Silk

Corn 2016


Corn No. 49 from 2012

Just when I thought I didn't have anything more to say about Corn, I was asked to participate in a three woman show come January 2017.  I was asked if I would be interested in creating some new Corn pieces for the show.

I said yes, all the while thinking I'm done with Corn, why am I saying yes?

Well it turns out I'm not done with Corn. The subconscious wants what it wants, and it was clearly wanting Corn.

Yesterday I managed to purchase the stretched canvas upon which my new pieces shall be mounted, and for a really good price.


Upon that purchase all sorts of imagery of finished pieces popped into my head. This time I'm going for a more earthy approach, using actual soil, clays, ochers, and earth pigments in combination with indigo, rust, and natural dyes (yes I'll be dyeing with corn husks, leaves, cobs, etc, with just a touch of digitally printed fabrics that lends to the modern digital tech age today's farms are becoming!

Stay tuned!!!


Fiber Purge Begins!!!


Tomorrow I shall be listing in my new ebay store, new because they apparently closed mine due to not using it for five years, wool and silk fibers of all types!  I also have gobs of needle felting and knitting tools I'll be divesting of, as I am now going in an entirely different direction with my studio.


Mohair in several color ways.


Loose hand dyed wool fibers of several varieties including llama and alpaca.



And I will also be divesting of some of my natural dyes, not the indigo or cochineal (yet anyway).

Studio Purge Part One

Over the next few days I will be posting not only images of my studio spaces, for accountability purposes, but also to let you know what is available.  I will be selling some items check out the studio purge tab for daily updates, and others will go to new homes for the sole cost of shipping!


In thinking about my "brand" I've had to make a decision as to which mediums and colors I will be working with and "why"!  This wall here contains beads, findings, and all sorts of mixed media objects that is and should be heaven for most artists.  Well this was true until today when I got into the last fight I ever want to have with myself over studio space EVER again!

Yes that is right, you know every time you scream in frustration because you can no longer move in your studio space, or find that book you need to finish a project at the last hour, you are fighting with yourself!

Stop fighting with yourself!


More beads, jars of silk cocoons, buttons, bells, baubles, and all sorts of nummies.  The crates above are filled with mixed media papers, findings, Angelina fibers, pine cones, silk carrier rods, and who knows what else.  Well I'm planning to start excavating tomorrow so we will soon find out what else lies within those crates.


Far shelf, more beads, findings, jars with little bells in them... you get the picture.  Foreground that's supposed to be my sewing table and right now it's loaded with drawing and painting supplies.


The other side of my sewing table.  The plastic drawer stuff (to the south of the table) are filled with vintage, antique, and somewhat modern laces, threads, buttons, ric rac, you name it, oh and a ton of handspun yarns from fibers I carded and dyed myself and in some cases even acquired from local sheep I used to sheer.


The wall of thread!  And those little plastic drawer organizers, if you guessed filled with beads you'd be correct.  And they are also over flowing with embroidery floss, pearl cottons, and the like.



More thread, and those plastic tubs are filled with... if you guessed vintage and antique trims you'd be correct! Two of the tubs are also filled with natural dyed wool, silk, and cotton fabrics.  All of those baskets and tubs on top are filled with more fibers, more threads, and more mixed media objects, seeing a theme here  yet???


And sweeping past the entrance to my sewing room... More threads under the clock.


More fabric, more threads, more fibers, and no place to put finished artwork!  This is the north wall in my sewing studio and I want ALL of this stuff to go bye bye, with the exception of the shelf (you see the side of it here) with the clock.  My goal is to put my drawing table and new flat file cabinet (that hubs is building for me) on this wall.


Finally the corner where I started, the NW corner of my studio.  Again more fibers, more threads, more fabric, all dyed with natural dyes.  Oh and a ton of knitting supplies and latruador that I'm never going to get to in this life time.

Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow the area of my studio known as the "overflow" area.

