home
about the artist
gallery
blog
links
contact

Archive for June, 2012

Catch-up Day

Monday, June 18th, 2012

I spent most of today getting caught up on e-mails and SDA work. I still have some snail mail stuff to take care of, but I spent some time in my studio getting caught up on 3 x 3s.

This is one of my screen prints after I did the triple rinse and wash. The red turned more fuschia than I would prefer, but it has potential. Here is the other one:

There are a couple of small pieces of organza that I monoprinted by pressing them in the dye left on my print area. This is the larger piece of organza that I did.

I played with black dye in the syringe and also brushed some thickened dye on all these pieces.

Here is what they looked like before washing.

Here are some prints done by some of the other students.

 

This one has a nice leaf print.

Lots of beautiful prints and no two alike!! This piece shows what happens as you keep printing with the screen and the dye in some places releases and is used up in other places.

I prepared this large screen on the last day. I hope to have time to print it tomorrow.

Here are the 3 x 3s that I did today. I am caught up, again.

Week-end Fun

Sunday, June 17th, 2012

I am one tired little old lady, but it sure has been a fun week. We finished class on Friday with some show and tell. These are my screenprints, before washing with Kerr in front. I did a lot of red black and tangerine, hoping to get some raw material for a piece with a fire theme.

I will post more about the last day of class tomorrow.

Yesterday, I took Kerr out to Bonnie Bucknam’s house so that she could see and possibly purchase some of Bonnie’s vintage linens. I think two boxes are on the way to Mississippi. Then, we were off to Portland for some fun. We had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant – yum.

Then, we checked out Cargo, a store with stuff, large and small, from all over the world. They  just got a shipment of fabulous stuff from Japan. Kerr bought a huge, sturdy and well used paper bag that was once used for carrying silk. It is beautiful. It was too big to take a photo. There were antique mulberry stencils.

I bought some vintage anime and manga magazines for Mia and Miles and a set of lovely illustrated number cards for Paige.

You can’t visit Portland and miss a trip to Powell’s Book Store which fills a whole city block. No books went home with her — no room in the suitcases!!

Our next stop was the Museum of Contemporary Craft. We enjoyed the exhibit of Betty Feve’s work in clay. I have long been an admirer of her work in the permanent collection. In the lab, at the back of the exhibit, was a community participation project.

There was clay and other stuff where visitors could make a sculpture for this display. Here is mine:

And, Kerr’s:

On the way home, we picked up some fresh salmon for dinner and enjoyed a lovely evening on the deck.

I dropped Kerr off at the airport this morning. I will miss her. It has been so much fun to have her around for the past few days. Hope she will come back, again.

Tonight, we had a nice family dinner. Here are some photos.

Artichoke hearts before and after being attacked

Scooter found a comfy place next to Steph in her cool blue and white shoes.

Mia was in her usual spot with sketchbook and pencil in hand.

She is officially 2 inches taller than me!!

Miles got his Mom to play Scrabble Slam.

Since it is father’s day, I should have gotten a photo of the two dads. What was I thinking? Steph brought this for dessert – yummy goodness.

Now, I am off to bed to catch up on my sleep.

Thursday, June 14th, 2012

Look! I am living life in the fast lane with Kerr Grabowski and yet, I have kept up with my 3 x 3s!!

Yesterday, after mixing up more print paste and dyes with print paste for today’s workshop, I took Kerr across the river to visit Oregon College of Art and Craft. We saw a couple of fun exhibits. One was these vessels made from plastic drinking straws.

After a tour of the fiber and book arts studios, we had a delicious lunch at their cafe. Then, we met Mr C and went to the Japanese Garden. Wow! We discovered an unexpected Japanese kimono exhibit.

There were gorgeous kimonos and scarves and fabrics that were batiked, woven, hand-painted and simply luscious.

Last night, we had to scarf down some simple fare for dinner and get to the venue for the Columbia Fiberarts Guild meeting where Kerr gave a fantastic lecture and slide show. She really wowed the crowd and almost received a standing ovation. It really was wonderful.

Today was day one of our workshop with her. We had to rise early and get our nourishment and get to the venue by 8 am so that we could get the tables set up and arrange all the dyes and materials.

One of the first things we did was to prepare a simple screen for printing, using a window screen with the screen removed and curtain fabric inserted.

Kerr had little mesh bags with supplies for each of us. They come with a recipe for BBQ shrimp! Some people emptied the bag and used it for texture for their deconstructed screen.

Kerr spent some quality time getting us up to speed on mixing dyes and the other stuff you need for this method and showing us samples of her screen prints.

Here is the arrangement of textures that I used for my first screen.

I got so involved, I kept forgetting to take process photos. But, after drying with a hairdryer, this was my result. The print is in the background and the screen is in the front.

I did some more printing on this and it is now batching back at the classroom. My next screen was prepared with torn paper on organza. No photos were taken. It, too is batching. I prepared one more screen which I will print with in the morning.

There is some truly gorgeous work being done. by the people in this class. This was done by guild president, Sharry –

This subtle gem was done by Karen Miller.

This screen was prepared with curten fabric that had a raised leaf and vine design woven into it. It is quite stunning.

This beauty was done by Maarja.

Here is a nice screen, drying in the courtyard of the church.

So, you can see we have had a busy and productive day.

Tonight, we went out for a margarita and some delicious Mexican food.  Now, off to bed for a good night’s sleep. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Here is one more 3 X 3:

Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, June 13th, 2012

Popping In

Tuesday, June 12th, 2012

This is a piece of orange silk which was discharged with corrugated cardboard.

I picked up Kerr mid-day and brought her back to our home. I made us grilled eggplant and portobello mushroom and fresh mozzarella sandwiches (yum). Nancy Dasenbrock, the guild workshop chair, stopped by and chatted with us for a bit.

Then it was down to my studio to mix up print paste to check the consistency and amount of alginate needed for our water. After some well-deserved resting, we took Scooter to the Rhodie Garden.

After dinner, back to the dye kitchen to mix up more print paste and dye mixed with print paste. I got my fabric for the workshop soda ash soaked, and it is hanging to dry.

I am having such a good time with Kerr. She is an extremely easy person to be around — so much to chat about.

She says she has about 3 hours of work in the morning, preparing more stuff for the class. We are going to try to get to the Japanese Garden in the afternoon. Tomorrow night, she does her lecture. Busy times!