Week 10 - in the Studio

I was dragging my butt to get several totes and sketchbooks finished to send to my retailers - I need quite a few and it seemed like I was climbing up a long, tall mountain. But I got them all done and my, they do look nice! I'll be making more for my Etsy Shop and finally figured out how to dye a good range of colours for the linings....

I spent a few hours working on the publicity for Gathering the Threads Conference, an SDA-Vancouver Island/BC+Yukon event planned for the Cowichan Valley, June 15-18th, 2022. You can find more information here: https://gatheringthethreads.ecwid.com

We're still clearing out boxes of old photos and documents - I bought some decorative totes for each of our kids and they'll get everything from school records and their baby books - no more room in our house! 

And I discovered some luscious old vintage pages from a scrapbook, a soft velvety feel to them and I love how the edges are slightly browned. I've started making some marks on them, I have one page set aside as the "test" page to trial ideas...these are so precious! BUT, I am determined to use them, not saving them for some unknown day in the future...that will probably never come!

My "test" piece with white acrylic paint and indigo acrylic ink

I love the rich yellows in the paper...

I mixed the paint and ink together - love the blues

Still lots to do on each page but I'm working carefully and slowly, planning each step....an unusual process for me. I often rush through and then the results are haphazard. This time I will go forward with more planning and purpose....I wonder if it will work?

And I had a studio visitor this week, she didn't hang around very long!

More Mark Making....

Yesterday I spent at the Bowker Creek Brush Up as one of the artists. We were encouraged to demonstrate some art making and while I was all ready to do some sun printing, I was in a shady spot. So decided to spend my spare time on Mark Making onto my favourite Essex cloth, a blend of cotton and linen. While I worked with white fabric, several of the pieces will be overdyed. Maybe I should have come with some coloured pieces, oh well!
So here is what I accomplished, some will need more work.....

The Printed Fabric Bee

Here is the latest information from the Printed Fabric Bee, have you been following along? Don't forget that you have a chance to win nine 6" x 6" hand dyed, designed and painted squares from wonderfully talented surface designers!

 

All you need to do is visit this month's Queen, Carol R. Eaton's blog:

http://carolreatondesigns.blogspot.ca/2014/04/give-away-starts-now-colors-and.html

and comment to win!

 

 

Here are some pictures of my fabric and the process:

I started off with hand dyed fabric:

 

 

Then I screened on some discharge paste with a thermofax screen with an Echinacea pattern:

 

Then I printed again with a rich brown paint and offset the design slightly:

 

 

And also painted the centres of the flower with a cobalt blue paint for some highlights. I also added trios of mini dots all over the fabric. they are hard to see but show up better in the fabric sample that will be part of the Giveaway! So don't forget to enter!