Comments (0) I realized recently that I miss doing screen printing with watercolor crayons and medium. So I put together this little piece for Christmas party that I attended with Lynn. We got to meet Jane Dunnewold and it was awesome.
So here’s the piece I created:
Watercolor crayons screen printed with tinted medium. Colored with colored pencils and stitched with hand-dyed threads.
…and here’s my Molly cat who likes to hang out with me while I work.
This past September a delivery person stuck a box in my door that contained a nifty collection of fabric and fibers. It was from C&T Publishing, with a note that said (paraphrasing) for me to make something with this stuff and send it back to them. Okay, cool! Yes, I had submitted my name for this and was really thrilled to be selected. But honestly, I had forgotten about the whole thing until the box arrived so it was a happy surprise.
What was in that box of fiber surprise? Silk, lots of forms of very white silk. I don’t have anything against silk, I had never really worked with the stuff before. Cotton is cheap, I go with cheap, I mean cotton. So I take the box over to Lynn because she offers me paint that will work on silk. She hands me several bottles of Dyna-flow silk paint. Lots of lovely colors (similar tastes) to work with and banish the whiteness of the silk forever. I prefer dark, bold, earthy colors and white is not on that color palette.
So I painted all the silk, several times over.
The fourth pic above is a cotton fusible fabric. Yup, painted it too.
Then I tackled this fabric labeled ‘Spunbond’. Fibers not of nature. I cut off a little strip to run some tests on. Yes, it melts really well with heat. Interesting when it melts but that wasn’t what I was going for. I liked the texture and its translucency. So I broke out the watercolor crayons and scribbled away the white.
Then I took a wet brush to it and blended the colors, adding more color as I went. The water caused the color to sink down into the surface. Once it dried, I painted the surface with fabric paint. Some places just a little bit of paint and other places lots of paint. Light painting stayed on the top of the fabric surface, leaving the watercolor crayon color below in the crevices. Hence, you get a few levels of different colors. Groovy stuff. If I didn’t care for the watercolor in a certain area I just added a lot of paint and filled in the crevices.
And because I must, I whipped out a Thermofax Screen after the paint dried and screen printed the dry Spunbond surface. Used the scuff method as named & demoed by Lynn in one of her Quilting Arts articles.
I’ll admit that when I was in the last days of the project I realized that I had forgotten the silk roving. Outta sight – outta mind. It had fallen behind some of my kid’s toys. But I found it and attacked it with colors.
I also threw in the silk rods and cocoons. The roving had a bit of a stiffness in areas when it dried. So I thinned it out and screen printed some designs on it, then cut it into squares. There are a few more details I could include but towards the end things kind of went into high speed and I didn’t take a lot of pics. Feel free to ask any questions and I’ll be happy to fill you in.
The rods were ironed flat and cut. The cocoons were painted a few more times then cut into little bitty squares.
Every thing was assembled onto a partially gesso’ed canvas.
And here is the final piece. It looks better in person. But I won’t be seeing this piece for many months. C&T is keeping it to help decorate their trade booth when they do shows.
You can also find the photos piece over on C&T Publishing’s Flickr page. You can get your very own bag of Artful Fibers in June of 2012.
This Christmas season I am making functional art to sell at Art-is-in Market at 12 Oaks Mall. This is my first time at crafting anything functional. I’ve usually run screaming from the idea of making an object that had to do something other than look cool. For whatever reason, I have found it intimidating. So I chucked my fears to the wind and took a chance. I’ve also been really learning how to use my sewing machine. It hasn’t been pretty. There’s been a few fiber fatalities, but I am learning and the machine is still working.
First up is the fabric flip journals. There are many more than what is shown here. They aren’t hard to make just rather step intensive with lots of pieces. Most of it is hand-dyed fabric with Thermofax screen printing. The others (not shown) are made from commercial fabrics, in an effort to clean out the stash.
Second up are the coasters. Lots of coasters in many different fabrics. These ones are made from repurposed khaki pants. Add in a little creative stitching, screen printing and there you have them. I’m also working on some from the hand-dyed fabric and commercial fabric (again, using the stash).
I still need to purchase some display items before I can get them to the mall. But they should be arriving there within a week.
Here is the aftermath of a rather large project I’ve completed recently, but unfortunately this is all I can show you. It came out great! But that is all I can say for now. It has also been quiet because I’ve been doing the whole graphic design thing. I’ve been helping out the gallery that I show my work in by laying out ads for various print publications. I just finished a full page one for Detroit Hour magazine. I’ve never designed anything for such a big publication so I welcomed the opportunity to add it to the experiences on the resume. It comes out in December.
Also been working creating small product to sell this Christmas season. Lots of assembly line work making coasters, fabric flip journals and maybe bookmarks. Here’s just some of the fabric that is slowly being sewn into coasters. Some of it is commercial, some of it is hand-dyed, hand painted, some of it is recycled clothing.
I’ve been using quite a bit of the ProFab paint from Pro Chem. I love, love this stuff.
If you check out the clearance section on their website you can find an 8 oz jar of the paint for $2.95. The paint is smooth, with a bit of a pudding consistency and it works great for screen printing and painting. I’ve even mixed a few together to get my own colors. The brighter colors will stain screens and whatever else they come in contact with but it won’t clog screens if you don’t let it dry. I’ve only used the transparent so far (because that’s what’s in the clearance section) and the coverage is lovely. I work in layers so I usually want images or texture to show through the paint anyways.
My extra fabric that I keep handy to use up any paint left over from a project is really starting to fill up. It maybe worked into a project soon.
Oh! My friend Lynn and I got accepted to have a show in 2012. Super excited! I don’t know when its happening yet and I do know that I need to get crackin’ on some new big pieces. But before that, Halloween is next week and Batman’s costume needs to get shortened.
I’ve been working on some really cool fiber stuff these last few weeks. But I can’t share about those, yet. In the meantime, enjoy a photo of one the last roses of the year from our backyard. It smells just as lovely as it looks.
September is almost done and I feel like it just started last week. School is in full swing, talk of Halloween costumes has begun and the leaves are falling outside. For the first time I’m making product to sell during the holiday season. Should be interesting. I begun this week by screen printing a stack of fabric for bookmarks. My afternoons are kid-free for the first time in years. So I broke out the paints and took over the kitchen for a few hours. I will admit that it was delightful.
And I got a great stash of fabrics printed up. These are also fabrics that I’ve had in my stash for years. My plan is not to buy anything new for this holiday production stuff. We’ll see if I can stick to it.
Moments of Transition is in the blue and Interludes and Examination is in the orange & purple. Many methods employed in the making of these. Here’s the list: watercolor relief screen printing, hand dyed fabric and threads, thermofax screen printing, hand stitching, fabric paint, colored pencils and pens.
Lately, I’ve noticed a glazed over look come into peoples eyes when I try to explain everything I do to create a piece. Maybe because when I work I don’t just use one method. I can’t say that I just paint, or sew, or bead and so on. I view each method as a tool in my art box. I have favorites that I always return to or evolve, sometimes I just experiment and I’m usually excited to work new tools/methods into my supply box. But at the same time I’ve noticed that when I tell fellow artists how I do something, they get really curious and excited. I love that. I love to share and perhaps get someone to think about different ways to work their own medium.
So here’s a close up of one of my latest creations. Lots of different methods involved. It actually started with a scrap piece left over from one of my watercolor relief rubbing/screen printing projects. The background fabric (hand dyed) had been hiding out in my stash from a few years ago. The challenge was to make the two pieces work as one.
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