Indigo play day

Six of us had a wonderful time on Saturday playing in an indigo pot. The original plan had been to work outside, but the weather didn't cooperate, so we played inside the newly cleaned studio.

Kathleen and Diane

Barbara, Lisa and Kathleen

Barbara and Trische 

Indigo blowing in the wind

The few pieces that I did

On our play days we always do potluck for lunch, and oh my, we do eat well. Two different salads, an asparagus tart, chili, deviled eggs, pumpkin bread and for dessert lemon cake and waffle brownies.

The pot is still good, so I can go play some more this week. We used the pre reduced indigo from Jacquard. Very easy to use.

The Weekly Leaf

I did a solar fast print in burnt orange on tan hand dyed fabric.

In the sun

Week #21

Daily Stitching updates

Gelli Prints #138-#144

Shades of Orange #65-#71

Linked to"Off the Wall Friday"

Soy Wax Play day

We had our first play day of the year on Friday, a sunny warm day. I did get some pictures of work in progress, but none of the finished pieces.

Trische watching Kathleen stamp wax on with a sponge.

 Barbaras pieces with wax waiting to be discharged.

Trische contemplating, she has one with paint on it and she' deciding what to do next with them.

 One of Kathleen's pieces with wax, I think she was going to discharge part and over dye.

 A piece of Sue's with dye over the wax.

 Barbara and Kathleen discharging outside

We had a great day and it was so much fun catching up after our winter hiatus.

The Weekly Leaf

This week I did my leaf with flour paste resist. I've worked with flour paste as a resist many times in the past, but it was always with at least a yard or two of fabric, so doing six inch squares was a bit different. The paste mixture is approximately half water half flour, and it is spread over the fabric with a squeegee. I did four pieces, each a bit different.

The top one has the fabric completely covered with the paste and I've drawn a leaf into the paste with a wooden skewer. The bottom three were done with a leaf shape cut out of a piece of freezer paper, the freezer paper ironed onto the fabric and then the paste scraped into the leaf shape opening and then the veins added with the wooden skewer. The flour paste dries and when manipulated develops cracks.

I applied textile paint to all but the one on rust colored fabric. When applying the paint I try to push it into the cracks. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture with the paint on it. The rust colored sample got comet cleanser with bleach brushed on it for discharge. I'm using the one that got completely covered with paste, but the others are in the pile for possible future use.

Weekly Leaf #10,year2

Daily stitching updates 

Silk Fragments #62-#68

The Daily Paper #355-#361 , only 4 more to go!!!

Black and white round gelli prints. I decided to do both black and white, so I'm doing two a day. So far I'm a bit underwhelmed with them, but I'm liking them more each day.

Here's all nine days stuck up on the design wall.

The last six days worth.

I'm using Versatex Printing Ink to do them. Each pair will be textured with the same tools but they aren't exactly the same. So my big decision each day is what do I  use to texture the plate before printing.

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday"

Thickened dye play, magic stamp and gifts

Last week we had another dye play day in Studio B, this time with thickened dye. I did get one picture of everyone hard at work.

Trische, Sue, Thea and Lisa all hard at work playing with thickened dye. You may note that the table is a bit high for some of them, I'm very tall and I had it built to fit me. Lisa took some good pictures and has them on her blog.

Sue gifted me with some little books she has been making.

She's been using fabric that she's done during our play days for the covers. Each book is about a  3 1/4" square.
Trische also gifted me with a pressed leaf, you'll see it next week.

I decided to go a bit abstract for this weeks leaf. I used a piece of Magic Stamp which is a flat dried sponge, that is easy to cut while dry and flat, but once it gets wet it swells up. I used a 4" x 6" piece which fits wonderfully on my 6" square.

I freehand cut a leaf shape out of a 4" x6" scrap of paper as my template and then traced around the template onto the magic sponge.

I cut it out with a craft knife because I wanted to keep the outer part whole.

This is how the leaf looks once I've gotten it wet. I wanted to keep the outer part whole so that in the future I can use it for a negative image.

Then I used Jacquard Textile paint and printed my leaf.

The Weekly Leaf #45

Daily Stitching updates

Line Dance #308-#314

The Daily Paper #236-#242

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday".