired by one of my Story Cloth students, Susan P. For one of her story cloths she printed designs on dried teabags. I even decided to write my upcoming Newsletter about Deconstructing Tea...using dried teabags, the little envelopes they come, the tags and string and even the boxes to create little pieces of tea art (Hope you'll sign up for Julie B Booth Surface Design News (if you haven't already) to find out more about it!)

Some of the teabag prints from the next issue of Julie B Booth Surface Design News.

My plan is for all of us to make little books using teabags for pages. We'll collect small leaves and other nature textures and print on the teabags. The covers will be made from softened and painted brown paper. As usual, I'm already getting excited to see what my nieces and nephew do. They always surprise and amaze me!