Stuff…

I have not blogged in a while.  I have been busy prepping for a couple of shows as well as my solo exhibit.  But tonight I will post a couple of things.

First, I finished two silk scarves today.  They have been rusting for a little too long…I had a show over the weekend so they were left alone with the steel wool. But today I did more printing on them with  new Thermofax screen designs and a 50 cent on clearance bottle of Lumiere paint in Old Brass color.  It looks good on rust dyed silk.  One scarf  is silk habatoi and one is crepe de chine.

Then there is this photo of an unknown bush that I took at Harmonie State Park in Indiana a couple of weeks ago.  The flower is pretty but I don’t know what it is.

I am trying hard not to freak out as the countdown to the exhibit goes on and I look at all the work I have left to do.  I think I see some late nights coming! I wonder if I really have time to take a day off to go to St. Louis for the opening of Speaking of Fibers (I have two pieces in it) and to view Quilt National…you betcha I do!~

 

Thermofax Screens

I had a commenter ask about where to get Thermofax screens made, so I decided to just do a post about it.

Thermofax screens are awesome to use if you don’t want to mess with the photo emusion process on silkscreens.  They are great to use to make prints on cloth or paper with your own photography.  I turn my photos into black and white and then darken the black as much as I can.  The copies of these need to be toner copies when you send them off for making Thermofax screens.  HOWEVER, I have an Epson CX4800 printer that uses Durabright inks.  Believe it or not, I accidentally send these prints to my screen maker and she was able to make screens that work perfectly from them, SO that means that the Durabright black ink has enough toner in them to burn a screen with.  I was amazed.  But for most of you out there using an inkject printer, this won’t work.  You need copies with toner in the ink, either from a laser printer or a copy machine.  I hear the copy machines with toner are getting rare.

So here is the list of people that I know from the quiltart list who make Thermofax screens for a small fee.  Get in touch with them!  Your other option is to spend tons of money purchasing one of the old machines that does this and spending money on supplies for it.  I find it easier just to make my designs or prepare my photos and just send them off to these gals.

Pam Relitz is in the Chicago area:        rockitz@tds.net

Bobbie Vance is in the Indianapolis area:    fiberartbv@aol.com

Lynn Krawczyk, I believe is in Michigan:   tatgirl207@earthlink.net

Construction fence rubbing

7/26/11 Update…I just received a comment asking to add this link to my list of Thermofax screen makers: http://www.northwoodstudios.us/screen_making_services.html

Check them out!

Tuesday This ‘N That…

Here is the piece I started the other day. The quilt is red orange and blue green.  So I used blue green rayon thread on the red orange part and red orange thread on the blue green part.  I quilted a pattern and left parts of it unquilted, which, in the end, made another design, because the unquilted parts “pouf” a bit.  Can you see the “stripes” in the red part?

They are very subtle… if you click to enlarge, you might see it better.

Full view.

I’m not sure that it’s done…I was thinking of doing something in those “poufs” but I don’t think I want big contrast, so I may just let it be.

On another note, I am working on a lecture/demo on Journal Quilt techniques.  This is a sample I did today using painted fusible web and dryer sheets on a gessoed quilt block.  The two metal pieces aren’t attached, but I like the looks of them.  I may use them…I may not.  I’ve been hoarding them because I couldn’t get any more.

I shut the phone off today.  I can’t stand it when it rings while I am trying to concentrate.  And I only have two weeks left to plan this lecture and workshop.  I have to be able to think.  So I left a very polite message that I was working very hard on a class and wouldn’t be able to answer the phone today…it was heaven.

New thermofax screens arrived in the mail today…then I remembered…I forgot to send her toner copies.  Well…they still worked…printed on my Epson inkjet printer.  I guess there is carbon in that there black ink.  Lucky day for me indeed.

What I’ve Been Doing…

I have put it off for too long. Last night I messed around with some ideas for Thermofax screens. I am mostly drawn to, 1. buildings, structures,  or architectural elements, and 2. patterns, grids and the like.
Here is a pattern I like…it is plastic mesh from a potato bag.

Here is a building I want to use.

This is from a piece of dye painted cloth.  I like the pattern of it.

I don’t have my own Thermofax machine…yet…so I work on a group of designs and send them off to have screens  made for me.

Not much else going on.  I didn’t get any dyeing done this weekend, but watch out tomorrow!  We are having some early spring-like weather… terrific for getting some dyeing done.  I’m ready to do some serious work.

Friday/Saturday I sorted through a pile of unfinished small projects.  I get inspired with ideas as I go through stuff like this, and made notes  for a lecture I will be giving in March.  There are other computer-related jobs to do too, but sometimes I just don’t want to sit down and do those!