Working…Working…

I made some batik scarves yesterday.  I used soy wax on these, but am wondering if flour paste would be good to use. I may have to try it, but if anyone reading this has any thoughts about it, let me know in the comment section.  I do like the crackly lines.

I am also trying out some new types of silk from what I have worked on in the past.  I really love the flat crepe, the silk satin and the silk charmeuse.  I think the charmeuse is basically silk satin with a crepe backing on it, thereby making it a heavier scarf.  So this has been an interesting learning experience.  Tomorrow I will be putting these scarves out at the artisan’s festival.  I am always interested in customer response when I have something different to offer at shows.

Thursday This ‘N That…

Yesterday was my husband’s birthday. He turned 49 and I made him a New York cheesecake. I haven’t made one of those in years…too much fat! Even though I used the 1/3 less fat cheese and low fat sour cream it’s still a lot of fat. Then I quilted the Rosa and Friends sample and put binding on. Well, that part is over. Now I just have to get fabrics dyed for the kits. I was going to dye on Tuesday, but a water main was broken and we had no water all day.

On Saturday I am doing a presentation called All That Jazz at Sew Tech. They asked me to do a trunk show as well as show quilts for classes that I teach and my hand dyed fabrics. I will also do a small demonstration of a technique. I plan to visit Dick Blick and Joann’s while I am in Evansville.

Not much else going on as I have lately been spending so much time on this sample. I have to get in gear and start working on pieces that I want to put in the textile exhibit next month. I have less than a month to go before everything is to be delivered to the gallery.

Some pulls from a soy wax screen. I love using soy wax! These were printed on the back of fabrics that had gesso and paint applied. The white areas are from the gesso.

Soy Wax and Dye

This is a piece of hand dyed (deep red) fabric, stamped with soy wax, then painted with activated dye paint (turquoise).  There was a lot of wax on this and it came out quite easily.

Yesterday I made a gelatin print plate and will be making prints today to post later.  Let the fun begin!

Call Me Color Crazy…

I think I am in love with color. After dyeing 15 yards last week, some days I just sit and stare at the colors in the stack. Sometimes I stroke them to feel the softness. Am I obsessed? Maybe. I am enjoying the intensely rich colors. (I also tend to stick my nose in the freshly opened coffee can and take a deep breath, too…these are a few of MY favorite things…remember that song?)

I have also been playing a bit with soy wax. Isn’t this luscious? I applied the wax in a random abstract pattern.

It’s a clean-the-brush cloth that I screened over with Lumiere and Textile paints by Jacquard. It’s very impressionistic. Now put it with this aqua blue hand dye…

Yummm….I think I would wear clothes in these colors. When I got out my 3-In-1 color tool, I found that the scarlet red color is the complement of the aqua blue. No wonder I like it.

I have also been dabbling with breakdown printing. I will post some pictures later.