why I need to iron

When I am at an impasse and absolutely nothing is happening on the creative front, I know it is time to iron my fabric. Last night was one of those times.

First, I moved my table, which was against the wall, so it sticks out into the room. Not as space-efficient but at least I am facing the window. Last night, I ironed for about two hours and this is how far I got.
I realized that if I did nothing but iron my bins of printed fabric 24/7 for the next year, I would still not make a dent. So why am I still printing? (rhetorical question).

But back to the topic at hand: every time I iron (and I am sure I am not the only one) I see combinations I hadn't seen before and I start auditioning - throwing cloth at the wall to see what sticks, what works, what looks terrible, what has potential, and what I should throw into the - GASP - trash.

How do you work? This is how I work - and it is a slow process. If I'd taken pictures of all the possibilities I had with the fabric on the left, you'd fall asleep, so here are just two versions.


Then, I always find double-sided fabrics because I had not liked what I had printed, turned it over, and printed on the other side. These are always a revelation. Here's what I consider to be the front. The first layer, from what I can tell, was gelatin printed. Then I screened over it and it looks like I used a hand-carved stamp.

Here is the obverse. Looks like it was stamped with found objects and then I went in with the syringe.

And I came across this piece of fabric, stamped & stenciled with household objects and then syringed. Oh, how cute: what was I thinking? This is the other side.

It was obvious to me that this needs to be horizontal. But now what? Guess I'll have to play with it. But for the time being, it is in that pile on my table and tonight, it will be joined by whatever I iron after dinner.
Today I am packing supplies (for a change) and I think my much-needed break is over. For those of you who asked, Marty's eye is coming along and things are improving a teeny bit every day.