Working with friends

More results from our screen printing day at Vals. As a rule, I usually work in so many colors (to try them all) and wind up with bits and pieces. This time around I was going to try and work with only a few.  One of my favorite colors is Havana brown which is a grayish- green brown, also smokey grey - a blue grey and Marine blue. I had swatches to refer to and thought it would be a nice combination.

 Well yikes it looks black and awful. The screen while drying was very dark so I didn't know what to expect and right now I'm not happy with the results.

 This was the other screen done in Marine blue; I will have to wait and see until after it's washed.

 Kate had some good results using a kitchen mat with a flower motif.

 She didn't like all the white areas; she went back over it with more color, moving the screen just the slightest bit so the design was not lined up. It was very effective.

 Denny did a lot of layering when she screened. I love the feel that she got with this piece. I will have to try this, it has so much dimension.

 Fast forward 24 hours and here are the results and to my surprise, I'm pretty happy with them. They washed out well and I like the color. They probably could have used another color but I can re-soak them in ash and go over them with color which I might do.

 I do like the little bit of green on the right one.

 This was a totally hopeless piece. I went over it in yellow; it dried and then used some green.

 These were the 3 I gave up for lost. Very little of the brown came through, Instead the blue and grey which I like and just a tad of brown in the upper left side.

 This one I'm really pleased with; I added a lighter blue and that really made the difference.

 

Kate loves green and suggested a green over this one which I now love. I think I will do some discharging on it to create some light areas, but overall, I think it's a good piece.
There is so much to be said for working with friends, besides the wonderful social aspect of it, the brainstorming and feedback. I easily miss so much while working so close to something but someone  will walk by and suggest green or blue or......and it's the missing ingredient that just seems to make it work. A good day.

Fiber Junkies

A day of deconstructive screen printing - one of our favorite things to do was on the agenda for August.  We always meet at Vals as she has such a great wet space for this.  

 Val mixed up all the paste mix and some dye colors - we added to the dye table so we would have a good variety of color.

 Val makes sure we all have our own space to work.

 We "pool" all our texture items on the ground outside the garage so there's lots to choose from.  For a good tutorial on the process, go to Mary Stori's recent blog (a couple of blogs ago) on this.

 We've laid down our objects and screened over them with a colored print paste, then placed them in the sun to dry. Don't know if you can tell, but some of the screens are very flat and not your typical silk screen.

 They have been officially named by Kerr Grabowski as the "Denny" screen. Denny Webster and I were in the same week long workshop with Kerr at John Campbell. Denny came up with this idea for making silk screens using removable window screens. It's a great idea and I hope to go to Walmart and get some if they are still available;  it's a seasonable item. If I can find them and with Denny's go-ahead, I'll share how to do this....What I love about them? - they are strong and very thin, making them easy to store.

 One of Denny's screens had a web on it, done permanently as it's being used in a series.  I love spider webs and would love a silk screen of one.  A friend of mine from years ago, spray painted one with a fine mist and quickly put a piece of paper behind it to get the imprint.  I've watched spiders go to town with such diligence in building their web, it's hard to destroy one...PLUS, I'm afraid of spiders so I don't want to make them mad! But this is a good option!

 Gen did this print which is actually 4 separate prints and then very cleverly connected the white areas in between with color so she can use it as a whole cloth if she wants.

 Denny did a lot of overlapping with her printing, making it very effective.

 Kate was determined to use every last bit of dye on every screen, often using a dye color instead of clear print paste mix.

 She had some great results - I'm not sure what texture items she used...looks like some kind of grid mat or kitchen sink mat.

 This was Gens first attempt at this technique....the rest of our group have all done it before...As always.... Gen mastered it quickly and her prints were great.

Lunch was in our usual and favorite spot - in the treetops.  Vals house is high up and sitting on her deck is like sitting in the trees.  The view overlooks the city of Asheville...We also have this wonderful hand dyed table cloth that Val made........Just For Us  ( - :
Check back tomorrow for more results of our printing.
Judy

Easy Shibori

Our last afternoon at the beach, we worked on Shibori using paint instead of dyes.  It's an easy way to achieve a really interesting affect. It's also a good way to rework your not so great fabrics. 

 We had some large pieces of PVC pipe which work better for wrapping fabric as you can avoid overlapping or repositioning.

 Kate gave me a beautiful piece of fabric she had made it using tea bags. I was hesitant to do anything with it;  it was so interesting in and of itself.

So I approached this piece with a light touch.  I used a heavy twine to wrap around - about 1 1/2" apart and knotted it at the top. I didn't wrap too tightly as that would make it difficult to scrunch up which was the next step.

 Mary used a piece of her wool which was a little harder to work with as it was heavier.

 But she was able to scrunch it for the next step.

 Kate used a piece of marbled fabric she wanted to rework and used rubber bands to wrap around instead of string.

 I had another piece of dyed fabric from years ago, now in Kates stash which she generously gave back to me - tied and ready to scrunch.

 We used a textile paint - Setacolor in both opaque and metallics

 and applied the paint using thin foam brushes. I tried to grab just the very top edge to have a thinner line. I also wanted the effect of trees.

 This was a piece Kate didn't like which turned out absolutely wonderful after doing the Shibori.

 It's now a garden and I can see a whole cloth art piece being done here.

  I think Mary might have had the winning piece...I don't remember how she did this except she used a foam brush and 2 different paints including a metallic. It turned out great.

 Both my pieces turned out to look like trees and I was really pleased with the results.

 It was really a fun and easy technique and great for working wonders for your "misfit fabric".

And of course our last evening - a beautiful sunset...the view at the end of the dock...
What a great way to try new techniques.

And it just keeps getting better

And the fun continues....the next day we worked on more ice dyeing in the morning, choosing a different color palette.

 I wanted to work in mustards and browns this time.

 I used a "4th" piece on top of the scrunched 3 pieces on the tray as it seemed to work out well the day before.

 We also did another "confetti" bucket. This time - lime green and navy - 2 great colors that should melt well together.

 And the results are in...

 and we're running out of room on the clothesline. Most of these are Kates and Mary's.

 Kate had another spectacular "bottom of the tray" piece - far right.

 I loved this piece and don't remember who it belongs to but it's very mottled and beautiful in person.

 This is probably my favorite piece. I'm always drawn to subtle colors. This was a re-do of one of Mary's pieces; it came out glorious.

 think I see a lot more of this in our future.......

 This one dyed in second go-round in browns and golds.... I took this picture at home. I'm loving the crystal effect.

 And this is my "confetti" bucket piece. They all turned out great using the navy and lime.

 In the afternoon it was on to easy "Shibori" with paint - stay tuned for more on that tomorrow.