July 4th, 2009

So i am working on this commission...I need three colors

avacado/light olive,

peach/salmon/creamy tomato soup and

a yellow that blend with them both.

I have culled from my store bought fabrics all that i have that will work and i am short in all categories.

Here is a picture of a salmon/peach/creamy tomato soup fabric wet, just after screen printing before batching, and afterwards, washed and dried.

Here is a picture of all the salmon/peach/creamy tomato soup fabrics. The one i screen printed a couple of days ago is going to work! I have done a good step-one. I can keep working to finish it up to add to the pile of fabric I'll use. I am going to split this new fabric in half and do two different things with it and then that color will be done.

I am very short of the yellow and green fabrics so that is what i will work on this afternoon before we have to walk down to see the parade at the bottom of our street with all our neighbors.

I got print paste made last night in preparation for screen printing. I have two new screens ready to be used. One with glue resist and one with masking tape resist. I purchased both avacado and light olive colored dye to save time mixing it myself.... Off i go - wish me increasing skill.

July 3

Here are two images of work produced for my city and guilds certificate in design and patchwork. The idea is to basically take a personal image and create a design. Some of the paper hope word are curling up on the edges. I am thankful to have so many days off over the holiday weekend that I can really put some energy into the course.

I haven't progressed much on the dying of fabric for the commission. I did get some new thermofax screens back so that should be some imputus! I have selected some fabrics from my store-bought stash and am making piles so that is a beginning. I love making a piece that uses lots of little bits of lots of fabric to make a whole.

Mid June

So i am trying to dye fabric in the hues of the placemat. I still need more red to make it not so yellow.

I made two new screens. This one is made with ripped masking tape. I will screen through the holes. I may also try to then take off one layer and screen through a striped screen. We'll see how difficult it is to take off one layer of wet masking tape. The other screen has a blue school glue resist pattern, but it doesn't show up because the screen is already multi colored. You'll have to wait to see the results.

The school glue washes out with soap and warm water. I think next I'll do a screen that can be deconstructed.

I sent away three photocopies to have made into thermofax (plastic) screens. Can't wait to get them back to experiment with. Onward and upward.

City and Guilds work

We are working on design work with paper shapes. I have posted three series. Enjoy.

Maybe one day you'll see one of these designs in a quilt i make.

Samples complete

Samples are complete. I have some good ideas here for future projects no matter which one the customer picks! Maybe the customer will have a different ideas too to an ever evolving project.

Stay tuned!

new fabric beginnings

Here are the results from yesterday's dying and screen printing adventures.

One thing i learned is that dye loses it's punch after a week or so of being mixed.

These were so dark when i printed them, and I left them to batch 36 hrs thinking it might not strike as well, but much of the color washed out anyway.

My goal was to get a light, medium, and a dark printing of the same screen on each piece of fabric. I accomplished that but in much lighter tones that originally intended.

I am glad they washed out a bit because that means I can go back and add one or two more darker layers. Sometimes mistakes turn out to actually be blessings in disguise.

These last two are the front and back of the printed fabric. I used an older piece of store bought fabric with a blue marble design already printed on one side. It sort of shows through on the front. It just adds more texture and that faint idea that there is a different color trying to peak through.

The brown/gold twirls are printed on a fabric that has gold sea shells already printed on it too,

but they match the color of the dye so closely they don't show up as well. So all these pieces are back in the soda ash bucket soaking. They will hand to dry overnight so i can screen print on them again tomorrow.

Samples

These are samples for a wall hanging I will be making. I will be able to finish them up to hang as a group of three or five (I have one more to make) or sold as singlets. The vote thus far indicates that the circle one is the favorite. What would you vote?

One person also thought that the last picture that looks like waves could be hung vertically and made in blues and it would be a waterfall. I think any of them could be turned around vertically or even upside down- what ever suits your eye preference.

The thing i find exciting is that many of the fabrics are ones that I created! I look at them and say, "This started as a piece of white fabric and i can remember the five steps it took to get all this color and texture on to it!"

I screen printed a bunch more pieces yesterday. Step one. I have washed them out this evening and and I'll post pictures of them after they dry overnight.