Screen, Print and Stitch - Online Workshop is Open!

Screen, Print and Stitch

Are you looking to build your skills as a surface design artist? Do you want to learn specific techniques that will help you to create beautiful fabrics for your art? Perhaps you are new to the world of mono printing, thickened dyes, screen printing and stamping and would like a solid foundation of knowledge that you can refer to again and again?

Then “Screen, Print and Stitch” is made just for you! In the past, these lessons have been separate workshops, but since so many of my students enroll in more than one of my surface design workshops it made sense to build a special group package with tons of value-added information. So now “Screen, Print and Stitch” is a more extensive journey into helping you build those skills that you’ve been wanting for your textile art!

Early Bird Registration
Sign up NOW for only $120.00

 

 

In this nine session workshop you will learn:
• to make your own “homemade” gelatin plate. You will use stencils, doilies, kitchen tools and more with textile paints and explore all the possible ways to get colour onto cloth.
• to make your own hand carved stamps as well as using found objects for more layers of colour.
• different ways of creating roller prints with cardboard tubes, texture and sponge rollers for amazing effects, take out the rolling pins!
• to make simple, basic silk screens that will meet all your needs and the appropriate paints and tools to use.
• to use freezer paper stencils and other masks, then move on to using soy wax on the screens with thickened dyes.
• other screen printing techniques will be demonstrated including Thermofax screens, using gel mediums for foil and special effects and how regular “blue gel glue” can be used as a resist!
• creative ways you can make pattern and colour on fabric using resist techniques such as PVC pipe and other tubes with painted and immersion dye baths
• and one lesson will be focused on the exciting results that can be achieved with stitched resists

Does this sound like a lot? Remember each lesson is paced so that you can learn at your own speed, you can download the video to watch anytime and to keep forever! With “Print, Screen and Stitch” you will get:
• all nine videos with over 5 hours of information packed value
• two Thermofax screens mailed directly to you with a creative design for printing
• a bonus lesson on compiling your creations into a unique and special fabric journal
Plus:
• pages of written notes with all the dye recipes, resources, tips and hints that you’ll find so valuable for future reference!
• you have the option to join a private Facebook group that’s just for you to post pictures, see others inspiring fabrics and much more. It’s the best and most immediate way to get together!

Sign Up Now and get a Bonus!

A Private One-on-One Surface Design Mentoring Session – just for you!

30 minutes of conversation, advice and more….that will move you along your Surface Design journey! I’ll work with you to decide the best way to spend those 30 minutes together….it might be Skype, email, phone or ??

I’ve been a dyer and surface design artist for over 15 years. I’ve taken loads of workshops, I have advanced diplomas in textiles and art. Name a technique, I’ve tried it. Sometimes it takes lots of skill and practice to achieve success. And I get that….its part of being an artist!
Now, I want the same for you! I don’t keep anything back, I’m willing to share everything I know and I want you to have the value of what I’ve learned.

All of this is just for you because I know that colour and beauty is what we crave and having it on fabric just makes life so much better, right?
Be part of the fun and learn all about the new ways to create those gorgeous fabrics!

Learn More and Register HERE

The Dream Collection

A while ago I sent one of my pieces to the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) for their 2014 Benefit Auction. all the quilts had to measure 12 " x 12", but otherwise subject matter and technique was pretty wide open.
My quilt is called Flywheel and uses soy wax resist with fibre reactive dyes and  heavy thread stitching. It was a trial piece for my larger Wild Thing.
One of the ways SAQA promotes the auction is to ask members to make a Dream Collection of six pieces with a common theme, such as seasons, cities, people and such. I was thrilled to see my piece included in such as collection and you can see it here:
http://www.saqa.com/memberArt.php?ID=3200  Its called Running in Circles!

 

The bidding for the auction starts on September 15th.

Here's How You Can Participate in the 2014 Online Benefit Auction
The Auction is run in three sections for 6 days each, with a special section accompanying the International Quilt Festival in Houston.

