Off To Fabrications!

On Sunday morning, I leave for a week-long workshop at Fabrications in Kalamazoo, MI., with Carol Soderlund called Color-Mixing For Dyers. I'm excited to go and while I wanted to pretend I was on vacation all this week, my work ethic just wouldn't let me, so things got done!

Two 1-yard x 45" pieces of white Pimatex cotton got the deconstructed screen printing treatment.

After printing this piece off, I was sure it would be my favorite coming out of the washing machine.

And I am pleased with the results.

(36" x 45"- a little blurry, sorry!)

(detail)

It has some nice details, but once it was washed, dried and ironed, it looked a little blah to me. Not sure what will happen with it, next, but that will have to come after my retreat!

The second piece I deconstructed this week, which I forgot to photograph before I wrapped it up for batching, looked when it went into its plastic package like it could just wind up a blobby mess of ugly color. I held out hope that it would still wash out beautifully, but I was blown away by the result I actually got.

(36" x 45")

I used the same screen on both pieces, allowing the first few pulls on the turquoise/black piece pictured above to help soften up the dyes, and then moving it to this piece. 

The screen was constructed easily enough. I cut wonky X shapes out of clear contact paper and pressed them onto the front of the screen. Then, from the back, I wet the screen with thickened black dye. After it had set up, I hit it with the black dye again and left it to dry for a couple of weeks. When it was dry, I peeled away the contact paper and the screen was ready to use.

To deconstruct it onto the fabric above, I started with lemon yellow print paste, covered most of the surface with pattern, and then when the yellow dye was used up, I switched to turquoise print paste, knowing it would mix beautifully with the yellow to produce a lime-y green. 

I'm excited because I feel like this is the first truly successful deconstructed screen printing I've done. From this piece, I've learned how to achieve bright, vibrant colors, and I feel like I'm beginning to add depth and sophistication to my usual color palette of bright, cool colors with the stark addition of black.  So yeah, happy all around, today!

Earlier in the week, I finished the last few 2-page spreads in my Sketchbook Project journal. I will hold onto the book for a while (I'd like to be able to show my dad when I see him in September) and then send it back to the Brooklyn Library.

The last page, pictured above, contains a listing of the materials, mediums and grounds I used to construct this book. 

I will be home again on Saturday, September 4th... until then, happy creating!

Sketchbook Project Update

I've been spending a lot of time working on my journal for The Sketchbook Project. My theme is "Lines and Grids". I don't remember when I've had so much fun with small-format collage art.

I know there's been some controversy about the quality of the moleskein journals which were sent out for this project: the binding is simplistic; the paper inside the journal is lightweight and too flimsy for wet media; and worst of all, the pages are perforated, thereby nearly assuring that they will wish to exit the book at some point in the lifetime of the journal.

I took these properties as challenges, rather than viewing them as "problems", feeling that my task as an artist was not only to create my own interpretation of my chosen theme, but also to make sure the book is archival. This is, after all, a public library that's funding this amazing project, and libraries aren't generally known for possessing extravagant budgets.

With that in mind, I've been reinforcing the binding and covering the perforations by adhering a strip of fabric or paper directly over them, right down the middle of the spine between each 2-page spread. It gives me an excellent opportunity to bring together artistically both sides of the spread, which has always been one of my goals, anyway.

I've been using only original images- in the form of sketching, stamping and screening- to create each page seperately and then I collage them into the book.

The collages contain both fabric and paper, as well as random materials like dryer sheets and deli paper.

Because of the bulk created by making collages- sometimes on heavy substrates like watercolor paper, cardboard or quilt remnants- and then adhering them directly to the pages of the journal, I've had to sacrifice a few of the forty pages offered to us by gluing some of them together. I really hate to waste any of the paper, but this method has the benefit of adding strength (and hopefully, longevity) to the pages.

I have a few more 2-page spreads to finish, but for the rest of this week, my journal is going away so I can work on a few other things. Happy creating!

Sketchbook Project 2011

I've been having a blast this week working on my journal for The Sketchbook Project.

My chosen theme is "Lines and Grids." For the front cover, I used gel medium to attach directly to the original moleskine cover a mini-quilt that I sewed in a straight-line motif and then painted with Dye-Na-Flow. Attached to that is a grid cut from heavy black watercolor paper and painted with simple line work. A translucent velum window announces the theme of the Journal.

(outside cover)

As I dove into this project, I began to want to relate each page of the journal to the next one (and the next, and the next) while still making sure that each page could stand on its own as a small work of art. I also wanted, though, for each two-page spread to read as both two separate art pieces and one single combined piece.


With that in mind, as you open the cover of the journal, on the left you find a piece of hand-dyed cotton adhered to the inside cover with Steam-A-Seam2. Later, the library will attach a bookplate to this page, so it will remain blank until then. To the right, the black and white grid pattern is referenced again in painted watercolor paper.

(2-page spread, inside cover)

Because I want the pages to be interactive with one another as well as with the viewer, the black grid is overlaid with another grid in red, which folds outwards in order to interact with the page next to it.

(2-page spread, inside cover with fold-out)

Working this way- attempting to bring one page into harmony with the next and the next- has created an unexpected momentum as I collage and paint my way through the journal, repeating motifs and materials in order to tell my story.


