Day #6: Fabric Printing at Home Blog Tour

Welcome to Day #6 of the Fabric Printing at Home Blog Tour! We're moving right along here. For those of you just now joining us, Welcome! This has been a fun first week of sharing. If you are just now finding out about the Tour, be sure to look back over the last five days for tips and projects and to journey over to the guest bloggers mentioned in each post. A total of 14 copies of Fabric Printing at Home are being given away to some lucky winners! Just by commenting you are entered in the drawing. In the meantime, I'll continue to give away daily prizes. Just leave a comment at the end of this post and you're entered.

Today's stop on the Tour is Judy Gula's blog. I've known Judy for many years. We used to belong to the same fiber gallery (Potomac Fiber Arts). A number of years ago, Judy took the big and amazing step of starting a retail business called, Artistic Artifacts. Artistic Artifacts is known world-wide, via the Internet, for its mixed media and fiber art supplies. It's VERY hard to walk into her shop and not walk out with a tool or supply that you can't wait to play with! She also has a wide range of classes in mixed media and surface design (I just taught a two-day class there). Here's Judy's bio:

Judy Vincentz Gula has been working in fiber since elementary school. Since middle school, she has been a weaver, a spinner, a dyer, and a collector. Later, she studied fashion design at Radford University, earning degrees in fashion design and business marketing. Judy now enjoys merging all that she has learned from her many interests and channeling that into making art quilts and samples for her shop, Artistic Artifacts.

http://www.artisticartifacts.com/blog/

 Stop by Judy's blog today and leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of Fabric Printing at Home.

Recycle Treasure Trove (Hoarders...Beware!)

Friday is recycling day in my house so on Thursday (when I wrote this), I decided to take a look at what materials were available to turn into print blocks, stencils and rubbing plates. Here is my recycling inventory list along with page references from Fabric Printing at Home where you can find all the details to turn trash into surface design treasure! What treasures are hiding in your recycling bin?

1. Corrugated cardboard boxes: Texture Blocks from Kitchen Staples pp. 34-37; Cardboard: The Thick and Thin of It: How to Make Cardboard Print Blocks pp. 78-81;  Junk Mail Jackpot p. 84.

2. Thin cardboard including cereal and other food boxes: Cardboard: The Thick and Thin of It pp.78-79; Cardboard Stencils pp. 82-83.

3. Postcards: Cardboard Stencils pp. 82-83; Postcard Pizzazz p. 85.

4. Cardboard tubes: Playing with Plastic Wrap p. 69; On a Roll: Fabric Designs from Cardboard Tubes pp. 88-89.

5. Clothing catalogs: Junk Mail Jackpot: Deconstructing Clothing Catalogs p. 84-87.

6. Envelope with cellophane window: Simple and Sweet: Cellophane Window Stencils p. 87.

7. Newspaper: Junk Mail Jackpot: Deconstructing Clothing Catalogs p. 84-87.

8. Foam meat trays: Making Your Mark: Designing Print Blocks from Recycled Foam pp. 90-91.

9. Netting from a Clementines' box: Create a Collage Design with Layered Textures pp. 30-33.

10. Plastic fruit containers: Found Objects and Kitchen Tools p. 44; Playing with Plastic Wrap p. 69.

11. Egg carton: Found Objects and Kitchen Tools p. 44.

12.  Aluminum soda cans: Artful Aluminum: Create Decorative Shapes from Recycled Cans and Pans pp. 92-93.

13. Aluminum cake pan: Artful Aluminum: Create Decorative Shapes from Recycled Cans and Pans pp. 92-93.

Today's giveaway is a mini hot glue gun and glue sticks. You can use these to make one of my favorite types of print blocks! Leave a comment for a chance to win. I will choose a winner at 11:00 PM Eastern USA time. Check tomorrow's post to see if you are the winner. Your comment also enters you in the final drawing on February 15 for a free copy of Fabric Printing at Home: Quick and Easy Fabric Design Using Fresh Produce and Found Objects. 