Queen Anne's Lace: Faded Memories


I'm not sure if I'm finished with this piece or now, notice the tattered edge on the right side?  I'm not exactly happy with it at the moment and am thinking of some additional layering.


If you look close enough  you will see that there is additional stitching beneath the hot pink silk organza net, first layer is a silk damask type fabric I dyed with cochineal and then machine stitched to a layer of timtex.


I stitched a grid of sorts and some Queen Anne's Lace onto the first layer using a variegated pink rayon thread.


The initial audition.  The piece to the left consists of cochineal dyed silk organza atop a layer of indigo dyed silk damask fabric which may or may not be finished tonight.

In with the Old


French Silk Dyes on Haboti with Gutta Resist circa 1994/95

I made this piece in a fabric dyeing class back in the dark ages, Priscilla Sage was my instructor at the time and I was also taking a 2D Mixed Media course with Jan Friedman which landed myself and a dozen or so of my classmates in a local cemetery for some black and white photography inspiration.

So yes those are supposed to be tombstones I painted onto the fabric.  I never did anything with this piece but this weekend during the open studio one of my visitors proceeded to go through my fabric stash, yeah she and her friends REALLY did do that, and she pulled this beauty from the stash.  

Of course they all wanted to know why it was wadded up in an old suitcase with dozes of other pieces of silk fabric instead of perfectly folded and pressed into squares. It's very simple, silk is like your hair, so just lightly crumple it and drop it into the place you wish it to live, do not press perfect lines onto your silk unless you wish for them to be permanent.

I will spritz this piece of fabric with some room temp distilled water while it hangs, and the wrinkles and crinkles will gently disappear.  After that I think I will back this piece with some batting and a cotton backing and then add some stitching, or not.

A Crow Project


Crow Stencil  from StencilGirl Products outlined in Pitt Pen with Shiva Paintstiks in iridescent copper and white, on madder lac dyed silk organza layered over white silk dupioni fabric.  Timtex core with white cotton backing.  Machine and hand stitching.

The paintstiks don't show up well in this photo, will take a photo tomorrow using natural light.

Gelatine Plate Printing with Natural Dyes


This is from several years ago, I have a geliplate my best friend Brenda got me for xmas last year that I really, really need to use! I'm thinking some earth pigments and my Black Birds in Tree stencil onto fabric for starters.  The plate in the above photo I made myself, here I'm using lace and trims as resists for the print which I made onto fabric.


Cotton fabric, that I do believe I compost dyed, osage orange on the gelatin plate with some lace trims gave a nice resist pattern.  After curing and washing the osage orange color is about 30% of it's orignal brightness on cotton fabric.  Now to find this piece of fabric in my stash and audition some threads for stitching.

WIP - Crow Tree


Now in the auditioning stage.  Digitally printed silk organza fabric layered on top of painted timtex.

 
The digital print laying on top of some rosin paper, that I have covering my sewing table.


Digital silk print layered on top of a cotton digital print.  I'm experimenting with the ethereal values of the prints at this point to see which direction I want this piece to go.

WIP's - Sandstone Series

 
This Sandstone piece has been in a bucket for the past decade, every once in awhile I dig it out and stare it it on my design wall (in my case my design wall is a bookshelf).  Today's it's day, I've decided to seperate the two pieces of fabric and overdye the top piece with kutch, and maybe some kamala.
 

Detail, the reddish fabric is cochineal and rust dyed silk fabric.


Another Sandstone WIP that has been languishing in the storage bucket for the past 10+ years.  It's mostly hand stitching on the surface, tonight I have plans to add some machine stitching and possibly a few layers of constructed cloth.  This piece is small enough to experiment with pushing the surface.

Stitching Inspiration 030713

 
Slurry dyed, natual dyed, silk fabric, stitched into narrow rows, I will be adding the wool batting and backing fabric this evening and will start stitching tomorrow, I can't wait to see what emerges out of this piece.



Love the subtle undulations of the lines on this piece of chert, or is it flint, I don't remember.