Friday, October 21, 2005

responses to comments

Pat Dolan made a couple of comments which I figured I might as well respond to: "discharge paste??? tell us more." Ah, discharge paste which I used on my faded black t-shirt. Jacquard makes it and you can buy it anywhere they sell dyes. You paint it on and then steam-iron it, using parchment paper or newspaper (if you are using wax). It smells absolutely vile when you are steaming it and you really should do it ouside and/or wear a darth vader mask. As you steam iron it, the color comes out, and you can control the way it looks by how long you iron it for. I did this on my kitchen table after I opened the entire sliding glass door to the deck and the front door. It still stank. Or stunk. Or smelled awful. But it worked. The alternative is Thiox, which you mix yourself and which smells just as bad - so don't bother. Another alternative is bleach, which will destroy your fiber unless you soak it in cold water and then anti-chlor which you purchase from ProChem or a similar product from Dharma, or a chlorine neutralizer from a swimming pool supply company. Do NOT even think about using bleach or a bleach pen without anti-chlor or your fabric will ultimately be in shreds. And no, vinegar is not a substitute. Anti-chlor is inexpensive and lasts forever because you use only about 1/2 tsp at a time. Off my soapbox, now. Most of my stained t-shirts are printed, either with thermofax screen images or gelatin plate prints or screened with found objects -- or a combination. The first time I dyed/screened a white shirt we had been to an Indian restaurant and I had gotten a yellow stain on it. Dyed the whole thing yellow and screened on it in purple and I was off and running. So, yes, I advise you all to do the same. What the hell - otherwise they'll be rags for washing the car. "Hey, move your dyeing studio upstairs, outside or to the garage and just keep on going! " As my late mother-in-law said, ''tell it to the marines." Hahahaha. Come visit me some time, Patty. Actually, I wash all my equipment out in the kitchen sink because my sink in the basement is in the guest bathroom and it is too dainty. OUTSIDE?? I live in a townhouse condo, so that would be my teensy deck, most of which is taken up with a gas grill. If I lived in a warm climate, maybe. And the garage? We have the smallest one-car garage on the planet and my husband's car lives there. So, if I am to become a famous fabric designer I will have to be single. My dear husband claims that he lives with 3 other people and they are all named Rayna. He also claims that he has 3 feet of space in the bedroom (not true, he has 2 feet of space). His work surface at night and on weekends is the kitchen table. But enough about this. On another subject...I guess I've joined the fabric postcard brigade. I was up till 2:am working on the 4"x6"s and I think I'm finally getting into it. I made a postcard for laura cater-woods' Art Doing Good auction and now I've made a few more. Not all the pix came out -- I have had this digital camera for a few years and still can't take good close-ups. But here are a few that did come out ok. I am taking these and a few others to Houston with me. But over this weekend, before I leave, I really need to put facings on a couple of other large pieces I may need for my solo exhibit, which I am hanging the day after I get back. Not the greatest timing, but what can I say? 11:15 p.m. and I have work to do.

4 comments:

Pat Dolan said...

Hey, I love the orange one! If you sell it to me now -instead of to someone else in Houston, I'll send you or Laura my check made out to the Red Cross. Seriously. As Mary M. has said, I love almost anything orange...

As to townhouse living, I totally understand since I live in one, too. But we have a 3 bedroom one so my husband actually does have one room for all his stuff! However, I have the livingroom - told him before we moved that I was taking the largest room in whatever house we bought to be my studio. And so I did. People are assaulted with my colorful mess right at the front door. And the diningroom is fair game, since we never use it - it's merely an extention of the studio. What can I say. Without my space & my art, my man won't want to live with the woman I would become!

And thanks for the info on discharge paste - and, of course, it's the wrong time of year to even think about creating smelly messes in the house! I may just have to do it anyway. Well, the garage is fair game for such a project while the spouse is off to work!

Pat Dolan said...

Hey, you have a basement!!! We don't have that luxury in our townhouse! After last weeks rains, a basement would have surely been flooded since we live at the edge of a swamp... so I guess I'll be content with my townie after all.

Rayna said...

Yipes, it really isn't orange - it more pink. Must be your monitor. But I'll keep your tastes in mind when I make another one, Pat.

My great room is the only neat one in the house. So, I'll just stay put and keep moaning about it.

Micki said...

great postcards.

soup weather in June and a little more

DISCLAIMER: Blogger is giving me grief tonight, which you will see by the varying sizes of the type. Ye p, soup weather and it's ...