 And now for the winner of yesterday's giveaway (Non-stick Fiskars scissors)....congratulations to Kathy Davis! Please email me with your contact information (threadborn@cox.net) so I can send off your prize.

Tomorrow, the Tour stops at Susan Purney Mark's blog. Susan is an accomplished quilter and teacher and I'm excited to have one of her works in Chapter 7: Contributing Artists.
 
Be sure to visit all the stops on the Tour:
February 2: Lisa Chin
February 3: Lynn Krawczyk
February 4: Jane Davila 

February 5: Carol R. Eaton 

February 6: Judy Gula 

February 7: Susan Purney Mark 

February 8: Teri Lucas 

February 9: Jennifer Coyne Qudeen 

February 10: Deborah Boschert 

February 11: Lynda Heines 

February 12: Cheryl Sleboda 

February 13: Terri Stegmiller 

February 14: Jackie Lams

Pockets

This week I've been playing with some recycled paper products for one of the chapters in my upcoming book, Fabric Printing at Home.

I kept happening upon words while cutting, twisting, rolling and gluing pages from the L.L. Bean catalog. Words such as, warmth and quilted. It reminds me of the poetry magnets I used to have on the refrigerator. Can you see  pockets in this photo? Kind of interesting since all the folds remind me of pockets!

I test printed some of the blocks today. I still need to cut some stencils and then it's on to some final fabrics for this part of the chapter. So much to do. My new sankalpa is, stay calm and focused.

Trash Talk and Roy Reminder

Yesterday, I did my monthly gallery sit at Potomac Fiber Arts Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Arts Center. One of the other galleries, Target Gallery, was setting up a new show called Trash Talk.

Although the gallery itself was closed for installation (got a peek and can't wait to get a closer view), some pieces were installed out in the big open hallway at the Factory.

Two pieces by Alex Lockwood caught my eye...

The first was an installation of what looked like cactus blooming or sea anemones.

These intricate pieces are made from lottery tickets!

The other installation was a bit more interactive. Strings of bottle caps were suspended from the ceiling. By gently pulling on a cord, you could make them move and rattle.

Ingenious ways to recycle trash!

The rainbow colors used in these two pieces is also a reminder that Thursday, April 18th is the next installment of Roy G Biv...searching for the colors of the rainbow. This month's color is YELLOW. If you're new to this challenge click here for more information. 

Recycling

Back in the studio yesterday, enjoying my cleared off table.

I'm putting together a number of ideas for magazine articles. All center around surface design with materials from the kitchen.

I started playing with some of the recyclables again. This time it's cardboard and brown paper.

Enjoying the textures.

 

I did manage to get to Home Depot  yesterday and found a whole section with grids... burlap, deer fencing, even metal fencing for chickens! I also found rolls of the weed control fabric that I talked about in an earlier post.

I bought a selection of materials and will try experimenting with some of them this week.

And the winners are...

Winners of the Roy G Biv fabrics

My husband pulled these winners of the Searching for Roy G Biv Challenge fabrics out of his JMU baseball cap...

Congratulations!

Lisa, please comment here to let me know whether you would like the red cats piece or the oranges piece.

Kathy you will get whichever piece Lisa doesn' t pick.

Yesterday, I started work on samples for some magazine articles I'll be proposing. I had some fun with brown paper and cardboard. Slathered on the Mod Podge to hold it all together.

This morning I took a look and they are ready for printing and rubbings.

I have some other sample ideas in the works. Want to get these proposals off soon.

I also hope to get over to Home Depot today to finally get a look at some of the possibilities in the gardening department. I especially want to check out anything that looks like a grid or could be made into a grid. I'd like some grids to go with my weeds!

Recycled Surface Design: Envelopes

Dove into the recycling bag this morning and pulled out some business envelopes with the plastic cellophane windows. Ah-ha... some mini stencils came to mind...