Play Day II

Peggy came over a second time, so we could print fabric, with the printing plates that we made. We started with an already dyed piece of fabric. I used a peachy/orange fabric and used the bird plate with dark blue paint, The opposites on the color wheel would give good contrast. Instead of putting paint on the roller and going over the fabric with the plate underneath, I used the roller to apply paint to the plate, and laid the fabric over it. I used the hard rubber brayer to press a good print, and it came out very sharp and clear, but reversed. The blue paint on orange fabric kinda sucked the color out of the blue, it was a bit dull/brownish, but I went over and added touches of the blue paint. I also dipped a bamboo skewer in metallic gold paint, and added long marks to the lines of the print, gold paint on rug grid was dabbed on as wings to the birds. It still looked a little dull, so I splattered some bright yellow specks overall. It looks very much "Folk Art" and 2 people said it looks like Egyptian Hieroglyphics. It is not really "My Thing" but I like the results, crisp clear printing, directional, and with contrast. The second piece I did was on a light green dyed background, with touches of yellow and turquoise. I used the rubbing plates of the leaves, that I had made with the wood filler from the stencils. I wet the fabric, and put wet paint on the foam roller, I rolled over the fabric on top of the plates. It gave a much softer/blended look, and I added green. I also printed in a darker green on top of the fabric, this was clear and crisp and added a definite pattern. Next was a layer of metallic gold leaf printing, and it still needed more, so a layer of turquoise Shiva Oil Pastel was rubbed on over the leaves. So I learned if you want subtle blending of your print use the paint wet with a foam roller, a hard crisp line is made when you put the plate underneath the fabric, with the paint directly on the plate. Layer-Layer-Layer! The more complex the fabric, and the more depth it has, the more interesting the fabric. Use subtle shifts in color, add a different color paint each time you print, and finish off with some shimmer, either metallic acrylic or the Shiva Oils. Peggy added birds and leaves to a dyed fabric that she had already stenciled. She added sunflowers and then edged the printed curly cues with gold Shiva Oils. She was still going to add other elements to the fabric, and either collage or applique on additional layers. She was also trying for more "Layers" to make her fabric interesting. I did one last piece with the alphabet again, it was printed on a dark purple and gold dyed fabric, it was a rich dark color, but I couldn't see myself using it. I added purple acrylic to the gold areas, and metallic gold paint to the purple areas. Also layers of metallic gold Shiva oils, and a bright frosted purple Shiva. It is a very complex piece of fabric, I don't think the richness of the colors photographed very well.

Play Day

Thursday I had a "play day" with Peggy and Kay, I invited them over to paint, quilt, whatever. We started out with a watercolor collage that Peggy was working on, and kept getting out supplies, and books. We passed around Artists trading cards, and planned to paint some background papers/fabrics. We ended up doing a "Collagegraph" technique. We glued different elements to a base of mat board, to make a printing plate, I am going to demo it at our next textile group meeting. It can also be used as a rubbing plate for Shiva Oil Sticks. We used flat toothpicks, string, corrugated cardboard, rug grid, and foam sheets to cut out shapes. We painted everything with a base coat of acrylic paint to seal it. Next week Peggy is coming over and we are going to print with the boards we made. We also made rubbing plates with a "wood fiber" filler from "Elmer's Glue" We smeared the filler through plastic stencils, up to about an 1/8 inch depth, then pulled up the stencils, to leave a raised area. Later it was sanded smooth, and sealed with paint. I made one fabric print last week, with a print plate with stick on letters. I used a foam roller and acrylic paint to print onto a piece of hand dyed fabric I already had. It was difficult to gauge the wetness and coverage of the paint on the roller, too wet and it bled, too dry and it wouldn't print. I also tried a solid rubber brayer, but it wouldn't hold much paint. I love the fabric that I got, it was layers of black, dark green and lighter green alphabets, onto a dark navy green dyed fabric. I used the plate to rub on teal frosted Shiva Oil Pastel also, and it added a depth and shimmer to the whole piece. I don't think it photographed very well, but I loved the results.

