Stamping with Rayna

I joined a workshop in one of my yahoo groups (A.R.T.) based on Rayna Gillman’s book, Create Your Own Hand-Printed Cloth.

For the first lesson, we’re stamping with household items. I didn’t branch out as much as I could have—I wanted to cut up a pool noodle and stamp with that, look for some interesting textured items around the house to stamp with, and find or make some stencils, but I just haven’t had the energy. I have quite a few hand-carved and hand-made stamps, so most of these pieces were stamped with those.

This piece was stamped with opaque fabric paint and pieces of Styrofoam plates that I cut up and drew into with a stylus:

This is a piece of painted fabric, stamped with a leaf pattern carved into a rubber eraser:

Here’s a piece of painted fabric stamped with a kid’s foam beads glued to a wood base:

This one is painted fabric, stamped with strips of plumber’s gasket glued to a wood base (ok, I’ll admit I cheated with this one; I actually created it a while back, but I think it’s a good example of interesting effects with very simple stamps):

Here’s a technique I learned in Lyric Kinard’s Playing with Paint class at QU; the “stamp” is a pear, cut in half and dried on paper towels, then coated with fabric paint:

And finally, this fabric-painted piece was stamped with a store-bought swirl stamp, then stamped with that rubbery grid-like shelf liner material. I added some hand-painted accents both over and around the stamping. I really like this piece:

Now, as always, I need to figure out what to do with these pieces of fabric, other than just folding them up and stuffing them into a drawer. I’m thinking I should start working with a pre-defined color scheme for projects like this, so at least everything coordinates and can be used together in a larger piece.

Sunny Days

We’ve had some very sunny and calm days, so I’ve been wanting to paint up some fabric with the Setacolor paints I keep buying on clearance from Michael’s. I finally got to it a couple of days ago.

This piece started as plain white muslin, and was folded, rubber-banded, and doused with various yellows and reds:

Here it is dry (this picture doesn’t do justice to the differentiation of colors):

I dampened the next piece of white fabric, then squirted various reds and yellows onto it, then squished it to work the paint through. I laid it out in the sun and sprinkled leaves over it to get the “sunprinting” effect. After it was dry, I stamped it with turquoise fabric paint and a stamp I made from rubber gasket material:

Weekly Square #7

Influences for this week’s 6x6” square: the "ugly duckling" fabric; a circular stamp I carved from rubber; painted fabric. The quickly-approaching due date for taxes (which aren’t done) and worry about the possibility of upcoming surgery represented by the black background; joy in creating represented by the foreground squares. The need right now for simplicity, order and balance in my life represented by the design.

Ugly Duckling Fabric

Despite my intentions (or just interest) yesterday to create a large quilt, I fell back into my habit of jumping into whatever struck my fancy at the moment. This may not be a very disciplined way to work, but it sure is fun!

I had carved a circular rubber stamp and was anxious to try it out. I took a bright, less than successfully-painted piece of fabric and stamped acrylic white paint over it. Interesting, but the white didn’t show up as much as I wanted. I then stamped quinacridone magenta, crimson, and nickel azo gold over it.

Before I was through, I had created the UGLIEST piece of fabric I may have ever seen. In fact, it was so ugly I didn’t even take a pic of it, and I’m a compulsive pic-taker.

I started cutting it up and putting the little squares against a black background, and low and behold, it wasn’t so ugly anymore. That will probably be my weekly 6x6” square, so you’ll have to wait to see it when it’s done.

Then I took the same fabric, put fusible on the back, and cut tear/water-droplet shapes from it. I fused those onto hand-dyed fabric to make another spiral piece for Lily Kern’s Fractal Fragments class:

I like this and think I’ll follow up with some thread-painting to “increase the complexity” (part of the fractalness of fractals, I guess).

I used the tiny scraps of leftover cut-out ugly (now not-so-ugly) fabric, along with sheers, Tyvek, and beads, to start my ATCs for a swap (instructions to follow closer to the swap):

And in between all that, I over-dyed my complex cloth project to bring the color down a little and make the whole piece a little more cohesive:

Maybe I should start every day by planning to do something I don’t really want to do; it seems to make me quite productive! (well, that, and staying off of Twitter for stretches at a time).

Last Week’s 6x6 Square

Ok, so I’m a little behind, but I’m determined to get back on track this week with the 6x6 squares. That means doubling up, but I know I can do it!

