How About Some Exciting Surface Design Workshops?

Surface Design Workshops are in full swing here in Victoria, BC with lots of creative designs and beautiful fabrics coming out of the studio!
I have two more workshops scheduled for this month and there's still time to register. You can get the full details here:
/http://susanpm.com/studio-workshops/


Colour Blocking
February 24, 2015  9:30-12 noon
Try screen printing with thickened dyes to create “colour blocking”! By using an open screen, with no images masked on the screen, students can achieve large areas of one or several colors that can mix and combine on the fabric. These fabrics are perfect to use in piecing, as backgrounds for appliqué or embellishments and clothing, Learn to use value in an important way by changing the dye pastes to suit your needs! this technique was featured in a recent issue of Quilting Arts magazine.
Fee includes all dyes and chemicals. Your supply list will be sent when registration is complete.
$60.00

Gelatin Plate Printing (with a Gelli Plate)

  

February 26, 2015   9:30-12:00 noon
Create amazing prints on fabric without a press by using a simple gelatin-like plate. Use stamps, art tools, bubble wrap, stencils and more for exciting mark-making effects on your “Gelli” plate. Printed fabric is perfect for small art, collage, cards and home decor.
Discover the excitement! Fee includes a 6″ x 6″ Gelli Plate to take home, plus all paints and mark-making tools, your supply list will be sent when registration is complete.
$60.00

Studio Tour...... for another year

Well, the Oak Bay Artist Studio Tour is over for another year. I loved every minute of it and hope that I'll be able to do it again next year! Since we just returned from Italy 5 days before the tour, I didnt get any new work finished in those few days......but spent the time cleaning and sorting and arranging all the furniture and art.

 Visitors mentioned how tidy and well kept my studio is, but they didnt see the piles of stuff at the back of the basement. Today I'll be pulling that stuff back in and it'll look like a messy working studio once again!

I love being able to talk about my work and how its created, most visitors are curious about the products I use and the stages of development, they are surprised when I tell them that all the fabric I use in my work has started out as plain white or black and I've dyed, painted, and printed on it. I see these tours as an educational time for the visors and they are always appreciative that I spend time talking about the process as well as the end results.

It's interesting to see which pieces engage the viewers, it's often either my most representational or my most abstract, not so much the art in between. As I'm working more and more to the abstract, I wonder what their responses will be then. My plan for next years tour is to have all completely new work in two very different styles that I've been developing......we shall see what happens!

I was tickled that one person came in because her friend in Ontario gets my newsletter and told her about it. Another visitor recognized a piece from the Sooke Fine Arts Show and another person asked where "I was represented", meaning what galleries took my work.....oh, I wish!

I had a display of samples for the workshops I'll be teaching here early next year and got some good responses from those. Workshops always fill for me, but its nice to start early to promote them.
So those are some observations, the hot apple cider and shortbread cookies were a hit too!
And now....back to work!

Colour Blocking - Quilting Arts Magazine

If you are a subscriber to Quilting Arts magazine, then you've seen my article titled  
Colour Blocking - with Thickened Dyes! It's a very versatile technique that I'm super excited about!

One of the many advantages of using fiber reactive dyes is their versatility, they can be used in dye baths, flat dyeing,  and when thickened, can be used as a paint. Thickened dyes are suitable for screen printing, stamping, working with stencils and freeform applications. 

Their advantage over acrylic paint is twofold, they do not change the hand of the fabric, allowing the fabric to remain soft and supple despite repeated applications, plus thickened dyes are transparent, so layers of dye will change intensity, value and colours, giving the artist a wide range of possible uses for their created cloth.

 These fabrics, silk organza and cotton are layered together, then printed with thickened dyes.

 Great effects are achieved when you use many colours for printing!

 

Intrigued? Then pick up a copy of the latest Quilting Arts magazine, or learn at one of my Studio Workshops I'm teaching in early 2015. You can read further details here: 

http://susanpm.com/studio-workshops/ 

I hope to see you there!