Day 13 continued

Ok, so to catch up with the work I have been puttering around on these past couple of days.
Remember I had two yards that were from break down screen printing...
I split those two yards each in half after the first batching was done.
One half of each piece I tray dyed and one half I printed on some more.
Here is the brown/yellow piece-














Here is the process for the piece on the left:
Step one: Break down screen printing then screen printing of the curvy lines.
Step two - tray dying
Here is the process for the piece on the right.
Step one is the same as for the one on the left.
Step two is additional screen printing with a spiral shape in three or four colors- plum, green, blue


Here is the blue/green piece














Here is the process for the piece on the left.
Step one: breakdown screen printing
Step two: tray dying
Here is the process for the piece on the right.
Step one same as above
Step two: I used two screens to print; one for the blue corn flowers and one for the curved lines. I used three different colors for the curved lines- plum/red, blue, and green. The larger green dots were from the breakdown printing.

The pieces I printed all over a second time still have a lot of white fabric left in them so rather than tray dye them I am going to continue printing and see what other colors I can add before I scrap the back of the whole piece with a contrasting color.

The piece I put glue dots all over and then screen printed dark green....well I tray dyed that a light green and here is a picture of the results. There is still some room in the fabric to add some more color. I am going to hang this up on my design wall and see what color I think I might want to add in. I might split it and do two different things with it too just to experiment.










Two things I have gotten from my husband of almost three years:
"It is just an experiment. Try and see what happens."
So liberating!
"Prepare for the worst and hope for the best."
I find myself using this statements all the time.

I don't make new year's resolutions I pray and ask God what character quality he wants me to focus on for the coming year. That is what I am doing today. What character quality would be a good one to meditate and pray about for this year? I have done thankfulness, love, & self control in past years----I am thinking peace- the peace that comes from God and surpasses our understanding. I have become aware of a lot of anxiety still lurking around in my this past semester.... I'll let you know.
I just found this blog from Christine Kane that encourages you to pick a word for the year. Same kind of idea.

Day Four

Today I did break down screen printing first. The picture on the left is the first printing of the screen. The picture on the right is the second printing of the screen with additional screen printing over top. I used a separate thermofax screen to add the wiggly lines. I am excited about how these turned out. The next step is to tray or bucket dye them after they finish their overnight batching.

Next I used Elmer's school glue and applied it as dots all over this 1/2 yard of fabric. These dots will act as a resist when I screen print over them. The glue is water soluble so it will wash out after it has batched from the screen printing.

















This is what the prep for the shibori piece looks like and helps explain why it is taking so long to prepare! I have completed the oval stitching and all I need to do is pull the strings and draw each oval tight- gather them. Then I will tray dye.

I did a couple of other things but they are batching and I will take pictures tomorrow after they get cleaned up.

It is trying to get warmer here. I have three pieces I am waiting to iron outside so the toxic fumes won't overcome all of us in the house. I have to wear a respirator outside to do this job. I can't wait to see how my ideas turned out!


Until tomorrow...
Karen