Thanks to everyone who voted for the “model” for this week’s square. In the end, I decided to go with this one, because she seemed to reflect my mood a little more. I'm going to have to do a little work to her face. As I was stitching, I made a bad decision to stitch invisible thread along her chin line; since invisible thread always seems to make those big needle-holes in the fabric, this made her look like she had a beard. I pulled the stitching out, but the needle holes remained. I tried covering them over with color, which of course didn't match the original color. At any rate, I didn't have the patience to try to fix her today, so that's a project for tomorrow.

This 6x6 square was influenced by all the work I was doing last week painting faces and fabric; by the rainy weather; and by my trip to Houston to see the Dr., which wasn’t as uneventful as I had hoped. It looks like I may have to have another surgery soon, so my painted woman’s pensive gaze seemed a little more fitting.

I’ll save the other painted gal for another week’s square.

Weekly Square #3

Here's my weekly 6x6" square. Since I made so many gecko postcards and ATCs last week, I thought that would be an appropriate theme for this week's square. Plus, the weather is warm and springlike, so I used spring-colored fabrics.

ATC Frenzy

I've been making lots of ATCs the last couple of days, partly because I needed to get some out for two swaps, and partly because I've discovered that making ATCs is a great way to use my "experiment" paper and fabric--you know, those pieces you make to try out some wonderful new technique, but that you never make large enough (at least I don't) to actually use in a project.

These ATCs are for a yahoo group swap; I used the fabric I made a couple of weeks ago from scraps.






The others came about because I wanted to try out my new Tsukineko inks. I stamped geckos onto fabric, then used the inks and Fabrico markers to color them. Then I very lightly spritzed the fabric with water, and dripped some transparent fabric paint around the geckos (the paint ran since the fabric was wet, but didn't really affect the ink-painted geckos).







I cut the fabric up into ATCs, and used three of them for another yahoo group swap. These had to be embellished, so I added lots of beads and some french knots with embroidery thread; and, they had to have a fabric back, which I'm not crazy about. I like the stiffness that cardstock or watercolor paper gives to a card, so the others are backed with cardstock. They're all sandwiched around craft felt, because I've really been obsessed with using that lately instead of batting for small projects.

So . . . now I have 9 gecko ATCs available, if anyone wants to trade. Leave me a comment with a way to get in touch with you, or email me (see the "email" link on my Profile over to the right). Feel free to specify which ATC you would like (Row 1, Column 3 for example), but I can't promise you'll get the one you ask for if someone else requests it first. Here are the available ATCs:

ALL THE ATCs HAVE BEEN TRADED; THANKS EVERYONE!

"Elliptical" Robin

What started as a round robin on the Complex Cloth list should probably now be retitled an "elliptical robin," since it took me forever to add my surface designs; instead of moving smoothly around the circle, the fabric got to me and waited . . .and waited . . . (so imagine my "point" on a sketch of the process being stretched WAY out). I received two of the pieces of cloth last year while I was in the hospital, and I'm just now getting to them.

The truth is, I can't blame all of the delay on my illness. I could have worked on these pieces starting a few weeks ago, when I felt well enough to take up art again for short periods at a time. But this is my first fabric round robin, and I've been terrified with each piece that I would ruin it. With my own fabric, it's no big loss (though a big disappointment) if I completely screw it up. With someone else's, though, there's a lot of pressure (I put on myself, of course) NOT to screw it up.

Ironically, once I finish adding something to a piece, there's a sense of accomplishment and joy above what I usually feel with my own pieces, since I know I've given something to someone else.

Now to the good stuff: the pics!

I knew I wanted to add some kind of stamped design to Margo's piece to give it some focus. I started by making a stamp out of some foam kid's beads I picked up at Michael's. I glued them to a little wooden plaque (probably not the smartest idea, because I didn't seal the wood and so I can't really wash the stamp now). I really liked this stamp until I used it on a test piece of fabric. Turns out there's too much space between the shapes for my liking. I'm going to play with the design more, or maybe I'll use it to stamp on fabric with a lot of color or texture or something.

I pulled out a sort of stamp/printing plate I made a long time ago out of cardboard, double-stick tape, and twine. I liked the test stamp I did with this one, but I discovered I couldn't really "stamp" with it very well, since some of the impression didn't show up.

I got out the Lumiere Halo Blue and Metallic Bronze paints and applied them to the plate, then laid the fabric on top of it and rubbed along the twine lines.

