studio afternoon

Ahhhhh - happiness. Another drizzly day and an afternoon in the studio. Five of us were there today - and in between working, we had a chance to vent about the disgusting political situation in this country. Frightening! And it doesn't look hopeful, even with the next election.

But on to happier things. Last night, I decided to print a dry thickened dye screen that has been sitting here for several months. This morning, I steamed and washed the fabric before I left for the studio. I wish I could remember what color dye I used because I would love to duplicate the result. But no such luck, of course. I'll have to be content with a one-off. Here are a couple of details: notice how the dye has broken down into a couple of different colors. You just never know what it is going to do. I played "can this fabric be saved?" with a few pieces that needed more work, and I discovered another way to print with wax which pleased me very much. Tomorrow I shall have to experiment some more with it. In fact, I think I may not wait till tomorrow. I'm on a roll - so think I'll go downstairs and play a little bit tonight.

Now that I'm back to work, I am feeling much less grouchy. Last night my caller ID said that our homeowners insurance company was calling. In a completely unusual move, I picked up the phone. You know how you get these nuisance calls where the person says "Hello, Ms. Yockenfloss, this is so-and-so from Company X - how are YOU tonight?" I HATE that. But last night, I asked "are you a real person or a computer?" and the guy cracked up laughing. Well, I had my answer, didn't I? We had a perfectly pleasant conversation and he ended by saying he hoped everybody else he was going to call was as pleasant as I was. Trust me, it was an aberration. I don't know what got into me. A day in the studio, maybe??

o frivolous day

I played. Worked my way through about half the fabrics on the drying rack in my previous post, dye painting, waxing, screening, steaming. It was lovely...even if all the results were not. I didn't care because this is the first day in eons I have frittered away the afternoon just to see what would happen. If the truth be known, many of these were in triage; some still are, even after I worked on them.This one to the left, for example, blah. I screened with wax, stamped,overdyed,discharged, and the result is below.

A few more transformations....this was just plain turquoise.
I screened with wax and dye-painted back into it. This icky piece of red cloth was perfect for another wax experiment. I masked it with blue tape to see what would happen.
Love that blue tape!

This is not as dramatic as I had hoped it would be, but it is still a big improvement.
I may want to go back into it - and it has some nice bits. Needs more wax and more black dye.< And I couldn't resist deconstructing, especially after watching the students all weekend who were printing such divine fabrics. This looked better before I steamed and washed it.Hmmm..

Now I think this one is my favorite.Click on the detail below it for a good look. There are more pieces but I'll leave it here for the time being. Hopefully, these will inspire me.

street art splasher

Remember this? When I was in NY a couple of weeks ago, I took a picture of a mailbox that somebody had dripped paint all over. The mailbox was right outside the art gallery I had just left, but I didn't connect the dots. I just thought it would make a great screen. It did.

However, 10 days after I shot this picture, an article appeared in the NY Times about the protesters who were throwing paint over street art to protest the fact that street art in NY has gone commercial. Huh? Today there was another article saying that the protesters are just throwing paint blobs, handbills, and stinkbombs at street art and galleries without having any real focus for their campaign. It's not clear what they are trying to do. The mailbox must have been a trial run.
I took the screen with me over the weekend and at one point, demo'd how to print with a Thermofax . Here is the result.

On another note, here is my demo piece for the soy wax. I used these items because they are rather graphic illustrations of what you can do, but I think this piece looks too much like others I have printed. Can I get out from under myself?

One more picture I forgot to post. This is what happens when you try to open a plastic container full of dye that has been sitting in the sun and has created a vacuum. Fortunately, I was wearing my oldest, paint-splattered Birks. Don't try this at home. This morning, in my nice hot shower at 78 Sullivan, I gave myself a Reduran pedicure and most of it is gone. Never a dull moment

Sunday at Peters Valley

Sunday morning we plugged in the wax pots outside and I showed the class how to use wax as a resist, both on screens and on fabric. They took to it immediately and went to work with thickened dyes to create some beautiful fabrics.

In the foreground, Russ is working on a piece of fabric which he then took inside and painted with dye in several layers. On this piece, he was applying the wax directly to the fabric. It was still not finished when class ended on Sunday, but I hope he will send me a picture when he gets home.Meantime, in the studio,Ann was working on her fabric. First she applied wax to the fabric. Next, she is printing over the waxed fabric with a waxed screen. Here is what the cloth looks like after a couple of passes with the screen. How yummy!I had only one day in which to throw a ton of information at the class; it was intense. Next year at QSDS, we will have the luxury of an entire weekend in which to explore the exciting possibilities of soy wax. I can't wait!

After class was over, we had an informal show and tell of work people had brought with them. Ann's trunk show of to-die-for nuno felted bags, hats, and garments made me want to run to take a nuno felting workshop as soon as I have a break in my schedule. Here, examples of her gorgeous work. This rug is incredible! It is a combination of felted, shibori'd fabric and cloth printed with deconstructed screens. I would have bought it in a minute if it had been for sale, which it was not. Anne Flora's garments were in the fashion show at the SDA conference and I am so glad I got to see them close-up and in person here.

