Week 5 in the Studio

Either I didn't get much done or I just didn't take many pictures! I think it was a week of finishing loose ends and tidying up - I keep the studio pretty organized, there's little room for storage but I think its time to purge a few things - maybe next week!

First off, I made more of my Shibori Shiraz fabrics - I have another piece I want to work on and I need LOTS of water fabrics...

Each colour requires a new dye bath, so while it takes a while each step is fairly quick. Here they are drying on a rack....

They get washed and rinsed by hand and then ironed before putting back on the bottles. The top one is finished, the others will need at least one more dye bath.

By Any Other Name....

A few days ago I was asked to write up the description for a new course that I'll be teaching this spring. It began with an email and then a Facebook conversation about some word choices and how we react to using different words. Although there was no final "right" answer, it showed me how each of us define what we do as artists and what we call the materials we use!

The title of the course will be: "Cloth, Collage and Composition" and although the alliteration works well, the word "cloth" seemed not to be a good description of the materials we use.... in the write-up I use the word "fabric" to help clarify how and what we'll be creating.

Then I went to my Facebook friends with the question:  

I'm wondering about the use of "cloth" or "fabric" when describing what we do as artists. Do you use one and not the other, or interchangeably? Does one conjure up different meanings than the other...

....and I was happily chatting with friends over the following few days about the choices we use. 

Here are some of the replies:

• I use "fabric" consistently.

•  I just say I'm a quilter. It's almost like a badge of honor, sometimes I'm almost daring them to say "how quaint" lol.

•  It's a conundrum. My textile instructor used the term Cloth Constructions to describe her work. I tend to use Textile. To me, fabric sounds like something unrelated to art, as in sewing clothing. Each of us has a history of the word I think.

• I think there is a place for each of these words. There are subtle differences in meaning. The best word choice likely depends on your message and your audience. For example, I'll call myself an art quilter when I'm speaking to a guild, but use the term fiber artist or textile artist when I speak to gallerists or museum directors. It's a guessing game to decide which term has the right meaning for the listener.

•  I use cloth when it is exceptional. Fabric when it is merely fabulous.

•  Fiber is so much more chic, you get more people enthused about fiber or textile art than cloth art. Hmmmmmm, something to think about.

•  I think it depends on where you come from also, and your background! Growing up, we called it "material" in the 60's, i didn't hear the word "fabric" until i was in my 20's, and started using "cloth" in the last eight years. All are applicable in my vocabulary, but for whatever reason, "Cloth" sounds more intimate.

•  I don't think I've ever used the word cloth to describe anything I do. When I was growing up, my mother always said material. But now, I use the word fabric mostly.

• Fibre to me is the material from which we construct the threads, yarns, fabrics, whether they be natural or man made etc. textiles always sounds so industrial to me textile mills, schools of textiles etc.

•  I like your use of 'cloth' and don't see it used often enough! I have moved to describing my work as mixed media, a term that seems more widely accepted by the art world and the general public.

•  Here you go: Cloth is a fabric used to make a garment or anything that has a specific purpose. Thus cloth is just a type of woven fabric. All cloths are fabrics, while all fabrics are not cloths.

•  Very interesting question that made me think...I use both fabric and cloth depending on what I'm doing with them...I dye fabric and probably use the word fabric most of the time...I use the word cloth if I'm making what I call complex cloth...to say I dye cloth or that something I layered is complex fabric just feels all wrong to me...

•  Fabric is just more open-ended in terms of meaning. Cloth also carries a religious connotation as in "man of the cloth". I agree that textile is a good word as well.

•  To me, cloth is related to clothing. I refer to what I purchase off the bolt, fat quarters, whatever, as fabric.

•   I don't use the word, textiles, very often. I think of it as referring to museum collections, garments conserved for educational studies and occasionally in reference to the group of items I'm going to need for a mixed media project. I think the word textiles is used more in educational settings.

• I like to use fibre as it is a broader term including paper.

•  I use the word textiles. It incorporates different thicknesses, fibres, vintages. But I like cloth too - a very smooooth word.

