Ten yards of fushia gradations to add to my stash for Nancy Crow's Workshop
Old copper pipes wrapped in modant-soaked cotton waiting to get buried in my compost pile. Results in a month.
First it was all about quilting and then dyeing and then I started making books and zentangling and drawing. Now I have given up on limiting myself and this is all about my creative journey. Hope you'll join me on my journey and invite me on yours!
Showing posts with label ecodyeing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ecodyeing. Show all posts
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Friday Favorites
Drawing Update:
No pictures to show but I had a great time drawing our nude model Wednesday night. I am 57 and I discovered that I had never really looked at a human body before. Oh, like I have seen mine, and I have seen other women's as we dressed and undressed in the locker room and, of course, there have been husbands and babies, but it was not the same. This time we were supposed to look long and hard and maybe even stare a bit. I discovered that the human body is really beautiful. I loved being loose in my drawing and being able to caress the curves with my charcoal. Very satisfying.
Friday Favorites:
I still don't have the collage technique down yet. I have read multiple blog entries with instructions, pictures, even tutorials but when I try it...well, it ain't pretty. But once again I am being lured into another attempt by Jane at Janeville. I like the whole idea of creating my own fabric. I just need to put my big-girl boots on and keep trying till I have magic like Jane's students. Any secrets you want to share with me?
WARNING WARNING
The rest of this blog has to do with eco dyeing. If you have not yet been sucked into the void, run now.
I have been reading India Flint's book, "Eco Colour." It is a very personal view point read. India certainly has strong opinions about how we should be treating the earth. I doubt that I will become as ecologically friendly as India but I am watching for the first signs of green here in Maine so I can start dyeing fabric with the leaves. I already have my buckets of seawater for a mordant. I look at them every morning making promises that soon, very soon, I will be using them.
She is going to be presenting a workshop at Haystack later this year but it is my busiest time of year at work. I asked my boss what he would think if I asked for that week off of work. I can't remember exactly his response but it was something like, "I would think you are tired of working here." LOL
Speaking of Eco Dyeing, Kaite has been trying her hand at it. Here is the fungus she found and started soaking as a dye. And here is the first results.
Related is the "Out There" project in England. They grow plants specifically for dyeing.
And Jasmine has her own eco-dyeing/erosion bundle going as wrapt trees. I do think my erosion bundle next year might look more like these wraps.
I hope you have a great weekend. I will be home for the first time in several weeks. I have some dead roses from Valentine's Day that have been waiting for me. We have a date on Saturday.
No pictures to show but I had a great time drawing our nude model Wednesday night. I am 57 and I discovered that I had never really looked at a human body before. Oh, like I have seen mine, and I have seen other women's as we dressed and undressed in the locker room and, of course, there have been husbands and babies, but it was not the same. This time we were supposed to look long and hard and maybe even stare a bit. I discovered that the human body is really beautiful. I loved being loose in my drawing and being able to caress the curves with my charcoal. Very satisfying.
Friday Favorites:
I still don't have the collage technique down yet. I have read multiple blog entries with instructions, pictures, even tutorials but when I try it...well, it ain't pretty. But once again I am being lured into another attempt by Jane at Janeville. I like the whole idea of creating my own fabric. I just need to put my big-girl boots on and keep trying till I have magic like Jane's students. Any secrets you want to share with me?
WARNING WARNING
The rest of this blog has to do with eco dyeing. If you have not yet been sucked into the void, run now.
I have been reading India Flint's book, "Eco Colour." It is a very personal view point read. India certainly has strong opinions about how we should be treating the earth. I doubt that I will become as ecologically friendly as India but I am watching for the first signs of green here in Maine so I can start dyeing fabric with the leaves. I already have my buckets of seawater for a mordant. I look at them every morning making promises that soon, very soon, I will be using them.
She is going to be presenting a workshop at Haystack later this year but it is my busiest time of year at work. I asked my boss what he would think if I asked for that week off of work. I can't remember exactly his response but it was something like, "I would think you are tired of working here." LOL
Speaking of Eco Dyeing, Kaite has been trying her hand at it. Here is the fungus she found and started soaking as a dye. And here is the first results.
Related is the "Out There" project in England. They grow plants specifically for dyeing.
And Jasmine has her own eco-dyeing/erosion bundle going as wrapt trees. I do think my erosion bundle next year might look more like these wraps.
I hope you have a great weekend. I will be home for the first time in several weeks. I have some dead roses from Valentine's Day that have been waiting for me. We have a date on Saturday.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Pocket Frogs and Eco Dyeing
My dear husband gotme an Ipod Touch for Christmas. I am having difficulty learning how to do everything I want to do with it but I found a free game called Pocket Frogs. The good news is that I am on Level 10 now. The bad news is that I have little else to show for my time since Christmas. Just what I need, another addiction.
Brownie also gave me a lovely poinsetta plant. I planned to enjoy it for a while and then see what results I would get wrapping it in silk and boiling it. Well, one of the major branches of the poinsetta broke off so the time schedule got moved up. Here are the results. I love it!
I also had a dozen red roses waiting to be boiled that I got from my hair dresser.. She had gotten them for an anniversay present and I asked if I could have them for a dye project when they were dead. By the time I got them, they were good and dead. That was before Christmas and I was busy so they got put aside. Since I already had a pot of alum water boiling, I wrapped the dried leaves and petals in silk. I wasn't sure what I would get. As you can see no clear leaf pattern but lots of color.
