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Archive for the ‘12X12 challenge’ Category

An Exercise in Futility

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

The fiber sketch for today is Leaf Shadows.

Today, I started work on preparing some fabric for the rusty Twelve X Twelve challenge. I have this piece of rust colored silk/cotton blend.

I notice the back of the fabric has a greenish patina so I thought perhaps it would discharge to a green color.

I used a new discharging product called deColourant. It is non-toxic and non-smelly. You print, paint or stamp with it. Let it dry and then iron it to discharge the dye. The more heat and steam, the more the color is removed.

I stamped with corrugated cardboard, netting and a random dotted stamp. I dried it with a hair dryer and then ironed it. I first used my old Black & Decker and then I used the steam iron. And them, I blew a fuse!!

Anyway, this is the result.

Since I didn’t get any green color, I threw it in a bath with turquoise Colorhue dye. Well, I love this!!

Unfortunately, this is a cotton/silk blend and the Colorhue dye only works on silk and wool. So when I washed it, all of the color was gone — except on my hands!

Tomorrow, I will mix up thiox with turquoise dye and try that.

By the way, the deColourant comes with added color which is deposited when the dye is discharged. I was sent a couple of samples – plain and mustard yellow. I have other colors on order. Here is a link to the supplier, Kandicorp.

Getting Rusty

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

I suddenly realized that I must get to work on my next Twelve X Twelve colorplay piece. The theme is rust with a blue-green patina. I found some scraps and warmed up with a fiber sketch using some blue-green silk and some copper mesh.

Here are the fabrics that I plan to use. I am thinking of incorporating some copper mesh or wire.

Obama was in town tonight. We thought about standing in line for two hours to get in, and then thought better of it. I was happy to see that there was a capacity crowd and were not missed!!

I used to rant about politics on this blog. It was part of my schtick. Then, I started a separate political blog. I deleted that.  Now, I find the whole political scene so depressing that I just want to escape from it. I feel in limbo, waiting for the next shoe to drop. I will be glad when November 2 is done and over, and we can move on.

Last SF Day

Friday, October 15th, 2010

I thought I would post early today as tonight is my last night with the whole CA family together. I know you want to see what I bought yesterday. These are the hand-dyed Radiance (Cotton/Silk). I use a lot of these colors. The rust will probably go into the next Twelve x Twelve challenge.

Here are the cottons dyed by Judy Robertson:

The larger piece of fabric is a lovely muslin.

I bought two garments from Ananse:

I love the indigo tunic, but the batik dress needs to be exchanged. It has a flaw at the bottom. I tried on another color and then bought this instead. Love the fabric.

They gave me this beautiful piece of batik. I didn’t know until I opened the bag.

This morning, we took our daughter-in-law, Jayme, out to lunch at Tom Colicchio’s sandwich shop, ‘Wishcraft. I had a half goat cheese and avocado sandwich and split pea soup.

I love to photograph the city sights:

The above photo shows the Contemporary Jewish Museum on the right. That was our first destination to see the Maira Kalman exhibit. I so enjoyed seeing the work of this very funny woman. I bought a copy of her illustrated Elements of Style.

It was $5 day at the SF MOMA, so we ran in to see the Anniversary Show of 400 works collected over 75 years. Diebenkorn is always our favorite.

I know I have posted a lot of photos, but I just had to show the beautiful clouds that we saw this morning from Mark’s front window. We don’t see the sky that easily from our home so this is a treat.

Time to get ready to meet Lisa and Clay for dinner tonight.

Good Things

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

I am really pleased with the discharge tests that I did today on two hand-dyed black fabrics. On the left are the pieces discharged with thiox. On the right, I discharged with chlorine. I am so excited because the color on the far right is exactly what I am looking for in the piece I have in mind. The two pieces on the left in each case are a cotton sateen dyed with Dharma’s Jet Black. You can see that they are a darker black. The pieces on the right were dyed by me using Prochem’s Cotton Black 602 A which has a very blueish tint.

I now have an author profile on Amazon. You can see it here. What a hoot! You can also get my blog delivered to your Kindle for a $1.99. That is an even bigger hoot!!

I bit the bullet and entered Allegro into the SAQA Beyond Comfort exhibit. I am number 55 so quite a few people have already uploaded images. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. This is my first time to enter a SAQA show.

We got our plane tickets today for our trip to Japan next year. We are leaving on March 19th and will be there for two weeks. I am so excited. Something really big to look forward to. I have wanted to make this trip for so long. There is still room in the tour. Here is a link: Saber Japan Tours. Jerry Saber, like my husband, worked for GE, and lived in Japan.  His wife is a textile artist.

I also sent two quilts off to Chandler, AZ for the Art Quilts XV Needleplay.

Here is my Fiber Sketch for today. It is a composition on a monoprinted background.

A Day for Dallying

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

Today was one of those days that is broken up into bits and pieces. You know, an errand here, a dog walk there. So, I didn’t have much time for studio work.

This morning I had to go back to have more blood drawn because they forgot one of my important follow-up tests. Then, I went to pick up a quilt from a patron. It is having some fading problems. It is this piece. I used a dye-painted silk for the water. I cut it in strips and then put tulle over it and quilted it. The fading is in certain spots on the water. I think there were too many white areas and so I colored in those areas with fabric pens. I am not sure, but it is the only way I can explain the fading. Anyway, I am going to touch it up with fabric paint and then spray it with a UV protectant.

Scooter is having an intestinal problem so I have had to deal with that. I cooked up some plain chicken and white rice for him. He seems to be better today.

I slipped down to the studio and screen printed some fabric. Tonight, I cut the fabric up and made the fiber sketch at the top. I quite like it.

I also unwrapped and washed out the turquoise silk that I rust dyed.

Here is a detail:

Then, I ran off to the farmer’s market and bought copious amounts of peaches and Italian plums and strawberries and a few veggies. This is my favorite. It is so beautiful, I may just look at it instead of cooking and eating it. It is a Romanesco cauliflower. One of my FB friends named it: fibonnacioccoliflower!