So, from this I see a wide range of interpretations - no one word is the "correct" one and each of them have subtle differences. Part of the usage may be personal experience and history, part may be education - and it's a conversation I'll be sure to use in my course.....which BTW is here in Victoria in May-June on Tuesday afternoons, 2-5pm! The registration isn't up yet, but let me know if you're interested and I'll keep you updated.

What do you think? Let me know!

You Will Love This!

For the past couple of months I've been obsessed with Ice Dyeing, also known as snow dyeing (but we don't do snow here on the west coast)! I am totally in love with the fabrics I've created, each one is a surprise and absolutely beautiful..... I just ordered a dozen silk scarves to work on for my studio tour next month, can you imagine wearing this fabric as scarves?

 Or this one:

 Or this one:

 Or this one:

 Or this one:

I'll have these up in my shop soon or you can see a good video on how to ice dye here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhBtRaltPIM
Interested? I'm having an "Ice Dyed Silk Scarf" workshop next month, where you will design and make a gorgeous scarf for yourself or a special someone. Since the fabric needs time to batch, I'll rinse, wash and dry the scarves for you and then wrap them up ready for gift giving!
I'll let you know the date soon!
PS. I guess you've noticed I'm back to blogging.....

Fabric and Threads, Threads and Fabric....

Like most of you, I'm always checking out places to buy supplies and find items for my art work. Many of us shop at the local quilt shop for our fabric, books and notions, and its necessary to support our nearby businesses! Often though, I find that I need odd items or large quantities of certain things so my searches often take me further afield.
I buy my PFD (prepared for dyeing) cotton from a local wholesaler, I am probably their most boring customer as its the ONLY item I order from them....plain white! But lots of it!
But I find my other fabrics in a variety of other places.! When I was in Florence last fall I found a flea market and bought three yards of the most luscious linen that you can imagine! The shop had a huge roll of it, I should have bought more but had run out of cash...... I want to make something extra special with that fabric, I just havent figured out what!
I often find wonderful linen  napkins and tablecloths at thrift stores. It doesnt matter to me if they are a little worn and usually the damask pattern shows up beautifully once they are dyed. I did find a whole set of linen placemats stamped with an embroidery pattern (but never worked) and they took dye and paint so nicely.
A student of mine found a wonderful linen in the drapery department of a discount fabric store and it was wonderful when dyed. And there are often interesting remnants in a very chique home decor store here in town.
I often order some silk and blends from a dye supplier in the US, the price is reasonable and sometimes there's good rates on shipping.

Threads are somethimes a little trickier to find. I used to buy crochet cotton at the thrift stores but I found once it was dyed, tiny fibres tended to to slough off of the threads. Although tatting thread is usually a better quality, but I generally don't work that fine!
Last week I found skeins of a cotton and linen blend of knitting yarn that will be beautiful when its dyed and also a skein of rayon and cotton chenille yarn that I know will be simply gorgeous! I'm looking into ordering larger quantities of skeined threads (its a lot of work putting the threads into skeins for dyeing) and always on the lookout for other supplies of both threads and fabrics.
Where do you like to shop for your supplies??

Printed Fabric Bee - June

Hey, everyone! What a perfect way to start summer, with a giveaway! If you've been following my blog or the Printed Fabric Bee, then you know that part of the celebration of creative talent is giving a 6" square away to one lucky person who leaves a comment on my blog here or my Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/susan.purneymark
I chose the theme of Industrial, so it was about old buildings, rust, decay and more...I made a Pinterest Board for inspiration. You can see the images here:  http://www.pinterest.com/SusanPurneyMark/the-printed-fabric-bee-industrial/
I'll be announcing the winner on July 10th! Leave a comment telling us what kinds of creative ideas you'll be working on this summer!

