back in the studio

Well with the festive season over and me almost being baked out (only almost, I do actually enjoy a bit of baking etc just the washing up one creates can be somewhat tiresome) anyway I've been enjoying my return to the studio with a little bit of playtime. A while ago I purchased a box of water-soluble wax pastels (Neocolor II by Caran d'Ache) and have really enjoyed using them in my sketchbooks. So it was time to have a bit of a play onto fabric. I started with a piece of leftover upholstery fabric and added some color to the rose pattern that was already printed on the fabric. I then moved onto a  couple of leftover pieces I had from when I was practicing using the gel medium method to transfer digital images onto fabrics. While the images hadn't transferred the way I was envisaging at the time, I liked the texture and shading the imperfect image transfer had created so I had popped the pieces aside for one day. And this week is my one day week. The above images are the progress thus far. I'm really enjoying working with the crayons, being soft they don't pull the fabric as much and I also really like their vibrant colors.

product play - tumble dyes

A few weeks ago I purchased some Tumble Dyes and a couple of stencils from Susan Pietsch of  Essential Textile Art while at the ATASDA social day. It was a really nice day we met up at Mount Tamborine in the Gold Coast Hinterland area. We enjoyed a couple of demonstrations and lots of wonderful show n tell by members as part of the show case table. I've been exploring how the dyes work

the dyes come in spray bottles the instructions on the back of the bottles are very clear

But you basically just pick your color, shake the bottle first and then start spraying  

 and of course I went over board with the first piece and used every color and stencil purchased

and didn't allow drying time between overlapping the colors so it became a little murky - but I had a ton of fun creating it. And then I became a bit more focused

using a tree stencil and the carbon colored dye I sprayed the first tree, 

lifted the stencil covered the area with a piece of paper and then sprayed the next tree

using the tree stencil again and laying it onto a piece of light weight Lutradur I sprayed the piece using the carbon colored dye. When the piece was dry I've laid it over a couple of my digital images of our macadamia nut tree that I've printed onto fabric

 This time when I was cleaning up I had a few squares of cotton fabric which I slightly pressed to the top side of the stencils before lifting everything off. I quite like the softer image that results. 

 I've enjoyed using the Tumble Dyes and envisage using them again. 

Susan has a couple of examples of how she's used the Tumble dyes on her blog.

friend or foe - a matter of perspective

As well as working on my pieces for the up-coming exhibition, we've also been catching up in the garden and of course the camera is never far away. This time it's been the pesky weeds that have had center stage. I stumbled across some information on edible weeds while researching companion planting. Who would have thought that some weeds actually have alternative uses. So camera in hand I've captured some shots, printed them onto fabric (using the Ink Aid method) went through my fabric stash, picked out a few floral prints and now working them into a collage. Apparently the following are just a few of the possible culinary delights: Dandelion, Purslane, chickweed, stinging nettle (once cooked the tiny hairs on these leaves are no longer an irritant), chicory and even one of the most annoying weeds in the garden is edible - the cobblers pegs (apparently an Aztec herb) One must always remember to correctly identify these plants before plunging in for a feast as some have similar looking cousins that are definitely not safe to consume.

product play - ink aid

When I'm putting together my art quilts I often incorporate photos I've taken or images of scanned drawings into the layouts. I use a few different methods to transfer the images onto fabric and each method has it's positives and negatives and alters the handle of the fabric differently. I'm using an ink jet printer so the fabrics need to be prepared which enables them to firstly run through the printer and secondly hold the ink. For my current project I'm using a product called "Ink Aid(TM)-White Matt Precoat" to prepare the fabrics.

I particularly like using Ink Aid when I'm wanting to print onto colored fabric or do mono-printing over the top of the images once they have been printed. I've found that the handle of the fabric becomes stiffer but is still very easy to sew through. The instructions on the bottle are very clear and easy to follow. Following the instructions and doing a couple of sample pieces is always a good place to start and then play and explore from there.

The Lantern has been printed onto a patterned black (quilting weight) fabric with the second coat of Ink Aid(TM) not being applied evenly, I wanted some of the the fabric pattern to show through and the image not to be so clear/precise. The flowers down the side of the Lantern have been printed onto white homespun which had been prepared with 2 coats of the Ink Aid(TM). The Dandelion flower has been printed onto light blue cotton poplin which was prepared with two coats of Ink Aid(TM). All prepared pieces were then cut to A4 size and stabilized with freezer paper before running through the printer.