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Beach Boy

I have worked on a second figure for the beach scene, the little boy with the sand bucket. He had a baseball style shirt which I really liked and a bright green plastic bucket. It took me 3 days, off and on again, to work on him. I used the fusible web technique to bond the back of the pieces, this will create sharp edges for the figures. The raw edge applique technique, which I usually do, makes "eyelashes" of little loose fibers when it is sewn. It is good for organic things like trees, but I want a crisp edge with people, especially on the faces. It is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together with all the little pieces, and trying to leave a little bit for seam allowances where they tuck under one another. The boy & bucket has 54 pieces, and is 9" tall and 8" wide. The other figures will be much simpler, they are farther away and less detailed, some will only be 6 or 8 pieces.

Fun in the Sun

I have designed a beach scene for a quilt, using several photos I took at Bastendorf beach and several other places. One of the books I read on making patterns for quilted people was inspiring. I had always made quilts of people I knew, I had to get the right photo/pose and want to do that person. But the book put the notion in my head, that it wasn't who you knew, but to tell a story with the body language. I took a lot of photos of kids playing at the beach, two teens skim boarding, boys running, and a girl in the water, also a cute little girl in a turquoise jumper. At another trip to the beach we passed a little boy with a bucket bending down to play with the sand. I added several other small touches, a kayaker, a dog swimming with a ball, and my friend kite flying. I created a small beach scene with all the figures, trying very hard to get the perspective right, as the figures moved further down the beach. I added a friend's dog "Tarza" to the main group of figures around a sand castle. I made sketches and enlarged them on the computer, and flipped a few of them left to right. I had the copy shop make a larger print of the finished drawing so the detail on the figures wouldn't be too small to work with. It looks like a fun scene, with every one playing in the water and sand. I started to work on the one figure of the turquoise girl with "Wonder Under" fusible interfacing. Finding contrast with the background beachy sand will be a challenge and to find a good water print I like. This will be a longer term project as I do one figure at a time, and search for background fabrics.

Twisty Pointy Bags

For Christmas presents I made some small drawstring bags. I found a pattern for a Japanese bag, where the first part is sewn as a windmill, and the sides swirl up on the bias, it results in points of fabric at the top. It recommended cutting off the points and sewing on loops for the drawstring. I said "no way!" the points are the best part. I had remembered seeing somewhere, a finishing technique where the points were folded over and a channel made for the cording. I finished my bag with this method and love the results. I showed the bag at our textile art group meeting and everyone loved it and wanted to make them at the next meeting. So I made a handout with directions and everyone brought fabric and a few sewing machines. My first bag was made with a faux-sashiko technique on indigo fabric. I used Jacquard De-colourant, in a small needle tip bottle, through a stencil I made small dashes to make a pattern to imitate the Japanese stitching technique. One of the strips did not bleach out very well, so I made an extra piece by printing small maple leaves onto the fabric with the de-colourant. I love this one the best, it is for me! I made several others for presents, some with four strips, some with narrower 8 strips, in a variety of prints.

Ghost Tree, in progress

"Ghost Tree" in progress. I started this quilt by playing in Photoshop. I blended a photo of a bare branched oak tree with a cloudy sky. In blending mode I used several options to change the effects and the colors. I also used a negative, which gave me white branches on a darker background. I printed several photos onto treated fabric with my computer printer, and spent a lot of time just admiring them, before I figured out what I wanted to do with them. I decided to use them for a background, as they are sort of foggy, blurry, ghost images, very ethereal looking. I pieced them traditionally with a sashing, but not in a symmetrical pattern. This added a grid, to contrast with the flowing lines of the branches. I really admire the trees in the book, "Nature's Studio" by Joan Colvin, because of their organic flowing textures on the bark and branches. So I decided to use a large tree over the tree photos in the background to keep the theme going. I used light fabrics to give it a ghost like appearance. There is not a lot of contrast, but I hope that quilting with white or light threads will help define the tree against the background, and add more highlights and a glow to the tree. I was going to add an eagle to the top left corner, to balance the tree. But my niece loves owls, due I think to the "Harry Potter" movies, so I found a Dover book of "Birds of Prey" with very nice line drawings of eagles, falcons, owls, etc... The eagle picture was perching, but the flying owl pic was just right. I especially wanted the wing tips to extend into the border, and be individual feathers, quilting it will be a challenge. I have started to quilt this with rayon thread, and it lightens it up and gives it a sheen. I can't figure out how to quilt the background, I think it will be just to sit down and let my fingers decide intuitively what it needs.