Continuing along the Path

Stitched textile, 1992

Layers of blue glue gel resist, color washes, stenciling and printing, 2011

Do you ever have one of those days when your intention gets side-tracked? Well, I am having one of those days. My goal today was to get a workshop proposal together for a fiber association conference in 2013. It's my second attempt at proposing a class to an association but the first time to this one. Part of the proposal asks for a brief resume including my teaching experience. So of course I got hung up on that Shi-sha demonstration I did for the Textile Museum....when was that exactly?

Excavating through the old notebooks and there was the receipt...1992. Okay..so that was going a bit too far...but then I started reading some notebook entries. I started to realize that I am still asking some of the same questions, searching for some of the same answers and am still attracted to some of the same ideas. So strange to have that realization exactly 20 years later.

I found a stitched piece I was working on at the time...a sampler really and it sure reminded me of some of my resist work... Idea of textile-a rich fabric I want to hold/touch--rich colors/surfaces. Layers--many--yet sandwiched to form a fabric--a whole--that blends in spots and peels away at others...(1992) and ...my life as a textile--peeling away to reveal, covering up to hide...(1992)

I guess I'm still moving along the same path.

The "Reveal"

I decided to let my Exploring Surface Design students have a second evening of playing with the resists. I really think it was a good decision. There was a lot of experimentation going on Wednesday night. I'll be excited to see the final fabrics. I also got a chance to play. I added more layers of paint and resist to some of my pieces. Below are some samples...a before and after washing out the resists...what I like to call the reveal.

Uncooked wheat flour paste with scratched designs

After wheat flour paste is removed

Blue glue gel sampler with additional layers of blue glue, color washes and printing

After removing the blue glue gel

Blue glue gel sampler with color washes a second layer of blue glue, stenciling and printing

After removing the blue glue gel

I will be teaching an all day workshop tomorrow, Creative Fabric Designs Inspired by Nature, so I won't be posting. Planning to come home from class have a glass of wine and watch a movie with my hubby.

Petulance Pays Off

I don't normally post on Wednesdays but as the "juices" in my mind are flowing...I thought I would write today.

I've been re-working this blog with the help of Lesley Riley, my art coach. I worked with Lesley for the first half of 2011 when I was just starting the Conant Grant project. Her first words to me were, "You need a space of your own to work in." Well, I was dragging my feet as I thought about all the work it would require to get the space I'd chosen (a "catch-all" room) together as a studio space. I "hemmed"; I "hawwed"...I was petulant. How was I going to get rid of that huge old oak desk? But Lesley kept pushing...

A friend up the street mentioned "Freecycle". No sooner had I posted the desk, then I had a reply and off it went to a new home. Getting rid of the desk got me "unstuck". From that point on I was able to get rid of the clutter, get a contractor lined up to fix the ceiling and add better lighting, get a good working table together and add shelving. I have been grateful to Lesley ever since for her insistence and pushiness.

So back to the blog and to the "marketing"...

 Lesley says I need an online newsletter in addition to the blog. That I also need to get involved in "Pinterest"...that I need to be as focused on the marketing as I am on the art making. Well...I could feel the petulance swelling up in me last night! I was "ticked"! I was "pissed"! How am I ever going to get all this done? When am I going to make art? When am I going to write my book?

This morning I woke up with a new attitude. "Hey", I thought,"this newsletter thing might be okay. I've been focusing on the kitchen for my resists...I could be focusing on the kitchen for surface design in general".

I peered into one of the recycling bags this morning and suddenly it became a surface design treasure trove. I could see print blocks and stencils hiding in that brown paper grocery bag...heck...the grocery bag even had my mind spinning!

So now I will be sitting down and putting my thoughts on paper for the newsletter. It will be all about the surface design "treasures" hiding in the kitchen. I hope to have readers looking in their pantries, opening cupboards, gazing in the drawer with the plastic wrap and foil...and peering into the recycling bag!

I guess petulance does pay off!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Instant Rice Paste Resist

I call this "Hearts & Kisses": Instant rice paste resist using a cake decorator!

A Weekend with Laura

A wonderful weekend with a good friend.

Working with Color

Uncooked wheat flour paste printed on transparent fabric paint

Last night, in my Exploring Surface Design class, we worked with fabric resists. I decided I wanted to try a "controlled breach" using yellow paint. This technique is something I discovered (a "happy accident") this past year while working on the Conant Grant.

After printing with the paste on wet transparent fabric paint, I let it dry. I then added a second layer of paint, this time it was violet.

After painting with the violet transparent fabric paint

After the second layer of paint dried, I heat set the paint and removed the flour paste.

Fabric after paste was removed

I've done this technique with other color combinations, but this was the first time I used yellow and violet. There were some subtle color variations but not as many as with other colors I've worked with before.

I ordered two books on color from Amazon. One arrived today, "Color Mixing Bible" by Ian Sidaway. The other book, "Skydyes" by Mickey Lawler should be here any day now. Both were recommended by students in the Potomac Fiber Arts Guild workshops I taught in January.

I'm looking forward to studying them and sharing them with my students. During my work on the Grant, I found out how tricky it can be to paint multiple transparent color washes on fabric.

End of the Lentil Story

Dried, blended lentils on fabric

Though interesting to look at, the lentil paste did not make a good resist. It was lifting and crumbling off and when painted, it breached almost completely. It's possible that a different ratio of water to lentils may yield a different result. But for now, I will be moving on...