Experiments with Solar Fast

I spent the majority of my weekend painting the bathroom remodel. I wanted to get it done before the vanities, mirrors, toilet and closet were put in because I didn't want to have to paint around everything. The project is getting very close to done, we do have to get the plumber to come back to do the final installs and hook ups.

I knew my past week would be busy so I planned ahead and did some experimenting with Jacquard's Solar Fast. Solar fast works with the sun to give a negative print. The solar fast is painted onto fabric, an image or in my case leaves are placed on the wet fabric and it is placed in the sun for about twelve minutes. Solar fast comes in fourteen different colors, I used avocado and I painted it on muslin and two different hand dyed fabrics.

From the left is a strawberry leaf on muslin, a grape leaf on a pale gold hand dyed and a drawing of a leaf on a transparency sheet on muslin.

This is Honeysuckle on a green hand dye.

This is how they looked after twelve minutes in the sun and a good rinse to get out any excess Solar fast.

The top left is the one done with a drawing on a transparency sheet, it's the only one I'm not real happy with, but I now know that If I'm going to use a drawing it should be done with broader darker lines. The dark spots on the grape leaf are where there were holes in the leaf, I almost wish I'd used one with more holes.

The Weekly Leaf #30

I chose the grape leaf to work with, the others may get used in the future.

Daily Stitching updates

Line Dance #206-#209

Eleven rows of Line Dance

The Daily Paper #134-#137

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday"

Stitching

Stitching is about the only thing I've got to show this week.  I've had a full week that has included picking blackberries from a boat, then freezing most of the  three gallons of berries, lunching with friends, listening to a very noisy tile saw cutting tile to fit in the bathroom remodel, and spending a few hours teaching some other friends about paintstiks.

The Weekly Leaf

This week I used an old thermofax screen of a large maple leaf, as you can see below the screen is very stained, but it still works well.

The screen is larger than my square so only part of it was printed using Jacquard textile paint on hand dyed fabric.

Week #29

The color is off in my photos of the finished piece.

Daily Stitching updates.

Line Dance #200-#205

The Daily Paper #128-#133

Seven rows done, twelve more to go.

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday"

Monthly stitching project

The first three months of the year I did a monthly stitching project I called "Mom and Me, using some of my Mom's hand embroidered and crochet pieces. I stopped after three months because I pretty much lost interest. I'm glad I did them but I've decided that I really don't need to continue. In April I started a new monthly stitching project that I'm enjoying. I plan on doing at least sixteen of these. Each one is either black linen with white stitching or white linen with black stitching and has an off center circle. I'm very enamored with the work of Andy Goldsworthy, particularly his void series. These are my version, there are no stitches in the circle, it's just a void.

 April

May

June

July

These are each 8"x8", wrapped around a 1 1/2" canvas. I will do 8 different patterns and then do the reverse of each one so that I will end up with 8 pairs.

Daily Stitching updates

Line Dance #195-#199

The Daily Paper #123-#127

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday"

Discharge play day

I hosted another play day on Friday, this time we did discharge and some thermofax screening. Because of the fumes from bleach and discharge agents we started outside relatively early in the day to miss the triple digit temperatures. Then after a very yummy lunch (we all make something to share), we turned on the air conditioner in Studio B and played with thermofax screens.

Discharge pieces flash drying in the hot sun.

The group showing off something they did.

Lisa, Julie, Barbara, Thea and Sue.

I had challenged them to make something out of the fabric that they had painted the last time we were together and everyone stepped up to the challenge and brought back some wonderful things. Guess who forgot to take pictures of what they did?

The Weekly Leaf

This week in preparation for Friday's play day I used some Jacquard discharge paste and two thermofax screens on a piece of green hand dyed fabric.

Week #28

Daily stitching updates.

Line Dance #188 - #194

The Daily Paper #116- #122

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday"

Bathroom remodel

When we bought this house nine years ago we knew that someday we would have to update the main bathroom.We do have two and a half bathrooms in the house, but this is the only one with a shower. So we finally decided to just do it and this past week the demolition of our bathroom took place. This is how it looks now.

That is an exterior wall that has no insulation, we weren't surprised. The rest of the house has become a staging area for the new toilet, 2 new vanities and sinks, new walk in shower, new tile, new fixtures and rolls of insulation. The plumber is due tomorrow to make some changes and additions. In the mean time here is what we are using to shower with.

The Weekly Leaf

This weeks leaf was done on the gelli plate with a mask from Green Pepper press.

I ended up with a front and a back.

Week #27

Daily Stitching updates

Line Dance #182- #187

The Daily Paper #110 - #115

Today I sewed row #6 on and took a picture of the back which has its own unique design.

I fuse flannel to the back of each piece and frequently use up odd pieces that I have, so the back has a totally different pattern than the front.