• On the first day of each section's auction, the price for each piece in that section is $750.
• Each day thereafter, the price is reduced according to the chart below.
• Pieces not reaching the reserve price of $75 will be sold in the SAQA Store through November 2014 or if unsold will be returned to the artist.

Check out further details here: http://www.saqa.com/memberArt.php?ID=1186

A Bridge Between Equals - New Work

For the second time, I've had a piece accepted into the Sooke Fine Arts Show and I'm excited to see it hanging in the show. This wall hanging is about how we make connections between each other and my thoughts about the ideas and interactions that keep us united. I like the term "A Bridge Between Equals" because it means that we are all on a level field with no one above or below us. I like working with a white/grey/black scheme and the red is a great colour for contrast. I hope to see you there: http://sookefinearts.com/
The fabric began as white and I dye painted it:

          I then applied soy wax to preserve certain areas and overdyed a pale/medium grey:

I printed over top with several ideas of text with some Thermofax screens:

My piecing technique tends to be rather organic and shapes evolve, being added and subtracted as I work through the entire quilt.

I'm never absolutely certain how it will be until the last stitches are taken:

My quilting stitches are very different from the traditional, but I took a lot of time and tested many variations before I decided on a satin stitch variation...................

SAQA Auction --- Soon!

You love art, right?
Love a good cause, right?
Love colour and design on your walls, right?

How about bidding on some awesome fibre art? The Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) will be holding its 2014 fund raising auction soon.
SAQA's Benefit Auction supports SAQA's exhibition program - during 2013 ten exhibitions of SAQA member work traveled to Australia, Canada, England, France, Gabon, Italy, South Africa, and seventeen states across the U.S.  They were displayed in 8 museums and 19 major quilt festivals and were seen by several hundred thousand visitors, many of whom had never seen an art quilt before.
Help support the art quilt movement by bidding on your favorite great piece of art in SAQA's Benefit Auction!
You can view some of the quilts in the upcoming auction here: http://www.saqa.com/memberArt.php?ID=3152 I'll be updating you as the opening comes closer.
In the meantime, I've mailed my entry and it should be on the website in a week or two. You'll want to have it in your art collection, right?
So as a sneak preview, here it is, Flywheel:

Learn all about Soy Wax!

Curious about how Soy Wax works, all the possible ways to apply and use Soy Wax? Looking to expand the techniques you already know?
Then join me for an exciting two days of dyeing, printing, painting and more as we make beautiful cloth!

 

Set aside March 12-13th for a colourful blast of fun! Students design their own unique one-of-a-kind fabrics using simple tools, dyes and soy wax…no messy clean-up, just wash this wax away!

Students will be using colour and pattern in new ways with sponging, stamping, drizzling and dabbing. You're sure to have so much fun making dynamic and exciting fabrics for all to admire.

Simple techniques and perfect for the beginner designer!

 

The workshop will be held in Duncan, BC in a beautiful 1200 sq ft. studio, located in a country setting. Join me and many others while we create and inspire each other!

 

You can get further details here: http://www.studiogart.com/workshops/ or email me: susanpm@shaw.ca

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.

The Printed Fabric Bee

So, its the first BIG REVEAL today! Are you excited to see all the wonderful fabric that Lynn Krawczyk got from the other bees? I sure am!
First, I'll show you how I made my fabric for Lynn. She had requested:

I'm choosing ORANGE CIRCLES. And for fabric size I'd like a rectangular shape - 10" x 14" (just under the 144 square inches but I'm good with it.)About the only thing I don't like color wise is pastels. I like neutrals (greys, browns, blacks) and strong vibrant colors. I'm a contrast junkie. And for the record? Light red qualifies as pink. I do like the 70s color vibe of brown, green, orange, gold. If that horrifies you, though, feel free to flee from it.

I began by dyeing a 1/2 yard of PFD. I used an orange with some bronze in the dye bath:

I sewed the fabric into a tube and put it on a PVC pipe with a rubber band at each end to hold it in place. I painted on some soy wax to keep the orange colour and then painted on an MX dye from Dharma Trading called Caffeine Buzz! 