Colour Play - Dye, Dye, Dye

I've been filming an exciting workshop that has been developed especially for quilters, stitchers, mixed media artists and everyone in between. You will learn basic colour mixing theory using Procion MX dyes. Then make simple colour gradations, colour to colour runs and develop a range of fabrics and threads using a planned palette showing value, tints and shades. You will learn how to prepare threads for dyeing by skeining and tying to keep them from tangling, what fabrics to use for dyeing and easy ways to rinse and wash your fabrics. Dye recipes and excellent written step by step instructions will be provided and there will be a focus on safe studio habits.
You will have an opportunity to ask me questions at anytime and you may choose to download the video for viewing at your convenience.
Join me for a fun filled, colourful workshop that shows you how to create gorgeous hand dyed  threads and sumptuous fabrics!
Registration is open now, so sign up for a special price of only $15!!!

Register HERE: http://susanpm.com/online-workshops/

Latest from the Printed Fabric Bee

I'm a bit late in posting this but here's the sample of swatches that was won on Gerrie Congdon's blog
http://www.gericondesigns.com/weblog/?p=13228
I promise I'll be more up to date with the next one!

 

What have you done with your fabric lately?

Colour Play!

Last week I ordered a 25 metre bolt of white PFD (prepared for dyeing) fabric. I used it all up in less than a week! Its been a dyeing frenzy around here, with colour, dye, rinsing and washing happening at all hours of the day and night. Actually I had a great system of dyeing a batch first thing in the morning and rinsing it in the afternoon and then dyeing more and having it ready to rinse in the morning before beginning the dye process all over again.
I was concentrating on half metre pieces and doing colour gradations as well as some planned colour movements. I'll be taking all these with me when I'm lecturing this month for my own Victoria Quilters Guild and next month for the Boundary Bay Quilters Guild.
What do you think of these beauties?

I added threads to some of the fabrics in my colour gradations and made up these totally awesome packs that I've added to my store. So you can order them here: http://fabricimagery.com/category/colour-play/
I've got five colourways right now but will be adding more as I create them. Each pack contains four 11" x 18" fat eights and four 10 yard skeins of perle cotton, all packed up just for you! You can't stop at just one!

New Work for the Oak Bay Artist Studio Tour!

I've been busy working towards my first Artist Studio Tour, finishing pieces, quilting, dyeing, mounting work on canvas and much, much more! It has been fun and creative work, but my main problem is that I'm not sure how much work to produce? I'm hoping to sell lots and have some pieces in reserve to put on the walls as others sell.....but how much?
Maybe you can give me some advice!

This is work that I've finished in the last week or so, I'm enjoying mounting them on canvas board, I like the look when they are hanging. What do you think?

So the first piece shows just the base fabric. It was a piece of soy wax resist linen, that I waxed and dyes, then waxed and dyes some more. It took several processes to get the depth of colour I wanted.

Then I traced, fused and cut shapes that echoed the design in the linen. I backed the linen with iron-on fusible interfacing to give it more stability.

Then lots of quilting with multi-coloured poly thread, trimming and mounting on board. I found a good YouTube video for finishing the corners nicely:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccaNqgje5lY

The next piece I made from fabric I had dyed on a wine bottle (more about that in another blog post) then cut, fused and stitched the cardinal tree and berries.

 

Finally, I used fabric that I had applied soy wax and dye on a pole, after washing, I screen printed the crows on and quilted bird foot prints.

Monday, Monday

Since my work week is often very flexible, I've never had cause to complain about Mondays.  Sometimes I'm en route home from an event or in the studio catching up with some work or it happens to be my DH day off so  try to make it mine as well.
Yesterday was the Bowker Creek Brush Up and I had fun demoing my soy wax resists and meeting the public and fellow artists. Today I'm answering emails, washing fabric, making plans for teaching next week at the Pacific West Quilt Show (hope to see you there!) and unpacking.
Here's some of the fabric from yesterday:

I think I actually spend only about 50% of my time creating and working at the sewing machine! Years ago I remember thinking if I owned a quilt shop-, I'd be able to sit and sew all day, ha!
Anyway, I wanted to mention the wonderful gift I received a couple weeks ago. I was at a guild meeting and met a woman who had moved to Victoria from Jakarta and all her furniture had been shipped wrapped in cotton fabric. She wasn't a quilter and didn't want any of it. So she asked me if I was interested? Interested, you bet! The box has over 130 metres of cotton, to dye, stamp, screen printed, paint and more..... What a wonderful gift!