Brownie also gave me a lovely poinsetta plant. I planned to enjoy it for a while and then see what results I would get wrapping it in silk and boiling it. Well, one of the major branches of the poinsetta broke off so the time schedule got moved up. Here are the results. I love it!
Both of the prints were done on white charmeuse silk. I cut the silk 60 inches long and then split it down the middle to make two 60" x 22" scarves. I wrapped the material with white thread before boiling it so that I would have matching thread to give the scarves a rolled hem.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Friday Favorites
This week has been busy with preparing my new blog that is technique driven. We have 9 artists who are willing to take the lead in experimenting with different techniques and to report back. I have the banner and the logo ready to go (you can see the logo on this blog). Another week or so and I will be ready to unfurl the banner, show off the blog, and see if anyone wants to follow it.
Haven't heard anything from the No Holds Barred jury yet but it is very early. I did go on the SAQA site and print off the directions for 3 or 4 more SAQA shows that I might consider entering. I did run across one blog post that said she had entered quilts for 7 years before she got accepted. I hope it does not take me that long.
I love improvisational piecing. I do it between pieces that require attention and fussing and detail work and annoy me to death. It feels like taking off a way too tight corset. I thought I had invented it because I was doing it at home in a vacuum. Now that I am more in the art quilting world I see all these other folks doing it too. Maybe I should have copy-righted the idea years ago when I first thought of it. (LOL) Anyway, Malka Dubrawsky gives 10 tips for improvisational piecing that I thought were really good. The link takes you to the tips in Quilting Arts but Malka has just published her book that gives lots more techniques that she uses in improvisational quilting. I have not seen the book so I can't comment on it but the title is Fresh Quilting: Fearless Colors, Design, and Inspiration.
Speaking of copy-righting my improvisational piecing idea, Kathleen Loomis at Art with a Needle wrote an interesting article on sharing quilts and quilting techniques. You know, this is not the first time I have blogged about Kathleen. I like what she says. I also like that she states it is her opinion and leaves room for others to have opinions that do not agree with hers. I find her posts generally raise questions that I may not have thought of but should consider as I make my way in the art world. What kind of artist do I want to be?
I have tried to ignore Arlee with all her ecodyeing blogs. Yea, it looks interesting but I don't wanna go in that direction. Then I made the mistake of dying that fabric I showed you earlier in the week--the one with the rose leaves and the other one with the mums. Remember? Okay, now I am hooked. What was I thinking? Now I want to strip the woods and yard and see what I get from dyeing with the material. Anyway, Arlee shares with us some more of her experiments with really good directions. Don't look unless you don't mind another addiction. ***sigh***
I found a new blog this week. It is Simply Robin. She has a great tutorial on flat fold fabric dyeing. The process sounds really interesting but it takes a day of hot sun. That is not a problem in Maui where she lives. I live in Maine and it is November. A day of hot weather is probably 7 months away. I will get to snow dye long before I get to try this method. But I do want to try it on the 1 or 2 days of summer we get per year!
And, last but not least, my fellow 5 artist has posted a tutorial on soy wax dyeing. Yes, she makes it sound so simple and the pictures she has posted of the results are so beautiful that I clearly need to go home and heat up my electric skillet. I think that is what we are doing this coming Saturday for our play date.
Haven't heard anything from the No Holds Barred jury yet but it is very early. I did go on the SAQA site and print off the directions for 3 or 4 more SAQA shows that I might consider entering. I did run across one blog post that said she had entered quilts for 7 years before she got accepted. I hope it does not take me that long.
On to Friday Favorites!
Speaking of copy-righting my improvisational piecing idea, Kathleen Loomis at Art with a Needle wrote an interesting article on sharing quilts and quilting techniques. You know, this is not the first time I have blogged about Kathleen. I like what she says. I also like that she states it is her opinion and leaves room for others to have opinions that do not agree with hers. I find her posts generally raise questions that I may not have thought of but should consider as I make my way in the art world. What kind of artist do I want to be?
I have tried to ignore Arlee with all her ecodyeing blogs. Yea, it looks interesting but I don't wanna go in that direction. Then I made the mistake of dying that fabric I showed you earlier in the week--the one with the rose leaves and the other one with the mums. Remember? Okay, now I am hooked. What was I thinking? Now I want to strip the woods and yard and see what I get from dyeing with the material. Anyway, Arlee shares with us some more of her experiments with really good directions. Don't look unless you don't mind another addiction. ***sigh***
I found a new blog this week. It is Simply Robin. She has a great tutorial on flat fold fabric dyeing. The process sounds really interesting but it takes a day of hot sun. That is not a problem in Maui where she lives. I live in Maine and it is November. A day of hot weather is probably 7 months away. I will get to snow dye long before I get to try this method. But I do want to try it on the 1 or 2 days of summer we get per year!
And, last but not least, my fellow 5 artist has posted a tutorial on soy wax dyeing. Yes, she makes it sound so simple and the pictures she has posted of the results are so beautiful that I clearly need to go home and heat up my electric skillet. I think that is what we are doing this coming Saturday for our play date.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)