I let that batch and also stamped soy wax circles on another 1/2 yard that I'd dyed. I thought that might be my back up plan! Here are the two fabrics together:

The next step was to use some of my Thermofax screens and print multiple circles on the yardage with black paint:

Finally I screen printed an image of tiny dots within a circle shape in deep mauve. Its a little difficult to see them:

 

Finally, I put it in  an envelope and sent it on its way!

Now, all the "bees" put a little something extra in their packages....... so that maybe you can join in the fun! You could win a 6" square from each of us and have some creative time with our fabrics. Here's what you need to do: 
Hop on over to Lynn's blog:  http://smudgedtextilesstudio.com/blog/ and leave a note for her in the comments section. You can visit our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/theprintedfabricbee and get more information and news! Be sure to "like" us....

Create Beauty in my Soy Wax Workshop

This seems to be the week that many people are heading back to school. I used to love packing all my new school supplies and starting fresh with my pencils and notebooks. How about you?

I've scheduled an exciting  workshop on Vancouver Island where we can devote two entire days to creating beautiful fabrics with dyes and soy wax. I hope you will join me!

 We'll be covering topics such as:

• Layering Wax and Dye – plus Value Gradations
• Using Thickened Dyes – with Screen Printing
• Pattern Resist – Pole Wrapping and Clamp Resist
• Stitch Resist – a Surprising Technique! 
•  Using colour and pattern in new ways with sponging, stamping, drizzling and dabbing.

You will get a comprehensive supply list prior to the workshop, the supplies are all easy to find and I will bring all the necessary dyes, paints and chemicals.
The workshop is in a lovely 1200 sq. ft. studio space so there will be plenty of room for everyone. If you are coming from out of town, there is a Best Western nearby and we have ar5ranged a corporate rate for you.

Please join me on November 5-6, 2013 for this workshop! You can register and get more details here: http://www.studiogart.com/workshops/

Good, Better, Best

When my children were teenagers they would often play a game at youth group called "Good, Better, Best". The idea was to start out with an inexpensive item,  and by visiting neighbours, try to trade up for a better item. By the time they had finished the game they had acquired intriguing and often fun items to show at the group. The winner was chosen by which team had traded up to the "best" item. A well known variation of this game can be found here: http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.ca/
What does this have to do with my work? Well, I had made a piece of fabric with soy wax resist, dye and textile paint. I had envisioned a vibrant and exciting result. What I got was this:

Not too impressive! My vision was very different from my outcome. But I always remember my textile design tutor telling me "when in doubt, do MORE" and I carry that thought often into my work. If a piece of cloth or quilt just doesn't excite me, very often it just needs MORE.
So back to the wax pot and a more intense layer of colour.

Once I washed the wax (remember, its soy wax, so cleaning is easy) and dye out, it was much better. But not quite good enough, it needed MORE!

This time I went back into the fabric with textile paints and a thermofax screen. I printed in bright magenta and then rotated the screen and printed again with vivid pink. This is the screen design I used:

Now I'm happy, I think the fabric is the best it can be. I think you'll agree that doing MORE is worthwhile. When have you found that doing MORE gives you MORE than you expected?

I'm Happy, I'm So Happy!

Those who know me, know that I'm not one for self-aggrandizement (boasting or exaggerating) but I was checking my Soy Wax Inspirations DVD on www.amazon.com and found four wonderful reviews! As an author and teacher, the worst thing that can happen is to have my workshops or books to be found lacking anything. So to my utter delight the reviews were all FOUR stars ****

One review said: I wish I could give it 6 stars. Yes, it is THAT good! This is not the usual, simple stamping of fabric with soy covered objects. Many ideas presented were a first for me. 

Another said: .... this DVD gave clear instructions on layering dyes and soy wax which builds a gorgeous softly blended richness on the fabric that you can't easily get with regular wax! 

