Ah, first the other stuff. I did spend a few hours in The Studio this week. I printed some fabrics, of which this is one smidgen. I'm really happy with this result and I expect that someday I may even find a use for it . For those of you who print fabric - (and there are more and more of us who are either doing it or want to do it) - are you usually printing with a particular piece in mind that you want it for?Are you filling in where you need something and don't have the right piece? Or do you just print and print and print and collect an inventory, from which you know at some point you will pull enough to make a piece that works?
Here is a detail of a piece I printed the other day that I would love to duplicate, but can't.
This texture is a complete suprise and was an unintended result of my screening process with a flour paste resist. Very cool. Someday it will show up in a piece of my work.
In the meantime, enough for now. I had a busy day with the grands at the Liberty Science Center and I am plum tuckered. I will get to the thing on the wall tomorrow.
8 comments:
I do both, Rayna. But more and more, I like to just create fabric that I will eventually find a use for. Just recently, I had fun combining a piece I made in your class with a discharged piece I had done. It was so great to realize how well they worked together.
I have a dream, where I'll have nothing in the stash, and will create specifically for projects...after all, that's how it works with paint. But it doesn't work that way, after all. I just make the cloth, the way that I feel is right at the time, and then hang onto it until I fall across it, usually looking for something else, and think, I can do something with this... Ring any bells?
When I try to create fabric specifically for a piece, it never turns out the way I want it to turn out and I am most unhappy. Besides, getting all the stuff out for just a short stint of surface design is a big pain. Much better to devote a week or so to just making fabric. Somewhere down the line each piece will find its home.
Agree, agree, agree. Although I must admit that I have occasionally stopped to make a piece of fabric when I am mid-piece, hoping it will work. Sometimes it even does. ANd if not, well - you know the drill.
Rayna, these pieces are great - ESPECIALLY that bottom one! You have achieved what I keep picturing in my head. Luscious beyond words.
Denise
Great questions and great responses. I would love to say that I can plan and execute consistently, but I can't. Sometimes yes, just not consistently. While I think that says something about my level of formal training and experience, I've stopped seeing it as a reflection on my talent or potential. Lately I've just been printing cloth for the joy of it. I'm trying to take time (a day or a week) between layers on any given piece so that I'm able to see/listen to what's going on with the piece, then respond with a meaningful next step. I also find that something that happens with one piece influences what I do with another. Unfortunately, none of this answers the question, "What am I going to with all of this fabric?"
After amassing a huge pile of printed fabrics, I now tend towards making a piece for a specific project. I am also challenging myself to use the UGLIES for backs! Occasionally, though I experiment and end up with some awesome new piece with no particular project in mind. What I most love about surface design is when I give myself the time to go to the basement and dye/paint, etc, I go into such a meditative space. I can work for hours, given I am wearing my orthotics!!!
I create fabric just for the sheer joy of it too. I would like to be able to get to the place where I can create something with a specific project in mind, but not there yet. But I don't seem to have problems using it eventually. Love both pieces in the pictures.
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