Deeper into the book, darker and more moody collages begin to appear, a reaction to various stresses I'm currently under.

(2-page spread, paint, collage)

(2-page spread, collage materials and paint)

In some parts of the journal, the mood is a little lighter. Here, I've collaged the side of a shopping bag that used straight lines as its main design motif (page left). I continued the line work onto the next page (right) with sketching, and added a medallion of collaged work that represents both lines and grids. 

(2-page spread, collage, paint, graphite sketching)

Here, I used a half-page sandwiched between two full pages. When opened with the half page on the right, the spread reads as one piece of art....

(2-page spread, paint, collage)

And when opened with the half page towards the left, it looks like a slightly different piece of art.

This project has really sparked my imagination and I find myself creating pages independent of the book and collaging them in one at a time. The process has been very freeing and I've been pasting, cutting and painting with almost total abandon. If a page looks good at the end of that process, it goes into the book. If I hate it, it stays out and waits for me to fix it. 

I'm hoping some of you will consider joining this project. It's just too much fun to be left out!

A New Week Starts

It's been a really busy week, so I'll just dive right in!

I'm playing with the look of my blog, as most of us have been since the new template designer was released. This isn't its finished look, but it's an interesting start. 

I joined The Brooklyn Art Library's Sketchbook Project and my Moleskine Journal arrived!

My chosen theme for the journal is "Lines And Grids", two things of which I am incredibly fond. I've been jotting down notes for days about what I'd like to include in the journal and I'm looking forward to starting. In the meantime, my journal is as I am at the beginning of this journey whose goal is to release a small part of my unvarnished self out into the world: a blank page.

I had a nice bit of good news this week, as well. Two of my entries into the QSDS Fabric Show- while not placing for a prize- were sold! Yesterday in the mail I received the remaining piece of fabric and a check! Now I'm looking ahead to the Blurred Boundaries entry deadline of July 12.

Towards that end, I've been playing with more fabrics. Last week, an impulsive trip into Hobby Lobby yielded an amazing bargain that I jumped up and down on.

I found these in the back wall sales bins.

Cut wooden letters mounted on MDF blocks in two sizes, 4" and 3". They were an amazing .70 cents! I snatched up every letter that looked as if it could be layered in an abstract piece of art and look abstract, rather than reading as a letter.

So what do you do with such a perfect find at such a perfect price?

Why, you cover them with stiff interfacing and turn them into soy wax batik stamps, what else?

I used an old StayzOn solvent-based ink pad to brush color onto the wooden letter and then quickly pressed a small piece of the interfacing onto the letter to pick up the ink. That gave me my cutting template. I cut the shapes out and adhered them to the tops of the letters with Elmer's wood glue. I needed the interfacing to be sure that the wax would have a place to collect so I'd get a good, solid print.

While I was at it, I used some old, repurposed wooden blocks and extra interfacing to create a few new images. I also used the negative of some of the letters I'd cut out and mounted those on wooden blocks. too.

If you're not handy with a saw or don't have access to wood scraps, try prowling your local craft or scrapbooking store for sales on rubber stamps. (Again, Hobby Lobby stores are great for this, because their back wall of sales bins usually contain at least a dozen or so discontinued or damaged stamps.) Once you get them home, peel the vulcanized stamp off the block and you've got a lovely wooden handle for your next stamp!

The first piece of fabric I'm batik'ing this week is a length of cotton, Primatex, 45" wide by about three yards. I've folded it into quarters and it will remain this way throughout the different stages of waxing and dye baths. It has already been soaked in soda ash and drip-dried. I layered old sheets under the fabric to help absorb some of the wax so it wouldn't pool underneath.

I melted my soy wax and decided on the stamps I'd be using.

Then I got to work on the first layer of design. I kept the design simple and left a lot of open space for subsequent layers. This piece will have three layers.

When the wax had set up, I soaked the fabric in a wash of dye that contained one part lemon yellow and one part antique gold.

It's been scrunched, sprinkled with salt, and left to dry on this plexiglass platter. It will probably take a few days to dry and when it does, I will stretch it out again, stamp it with soy wax once more, and then hit it with another color of dye, probably something in the Carmine Red range. Then when that dries, it'll get one last wax treatment and one last dye color, probably a reddish-brown. If it was smaller, I would then coat the whole thing in soy wax, stick it in the freezer until I could crack it, and hit it with a final layer of black dye.

However, it might just be more cost-efficient to just do a final FPR in black, instead. Time will tell which direction I take.

The next piece I worked on this week is this black cotton muslin, about 45" wide  by 3 yards long.

I stamped it first and then used a Tjanting tool to to draw squares in between the stamps. Next, I used a small wooden cube to which I'd attached some felt and stamped with that, and then finally I splattered the whole thing with wax.

Then the fabric got plunged into a bucket of bleach water. I swished it around in the bleach until I'd reached the color I wanted, rinsed it in cold water, and then soaked it for a couple of hours in vinegar water. Finally, it got several long, hot baths with soapy water in the washing machine.

Not bad for a first layer.

Next will probably be either screening or DSP.

It all sounds like so much work for just a few yards of fabric, doesn't it? Well, it is, yes. But when you're like me and have a burning passion for surface design, it's a true labor of love.

Until next week, happy blogging!