Play date #2: parfait dye and deconstructed silk screen print

I didn't want to print all my deconstructed silk screen onto white fabric so I parfait (jar) dyed some pieces with various shades of pink and purple before printing them.  The purple is hardly noticeable but the pink is definitely loud and proud.  Here are some results with the deconstructed silk screen print on top.

Next post I will show you the results from the gelatin monoprints I made.  The ones I made on the organza are my favorite.

Play date #2 Deconstructed Silk Screen Results

Two nights before the play date, Thursday night, I made a gallon of Dye Print Paste and a cup of Soda Ash Fixative using Jane Dunnewold's recipe on  page 54 of Art Cloth. 

The night before our play date, Friday, I mixed a teaspoon of chartruese dye into a cup of dye paste and then applied it to the silkscreen.  Under the screen I had put bubble wrap and silk flowers and pieces of cardboard and other stuff that would leave lines and shapes when I spread the dye paste.

Saturday during our play date I mixed a cup of dye print paste with a teaspoon of the fixative.  First we used the print paste without any added dye.  It made fabulous chartruese marks on the cloth.  After a few passes, we added a teaspoon of blue dye to the mixture and pulled some more passes.  The results were even better.  Here are a couple of pictures.

Here are two layers--the same piece as above but with a layer of silk screened organza on top.

And here is a close-up.

Playdate #2 Pounded metal and CitraSolv

Saturday was the second play date for Rosalita, Beth, and me.  We started out with Beth teaching us some of her jewelry making skills.  She loaned me her little anvil so I could pound on metal. 

Here is a large bead that I have captured with the techniques I learned from Beth and the video I featured a couple of Friday's ago.  It certainly is not done well enough for a piece of jewelry but I think it will look great on a quilt (not as blurry in person).

Beth also showed us how to transfer pictures to fabric using CitraSolv and told us her local connection for where to buy it--Belfast Coop.  Wooo Hooo!  I had wanted to try it but hadn't found the product locally yet.  This is a picture of trees I took, copied, and rubbed with CitraSolv onto hand dyed sea mist green fabric.

Here are Beth's instructions.
1.  Copy the desired picture using a carbon-based copier.
2.  Place the copied picture face down on a piece of fabric and hold tightly in place.
3.  Wet the back of the picture with CitraSolv using a cotton ball or somethig similar.
4.  Rub the back with a spoon or something similar.
5.  Lift up an edge to see if the picture transfered evenly or if you need to rub some more.
6.  Lift up picture when you are satisfied with the transfer.
7.  Let air dry then iron to set.
8.  The same picture can be used multiple time for increasingly lighter shadows.
9.  A note from my experience--don't use the Citrasolv on top of a plastic tablecloth (Tablecloth will melt)
Next couple of blogs will have the process and results for our deconstructed silk screen and gelatin monoprint.

Friday Favorites

Before I tell you about my inspirations for this week, let me talk about my experiment from last week's favorite.  I tried rusting some hinges--well, material using the hinges. I put the hinges in a large plastic bag in my broiler pan.  I laid the material folded in four over the hinges.  Then I poured a mixture of water/vinegar over the material and sprinkled some salt on the material over the hinges. Then I zipped it up to keep it wet and waited for 24 hours.

Here is the results-all 4 layers.  The black is from where the wet material is laid over the pan.  Not quite what I wanted but interesting enough to use.  I think I might dye the white background before quilting.  What do you think of a pale turquoise?

Okay, for this week's inspiration. 

Sarah Ann Smith, author of Thread Work Unraveled, shares some of the hints she gives in her class in Arizona.  This post instructs you to knot and bury your threads.  If you search her blog you will find a lovely tutorial for how to do that using a couple of easy methods.

Elizabeth Barton is one of my favorite artists.  I like her style alot!  In this blog she shares her inspiration for a quilt and the design steps and thoughts she went through as she edited her design.  That  type of stuff (what I should be thinking about as I am designing) is so much what I need to learn as I grow!  It was nice of Elizabeth to share.

Quilter Beth tried two different recipes for a flour paste resist and shows us her results. I have yet to try it but I love the piece she did where she wrote in the resist. I defintely want to try that and will use the heavier paste that Beth recommends.

Sujata Shah at The Roots Connection has pieced a wonderful free pieced quilt and tells you how to sew wonky blocks together without resorting to a straight ruler and 90 degree corners.  I love the Gee-Bend feel of this type of quilt!

Pat Bishop tells us the recipe she used to dye the lucious damask linens.  She makes it sound so easy. That is my type of dyeing!  I don't call myself the accidental dyer for nothing.  Tee Hee

After bribing Riley, Bea's grand daughter from The Dog in the Hole Studio, I magically won "Art Cloth" that Bea gave away to celebrate her 1,000th blog.  It arrived today looking like this.  Doesn't that look like a celebration?

Already I am inspired!  I followed the recipe on page 54 and made a gallon of dye print paste and a cup of soda ash fixative.  Boy, am I ready for my silkscreen printing date with Bea and Rosalita on Saturday!

Two more destined for Mile of Art

 Rocks on the Beach

(same beach as the feathers)
This was my first experiment of wire wrapping rocks with instructions from the website listed in Friday Favorites.  I need to get better but I like the effect!  If you are wondering, the edging is a really cool very thin copper wire ribbon.  I wish I had bought more of it!  I still need to design a copper hanger for the piece.

Sunny Day

(Here is was before I added some finishing touches)
My local Walmart had a bag of odds and ends of silk flowers--you know, the ones that had come detached from the sprays of flowers.  The whole bag only cost $1.00.  My kind of bargain.  This is my first incorporation of some of the flowers into a quilted piece.