Zowie! Time to blog

Ha! I started this post last night and was too tired to finish it.  Here it is, Friday morning and I am determined to post before life gets in the way again.

I've been working all week on something that I need to send out FedEx tomorrow and it is a miracle that I have finished it.  This has been a week of non-stop activity and concomitant stress, but I managed to get in a few hours at the studio and another few hours with some new friends at an old friend's house. Much time spent in my sewing room/office doing office things and no sewing. Oh, well.

The few hours in the studio gave me time to print four scarves, which I had dyed a long time ago and were waiting for the next step..  My scarves are a seemingly endless process, but here are a few pictures.  They had all been dyed a pale blue, but I had apparently added orange to this one and it ended up a murky sort of orange-blue-beige.

The alphabet was left over from a deconstructed screen I had made just before this and there was enough dye left to stamp with. Then I screen printed over it. Again and again and again.

  

This already has two layers on it, using 5 or 6 different screens, but wasn't there yet.

You can see the 3rd layer here, made with one last screen.  All the graffiti and 9 out of 10 images are from my own photos or marks on paper.Ditto the textures.  Occasionally, a copyright free image -- but those are rare and honestly, I prefer my own from start to finish.

I think I must be insane to put all this work into my scarves. But I must admit, I get sucked in by the process and the challenge of making each one different.  And I can't resist the graffiti look.

 This one has a different feel, despite working with whatever limited colors I had on hand.  I took this picture years ago of an elegant old woman with a cane, walkng her dog on Fifth Ave. in NY. The text is from a poem I wrote many years ago, and the trees and lines are from my own photos.  Too much work!

 And finally, this one.  I printed the first layer of squares and lines, now pale because I hated them and washed them out immediately. Hung the scarf up to dry, then went back in with the more vivid layers. The mesh image is the same one I used on the graffiti scarf, but a piece of paper had accidently stuck to the screen so I left it there and used it as a resist.  Serendipity; I couldn't have done it on purpose.

Five layers on this one, too. Now you know all my secrets.  The joy is in the process, but also in the unplanned results.  Unfortunately, there is no way to do them faster. And because of LIFE getting in the way of art, I did not have these available in time for Mother's Day gifts. But that's the way it goes.

 Now, back to the business of going to the bank, paying bills, and sending out supply lists.  OH - I almost forgot: Due to requests yesterday, I'm scheduling a spur of the moment one day screenprinting class (not Thermofax) on Monday, May 17th in my studio.  I have 3 spaces left.  Yes, it's last minute but if you are in driving distance of Northern NJ and want to take it, contact me. If it's filled, I will try to schedule another one or two over the summer.