Showing posts with label surface design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label surface design. Show all posts

Thursday, July 05, 2007

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.


Tuesday, July 03, 2007

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.


Monday, April 16, 2007

finally - time to post

My week teaching at Art Quilt Claremont is just too much fun! The food is good, the hotel is gorgeous, and the company is great.

The class feels like one big party - and I am thrilled with the fabric they are printing. The first two days were nonstop surface design and just look at some of these pieces! Amazing that some of the artists in the class had never even printed before. Here are some of them at work.

And here is some of the fabric they - and others - produced.






Evenings have been busy, too - but more about that in another post.