Yes....I still do textile work! This piece is now ready for some hand stitching with some nice chunky natural linen thread. I surface designed all the cloth used in this piece by dyeing, gelatin printing, silk screening, breakdown printing, painting, discharging and/or a couple of other treatments that I can't remember right now.

I dyed this small piece of cotton cloth over the weekend too. It's about 8x10" and was just the piece of cloth I used to experiment with. Sometimes the rag cloth becomes a ragged treasure.

This is a piece of silk cloth with dyed with breakdown printing, silk screening and overdyeing. Do you see the egg? It's about 20x20" so a nice larger size. I think I'm going leave it as a whole cloth piece and add stitching and enhancements.

I took a found 8x10" frame, overpainted it and added this 4x6" piece secured on a metallic board. If you click on the photo you can better see the hand stitching & beading on the piece that was added to the silk organza overlaying a piece of cotton. This was hard to photograph but it really does look great in person.

The two photos above are closeups of 2 scarves I dyed, silk screened, stamped and discharged. I have some of these to sell since the Didn't-Use-Good-Judgement Show Coordinator from yesterday's outside art show didn't do what we all wanted her to do......use the rain date of today to hold the show since yesterday was a dismal dreary rainy type of day. Today is clear blue sunny skies. What was she thinking? Obviously not much associated with vendors needing customers in order to have sales. Sheesh.

Rainy Sunday

Today I made French Toast with Blueberry Maple Syrup for breakfast, my husband made a blueberry pie, I froze some green beans (we have them coming out of our ears) and then made some split pea soup. Industrious, huh?

I also took a silk screen I had made of one of my designs, printed it on a gelatin plate and then printed it onto 2 gelatin prints I had done awhile ago. Industrious, huh?

Next I'm going to start work on that fabric paper I make because I've forgotten how special this stuff is. Yesterday at the Pine Bush Art Walk I was reminded when person after person seems fascinated with how it looks. Industrious, huh?

Trial

I put together the piece above last night using some of the fabric I had dyed, discharged and silk screened.

Then I stage it on top of another piece of cloth I had created. Do you think it works with that background cloth? I kind of like the unexpectedness of the colors and the overall tribal type of feeling it has. I'd love to hear your opinions.

Where has the last week gone? All of a sudden it's Thursday and while I've put in what feels like a million hours at my day job I haven't done much creative work. Last night I was able to burn a new screen and tried it out this morning. I think the mesh I used has too loose a weave or maybe the paint is too runny but I was able to realize some success with the screen.

Now it's time to go off to the land of too many uninteresting problems to solve, too many egos jockeying for position and too much stress for this sensitive soul. But it does help to pay the bills....a very good thing!

I think these primitive images will become a silk screen. I can see them on a piece of cloth with lots of hand stitching.

It Worked!

Yesterday I spend time creating my first silk screen using the drawing in the post below, photo emulsion, sensitizer, a bright light and a dark room...and was successful! Today I started using the screen on a cloth that had gone through 3 dye baths. I am very happy with the results. Another new technique...oh, how sweet it is!

What does this image look like to you? I drew this while sitting and relaxing (relaxing is not something that comes my way too often so I savor it when it can happen). I'm going to try and make a silk screen with this over the weekend - the real way with emulsion, a transparency and a bright light. I'll post the results if I'm successful.

A small piece I made using scraps and bits of fabric that I gelatin printed, silk screened, shiva sticked, discharged, dyed and otherwise altered. Good weekend, everyone. I intend to savor every minute.

Experiment

What happens when you screen print on silk organza? All kinds of very cool layers that retain an ethereal effect. This morning I had a 'what if?' moment when I grab a piece of silk organza, some paints and a thermofax screen. Not only are there possibilites for layering on top of other cloth (this is shown on some of my gelatin and screen printed cotton fabrics) but I'm 'what if?' thinking about how different printed pieces would look secured with matte medium on an artist's canvas. More on that experiment later.

Altering Day Today

Gesso'd cloth, silk screen images via thermofax screens, textile & acylic paints all altered with rubbing alcohol. This might just end up as the piece for the SAQA trunk show and the 12x12" piece I plan to donate to the SAQA art auction later in the year. Next step will be to add a bit of copper (maybe gold?) foiling.