Because there were a few "character" blobs of paint on the fabric and I wanted to continue with the rubbings, I didn't want to wait too long for them to dry.

I laid a "serendipity" cloth I had on top of the rubbing and rubbed again to remove (or at least spread out) the little blobs. Then I moved right on to the next area to be printed.

I really like the way this turned out. I upped the contrast on the photos of the finished piece to show the paints better. The piece isn't really as dark as it looks in the photo.

As soon as I heat-set the paint and mail it off to the next participant, I'll start on the other one. I hope I won't be as intimidated this time :-)

Got Scraps?

I'm a hopeless packrat when it comes to fabric, paper, and anything art-related. I save the tiniest scraps of fabric, pieces of thread, and trimmings. I love it when I run across an article like the one in an old issue of Quilting Arts that uses scraps, because it creates the illusion that all that STUFF I've saved will actually get used someday! If you're interested, here are the basics:

Iron fabric scraps onto a lightweight fusible interfacing

Stamp onto fabric; I used Lumiere white and halo pink gold. Use a brush to fill in areas light on paint.

Cover fabric with one or two layers of sheers (organza? chiffon? I never know what this stuff is; I just buy what looks pretty, but in this case I did notice it was polyester, which is good for burning). I used two: a medium blue and a light lavender on top of that. Note: I mistyfused the sheers down, but this made it harder to remove them when areas were burned out. I probably won't do that again.

Stitch all over. I used metallic thread and invisible thread in the bobbin. It’s very hard to see the stitching in the photo; I free-motioned around the heart & wing shapes, then meandered between the hearts.

Burn away the sheers over the hearts and wings; I used a woodburning tool. I had to scrape off the sheers because I had mistyfused them. At first, I was thinking, "oh no! All that work for nothing!" because it looked a little strange and smudgy from the woodburner. After a few minutes, though, I decided I really loved the colors and textures. Now, I'm just completely enchanted and can't wait to do more of this.

And, I had one of those "in the art moment" revelations: unearthing these hearts by burning off the sheer layers covering them could be a decent metaphor for the way we sometimes protect our hearts by burying or hiding them away. How perfect that these hearts have wings!!!

Is it Spring Yet?

Even though the weather is beautiful here (or maybe because it is?) everything I do lately seems to look forward to spring; this could have something to do with my state of my mind, too, which is more optimistic these days.

I painted the pears in this piece about a year ago; they are actually stamped with a cut pear and fabric paint. I also had this wonderful fabric that I had dyed a year or so ago, and the two had been hanging on my design wall for a while, so on a whim I threw them together.

This piece makes me happy!

WIPs (or, "Why I'm Pooped")

Things I've been working on . . . thinking about . . . considering finishing . . .

The pic on the left is what is currently hanging on the design wall. A large piece of fabric that I dyed using the rubber-band technique. I'm considering over-dyeing but haven't decided yet. A needle-felted pear on blue jean material, just because I was curious about whether I could do it. A few strips I cut off of the "fire" piece I did a while back in Linda Schmidt's "Elements" class (they were too pretty to throw away; there must be a use for them, right?). A piece of "fabric" that I made by stitching scraps, threads, and ribbons through water-soluble stabilizer. Another piece of "fabric" I made by chopping up scraps and layering them onto ugly fabric, and under some chiffon or organza or something filmy, then stitching all over. The problem with things like this is that, if I put them away, I'll never remember I have them and will never use them. If I don't put them away, they take up space and I still never use them. Sigh. To the right, btw, is the "water" piece I did in Linda's class, still waiting for a border or a frame or some method of finishing.

Other things I've been working on: a piece of fabric I painted with some green colors, then overdyed with rust brown. I stamped sunflowers on and am waiting for them to dry so that I can add details, highlights, and shading with paint.

A crocheted baby blanket that I started for my great-niece, who is having a baby this month (yes, I have a pregnant great-niece, but really, I'm NOT that old; my niece--her mother--is only 2 years younger than me!). I decided to give her a quilt instead, and have been working on this while watching TV; not much good TV lately with the holidays and the writer's strike, so not much progress on the blanket.

January's journal quilt--maybe. I've never done journal quilts, but am considering doing one a month this year. I'm still playing with the idea and with this piece, and while I'm thinking about it I'm embellishing some beads onto it.