And another: Susan covered the subject completely.

Thank you all so very much, its wonderful to know that you felt the DVD was good! So to celebrate, I will include one soy wax resist fat quarter for any orders of the DVD, until the end of August. Don't delay, do here to order: http://fabricimagery.com/soy-wax-inspirations-dvd/

Thank you, Thank you!

August Blog Give Away

Thanks for all the comments last week, I had fun hearing from you. This weeks give away is a copy of the Quilting arts magazine with my Soy Wax Stitch Pattern Resist and a fat quarter with, what else, soy wax resist!
I want to hear about the first surface design technique that you learned.....maybe it was grape jelly down the front of your Grade 3 party dress or art class where you learned about linoprinting. Tell us about it! I'll pick a winner and let you know on Friday.

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!

Soy Wax Tips

This is the first in a series of tips for using Soy Wax on fabric. Today, it's Safety First!

Any wax, including soy, is flammable when allowed to heat to too high a temperature. Treat the technique with respect and ensure that the wax does not overheat. Use these safety tips for best results:

·         Use a dedicated  pan or wax pot that has thermostatic controls to regulate the temperature. Most slow cookers have too cool a setting to be useful and often their "high" setting is to hot!

·         Always turn off or unplug the appliance when leaving your work area.

·         Do not leave heated wax unattended at any time.

·         Never melt or use wax over an open flame or element. 

·         Do not leave your tools in the wax pot when not in use.  They can be damaged or broken.

·         Arrange your workspace with safety in mind. Do not overcrowd your work surface with unneeded items.

·         Situate your wax pot and electrical cords as close to the electrical outlets as possible. Do not place the cords where they could be walked or tripped over.

·         Be careful not to use tools that are wet, the wax will not adhere to the tool and may actually spit wax onto other surfaces.

Plan ahead for emergencies. There is always a slight possibility of an accident so know what to do when an emergency arises.

New Work

Last night I finished a piece that I had blogged about a few days ago. I've very happy about it as it is a trial piece for a much larger one that I plan to start painting and waxing the fabric for shortly.
I've finally titled it "To the Roof" as in the song "......up the ladder, to the roof" from the Supremes. You can check out the full lyrics here: http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/the_supremes/up_the_ladder_to_the_roof.html
The pieces suggested "Snakes and Ladders" to me, but I thought that was a little predictable! And I decided against "Burning in the Night"...........
I had made the fabric with soy wax resists, thickened dye and then a layer of dilute dye for the background soft greys. The pieced segments are very relaxed, very narrow sashing strips and I played around with a straight line machine quilting design using variegated black and white threads and a bright red 12 weight rayon.
Here it is as an unfinished piece:

And this is it, all quilted:

 And here is a detail shot of the piecing and quilting:

New Work - On a Roll!

When I got home after my travels I was feeling pretty tired. I spent a few days getting myself reorganized, unpacked (repacked too, but that's another story) and and generally re-orienting myself in my studio. Once that was done, I felt a little lost. No projects were burning a hole in me, no absolutely urgent deadlines to be met, so for a couple days I felt at loose ends.
So I took some time to putter about and not worry about working.....
Then early last week I got back into my groove and started working, really hard! Here's some of what I've done:

Friday Traffic and Rush Hour are mounted on frames and will be two of my entries into a show this fall. They measure 12" square and use my soy wax resist fabrics. Lots of heavy quilting!

Flywheel is also 12" square but has been backed and has a facing applied. I'm  beginning to really enjoy lots of dense quilting with heavy threads......

This one has no name, but perhaps you can suggest one? Again, lots of dense quilting. I may even cut it into a different shape......

As they used to say on Monty Python.....and now for something completely different! I finished this top today and have it sandwiched and ready for quilting. I may go and buy some grey threads, I seem to be lacking those in my stash! This is actually a prototype/practice piece for something I plan on later this fall. But I need to spend time with the wax pot and make more fabrics!

What have you been working on?