Which Border Fabric

I have to choose which fabrics I will use for the border of this new piece. Any suggestions? The flower fabric material may fit more with the rest of the fabrics but is very traditional. The dotted green, gold and plum one sure is more fun/funky. Would embellishments of yellow french knots all along the green insets make it work better? Seeing the pictures helps me see that the yellow isn't necessary! That is good to discover! By the way the green cross insets and the plum surrounding the squares is fabric I made in class with Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan! I think I am onto something here.














This next picture is of some photo copy's that I am going to send off to have a thermo fax screen made from. When I use the thermo fax screen to print from, the color will come through where ever you see black now. I will be able to add color using all these different textures or take off color by screening with formosol. I am actually sending off 8 items so you'll have to stay tuned to see what other fun textures I can add and take away from fabric.....I am getting ready to place a big order for my birthday of fabric dye and assorted creative items from Pro Chem. Waiting, waiting wont' be long until I am 50!
Getting back into the studio after a long break - Even if it is one day a week that will keep the juices flowing. I didn't get to my writing goals today, but maybe tomorrow.

Nancy Crow Barn Trip

Here are some pictures of cloth I made at the course I took with Leslie Morgan and Claire Benn at the Nancy Crow Barn. Some of these pieces of fabric are "done" and some need some more work. Each piece was white when I started. I first tray dyed the white fabric one yellow, one green and one plum and after they batched and dried I cut each one in half and did different techniques on each piece. I hung all the pieces up on my design wall at home so you can see everything all at once. My goal for the week was to create a pallet of cloth in the colors of plum, green and gold.






This piece is a larger piece that could be the background for a piece of compositional cloth. Some of my classmates were working on composition on a single piece of fabric rather than creating a series of pieces of fabrics that matched that they could cut up and then piece together. I hope to go back in 2010 when Leslie and Claire return to work on some compositional cloth. I am intrigued.
I made the stencil I used on this piece with dressmaker's interfacing painted with house paint. Where ever there is no paint is where the print paste comes through and prints my design. It looks like sea weed to me at the moment.


On these two pieces below I used the same maple seed stencil. The one on the left I printed a dyed piece of yellow with three or four different shades of the same dye print paste to get depth. The green fabric on on the right I use formosol to take color off the fabric. Pretty cool huh?! This piece of plum fabric is tray dyed and then discharged. I had made a stamp out of string wrapped around a CD. I stamped this in black on a piece of paper then photocopied it and enlarged it. Then we made a thermofax screen with the photocopy. I could then screen print paste or formosol through the screen. I can now go back and add more color or discharge more or add a different texture with another screen or mark making tool. This is a not done yet piece. The fun is in the process. I might call one piece of fabric done but next year when I go to use another piece of that same fabric I might have to alter it again to match the next grouping it is placed with.

This next fabric is shibori dyed. I made lots of tiny knots with string all over the faabric and then I put it in for an overnight tray dye in plum. Then I scraped the back with several colors or print paste. Where the white fabric was left without color new color was added.

This fabric was made by using a break down screen printing on white fabric then batching overnight.Then I scraped plum on one side and batched over night then the final step is screen printing the darker design all over the top. I tried to use several different shades of the same color but they didn't show up as well as I would have liked. I think it needs one more darker screening of the same pattern or maybe a different pattern.