And finally, a pattern from a photo I took in Seattle of a stack of rocks. These were everywhere in Seattle when I visited a couple of years ago, and particularly at the parks. I have no idea why people stack rocks, but I was enchanted with them.

Breathing Room

First, a brief aside. I was flipping through a back issue of Somerset Studio as I enjoyed my coffee this morning, when my eyes lit upon this phrase: "the gift of curiousity and desire." I sat and contemplated this for a moment, and realized how profound it is. Curiousity and desire sometimes feel like the bane of my existence, because they're always driving me forward--sometimes in a thousand different directions. And yet, what would my life be like without them? Curiousity and desire allow me to see wonder in what might otherwise pass unnoticed; to seek new experiences and knowledge; and most importantly, to feel joy in both learning and creating. I feel truly blessed to have been given this gift.

This past weekend was crazy busy, and this week has been even worse. I was in an intensive training class for three days, and then came home in the evenings to continue working on the tasks I couldn't complete at work because . . . I was in training. I've been working 12 hours a day or so, but I still needed some "me" time--time for what I think of as my "real" work--not the job that pays the bills, but the work that feeds my soul. Anyway, I was only able to snatch 5 minutes here, 20 minutes there. One night I stayed up until midnight sewing, and paid for it the next day, but it had to be done.

So imagine my surprise when I finally had time to take a deep breath and look at what I had done in the past week:

1) Added borders to a convergence piece that I put together a while back.
2) Carved a pear stamp, stamped pears onto fabric, and overdyed.


3) Played with melting crayons onto paper and then adding acrylic; I have no idea why or what to do this, but I love the look

4) Drew a rather awful but somewhat entertaining sketch of one of my dogs (I think he looks like a middle-aged man wearing a sweater).







5) Rolled some fabric beads and melted some angelina fibers.

6) Pieced together a mini art-quilt from fabric I had painted, then machine-quilted it.

Border Crossings

What a week. They've piled so much on me at work that my shoulders ache. This is usually not a problem (at least not too much of one), but for some reason this week I've felt utterly exhausted. I can barely drag myself through the day. Does that mean I haven't worked on arts & crafts? HA. I wouldn't be posting if that were the case, because I would be dead. That's the only thing that will stop me from picking up a paintbrush or flicking on the sewing machine stitch.

I'm traversing a strange border between traditional and art quilting. Or maybe, several borders: sort of a Four Corners of the art world, where traditional quilting, art quilting, painting, and collaging meet. Maybe this will make more sense if I post what I've been working on this week:

1) I found a great book called Creative Embellishments: For Paper, Jewelry, Fabric and More, by Sherrill Kahn. Kahn's work is vibrant and inspiring, and even though I've created many of the embellishments she demonstrates in the book--fabric beads, paper beads, shrink-tags, angelina fibers--the ways she puts them to use in her art are wonderful. I made bead-wrapped beads, yarn-wrapped pipe cleaners, and melted-plastic & thread shapes. Then I was inspired to paint a canvas and add embellishments to it.

2) I'm trying to finish up something practical: placemats for the breakfast-room table. I find it fascinating that my house is completely decorated in these muted earth-tones, yet my art is much more vibrant and contains lots of blues, greens, and purples. The only blue in my house is painted on the walls of my craft room, which is a holdover from when it was my grandson's room. I whine every day about how I should have repainted it before filling the room up with so much stuff.

3) I'm painting fabric. Not just painting as in coloring it with fabric paints, but actually painting on top of that with geometrics, flowers, whatever pops into my head.

4) I've started a miniature art quilt; not really an art quilt, more like a practice art quilt (I'll post a pic soon; battery is dead on the camera). I dislike the design intensely and am debating on whether I should cut the center section (which I like) out and reattach other fabric as borders, or whether I should push along until its done. Sometimes I hate something 1/2-way through, but then end up loving it by the time I've finished futzing with it.

Is this more of my inability to focus on any one thing for too long? I like to think that all these interests will one day converge into something that fits nicely with who I am and what I love; maybe a little border-town of creativity that draws from the best of many worlds (and harbors a few eccentric characters and a couple of crazy outlaws; but what's art without them?). For now, I'm traversing back and forth across the borders of my various interests, but the lines are starting to blur a bit. Sometimes, if you're not paying attention, southern Texas looks just like northern Mexico, and quilting begins to look a little like painting, and vice-versa.