home again

Today's flight home took off a few minutes early from Detroit and got into Newark 1/2 hour early. Of course, it took 1/2 hour for the luggage to come so it was rather a wash, but I am in my chair, feet up, having had food and drink; feeling relaxed. Sunday's Class Soy wax class yesterday was the usual fun. For a variety of reasons, we worked with paint instead of dye but many of the people are dyers and will work with dyes at home. Yesterday's classroom was in a chemistry lab so there were plenty of outlets(we didn't blow a single fuse with all the irons and wax pots) and sinks. It's always fun to put faces to on-line "voices" and I was delighted to find out that Lynn Krawczyk had signed up for this class! Linda had some great things to stamp with and everybody was borrowing some of her goodies.The biggest hits were these two guys and I think the chicken feet took first place for funniest thing to stamp with. June stamped with an aluminum ashtray on which she had constructed a handle. Here's the wax stamped onto the fabric. and here, after she had applied the paint, dried the cloth and ironed out the first of the wax. This is Gertraud's patchwork wax piece - a different, more structured approach than her others. As usual, the variety was staggering and I can't remember at the moment who created what - but all the pieces were wonderful. There were so many others that I couldn't photograph all of them. I asked the class to send me pix of their pieces after they've been ironed/washed/ironed. A Plea for Help Before I sign off, I have to put in a plug for the ALS Quilt Raffle that Dawn Goldsmith of Subversive Stitchers is spearheading. Her husband has ALS - an incurable wasting disease that is simply heartbreaking. I have lost a member of my extended family, a friend of my mother's, and a young man who was the son of someone who worked with Marty. I am asking you as a personal favor to join me in contributing to desperately needed research for this devastating disease by purchasing quilt raffle tickets from the Florida ALS Association. They are in the last week of this quilt raffle and have only raised $455 out of their goal of $1,000. There were some problems with the ALS site where tickets are being sold; I persisted and was successful, but if you have problems with it, please donate by mail or phone to help save lives from this disease that has no cure. Here is the information if you want to donate by phone. Patti Palmer Events Coordinator The ALS Association Florida Chapter 3242 Parkside Center Circle Tampa, FL 33619 Ph: 813-637-9000 Ext. 111 Fx: 813-637-9010 Cell: 813-205-5566 Toll Free: 888-257-1717 Ext. 111 Thanks in advance for your generosity! Now I am going to read. I started "The Help" on the plane and can't put it down.

messy

When I read this comment tonight on C&T's blog from an artist who took my class a couple of months ago, I hooted! A dubious distinction -- but true. "Rayna is the messiest teacher I’ve ever taken a class with…and it is really very fun to just throw the fabric around, glop paint all over and make a big mess (I’m still wearing my gloves though!)" My most recent mess was with soy wax and dyes -- and the six artists in class made drop-dead gorgeous fabrics. I didn't get a picture of Susan Callahan (Chef Susan, who used to post on QuiltArt years ago) but she came up from Maryland for the class and came with her sister Cindy, who is a spinner/weaver ready for something new. Cindy and Susan both have a great color sense -- here are some of their fabrics drying.Cindy is contemplating what to do next and this ended up being the fabric above, right. Brenda Schlechter and Janet Hopkins shared a table and Janet is admiring the fabric she printed with the tjanting after it came out of the steam pot. Sujatha used to do traditional batik in India and wanted to learn to use soy wax, so she came today and had a wonderful time. Sharing her table is Jill Williams, who is moving from traditional to quilting and is soaking up as many surface design and other processes as possible. She's really excited about moving to the art side of quilting and is dying to connect with other "art quilter wannabes" (as she put it) in Northern NJ. If you're out there, let me know and I'll put you in touch with Jill. Here is one of Jill's that we all thought was a beautiful composition. More pieces from everyone, drying on the floor. The colors are simply glorious! Sujatha has already posted the pix of these cotton napkins she batik'd and I hope everyone else will send me images of their work (and what they do with it) when it's finished. I started to write this blog on Sat. night but was too tired to finish it, so it is finally getting posted a day late.

rain, rain, go away

November is here and it's only September. The air is in the 60's and as I sit here near the open window I can hear the drumming of the drops on the roof of my car. It rained all day - a good day to stay in bed. But I was up and in the studio, setting up for my soy wax class tomorrow. It took me most of the day, since I had to rearrange the tables to be near the outlets and to do that, I had to move stuff that was already there. Ah, well - since I didn't walk this morning because of the rain, pushing tables around was my exercise for the day. Here is my 4x8 piece of Celotex on 3 sawhorses. It's a tabletop that I can pin right into and it is light enough to dismantle if I need to.(in theory) This view is looking toward my "gallery" wall from my roommate's side of the studio. I'll do my demo work here and two people will work on the other side of the table.This view is of the back wall (see the press and the Thermofax, left rear). I've pushed two tables together and four people can work here and share the large electric skillet. Before I left, I hung a bunch of my own batiks on the wall so the class could see what the possibilities are. Then I'll take them down and we'll use the design wall as a clothesline. There is plastic on the carpet where it meets the wall. Dyes are mixed, there is plenty of soda ash water, and all I have to do is pick up the donuts (aren't I nice?) and make a pot of coffee when I get there. My blue piece is almost finished - except for the edges -- but there are two in line ahead of it to be stitched.

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

back to real life

and back to 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.