Here is Russ again, showing his beautiful quilt made with hand-dyed and commercial fabrics. My picture doesn't do it justice. Here, a scroll made with Russ' hand printed fabric - before he discovered deconstructed printing and soy wax batik. He's a natural.
Russ lives in the D.C. area and would love to find a group of kindred spirits for surface design and critique. Please contact me if you are in that area and would like to reach out to him; I'll put you in touch with him. I wish he lived in New Jersey - I would love to invite him into my own group!

At the end of the day, here is what it looks like on Thunder Mountain outside the studio. If this were a painting, it would be too corny for words. But this is real. By 10:00, we had cleaned up the studio and Kerr had set up for Monday's class. We were both wired - and starving, so we drove to the so-called Layton Hotel, 3 miles away, to have some bar food and drinks and unwind. The Layton Hotel is now a bar and upstairs is the proprietor's residence. We closed the place - LOL. It was a wonderful day.

back to real life

and the studio!! I warmed up the frying pan and played with wax again today. The piece below is really a pale lavender and the dye is one of the reds - but it may look brown on your monitor. As I write this, the fabric has stopped spinning in the washer and needs to dry.
I steamed it earlier, along with this piece, which should look very different by the time it comes out of the dryer. Wax and dye on yellow fabric: the dye is rusty red and there are some areas where I mixed the red with some blue I had lying around. After I took this picture, I discharged it and the blue showed up as green. Hmmm. It will probably get a few more layers of something, but I will take it with me as an example for the soy wax class I am teaching this weekend.

Last year, when I was in Columbus, I bought a gorgeous book on Japanese calligraphy. Today, I finally got around to reading it while I sat in the eye doctor's office waiting for my husband to finish with his appointment. Looking at those pictures, I was reminded how much significance there is in the marks we make with our hands, and how much they communicate. More to ponder as I go back to work making some notes for the workshop.

the blues

Blue is a color I rarely use in my work, but lately it has been cropping up in my surface design. In another feeble attempt to clean up the studio tonight, I came across this piece of batik. The good half was sold at QSDS last June, but this isn't bad, either. As I recall, it was quite a time-consuming process and the piece turned out completely differently from the way I had envisioned it. That'll teach me to envision things!

Then I found a piece that I printed as a demo piece when I taught soy wax batik with dyes recently at the John C. Campbell Folk School. Not bad for a demo piece and believe it or not, these two look pretty good together on my wall.
But that's enough for tonight. The pecan and apple cranberry pies are done and ready to make the trip to Brooklyn tomorrow. The cranberry-orange relish is in the refrigerator, the flowers are bought, the bridge table is ready to go out the door, and I am going to bed. Wishing you all a sweet Thanksgiving!

mashers & strainers

I finally plugged in the waxpot and got to work, using some of the implements from yesterday's workshop. Two of the people in the class generously gave me their potato mashers when class was over: they were not going to use them again -- two gifts -- ovals that worked just fine for me and were unlike the ones I already owned. Thanks, Kendall and Diane!!
I started with a piece of green fabric I had dyed and didn't care for and now I like it a lot. I think it needs another layer of something, but I'll have to let it sit for a while till I figure out what. This picture is just one section of the fabric.
The next piece is really nicer than it looks on the monitor. I worked with muted colors - crystal brown that they don't make any more, a pale blue, and pale chino. In class, Arlene had a strainer she had bought in Chinatown but had a hard time getting it to work with the wax. I borrowed it and managed to get some nice patterns. Are they flowers or fireworks? I guess it doesn't matter.

a fun day

Happily, the predicted snow held off till five minutes after class was over today. Hopefully, all the travelers who came from afar have gotten home safely by now. I always worry.
Today was the soy wax workshop at the Arts Guild of Rahway, NJ and we all had fun.

Kendall Storm (below)

and Joanna van Ritbergen

drove down from Westchester County, NY and batik-d and painted their hearts out. I would never have guessed that this was the first time either of them had painted fabric, let alone doing batik. They waxed and painted and waxed and painted and waited till they got home to iron out the wax and wash the fabric - and I hope they will send me pictures when they are done.

Arlene Jacobs, who does all kinds of fiber work and is a member of the NY Textile Study Group, came out from NY City and was nonstop. I think she went home with more completed fabric than anybody! Here she is at work. Diane Carey came the longest distance: a couple of hours drive from somewhere in Northern Pennsylvania on the way to New York State. Diane has pretty much taught herself surface design and you can see the concentration she brings to her work.
And then we have the two musketeers: the famous artist-website designer,Gloria Hansen, and the famous blogger, Mary Manahan, who is looking impatiently at the softball she put into the wax, waiting for it to get hot enough to stamp with. It never did. But hey, you never know. You gotta try everything! Right, Mary? Later in the day, they insisted that I do 'show and tell' and give a lesson in how to wrap fabric for steaming, just in case they decided to use dyes the next time they do batik. Somebody grabbed my camera and made me SMILE while I was showing them this batik piece I did with kitchen implements. Joanna wanted to buy it but I wasn't ready to part with it. However, I will eventually be putting some fabrics for sale on my other blog "Off the Design Wall." I just haven't gotten to it. Been too busy keeping my studio clean. All in all, a good day. I got home before the snow started to stick, but we did stay in tonight and eat leftovers rather than get stuck trying to get up the various hills we have around here.

So glad that tomorrow is Sunday. I have 3 electric skillets that still have wax in them and I simply have to use them up.