Marbling with Fiber Junkies

Our Fiber Junkies met at Val's house in September for a day of marbling. 

Her garage lends itself to messy work and messy it was but fun. The methyl marbling base, as my kids at school used to say, felt like "Ghostbuster's Slime". It is quite slimey but does suspend the paints very well.

When it's first made, it's very clear which is a great time to do a technique as shown below.

Using an eyedropper, paint is dragged across the surface creating lines of color which expand into larger areas. It's much easier to see what you're doing when the methyl is still clear.

The fabric is quickly laid on top; you can see the possibilities this beautiful print has.

Many of us love the stones pattern which is the first pattern that forms when laying the paints down...

and printed. It still needs to be sloshed in a bucket to remove the dripping lines of excess paint and methyl but looking good.

The free form drawing with paint and a stylus was the most fun - creating a pattern or picture on the surface.

I brought rakes for everyone to try. The old traditional patterns are created by using a series of rakes. This is all I used to do but really like the more spontaneous marbling now.

Gen is busy creating the beautiful piece you see below.

This is Gen's first time at it - quite a natural I think.

and more wonderful drawing with paint on methyl..

Here is a piece I created years ago as a sample - totally UGLY but thought I might marble over it OR even better - give it to Kate. Kate has a way of turning uglies into beauties.

and here is what she did. You can see the edge of the original which was a tad too big for the tray, Good Job...Kate!

Here are all our treasures which we brought home plenty of. More to come with a fabulous show and tell in next post.

PTA September 2016

I have been so busy with family, my blog has been purshed to the back burner - so thanks for hanging in there with me. I wanted to share our last PTA meeting as they are always so much fun and also inspirational - so much talent!

We met at the home of Janice M and managed to take a quick picture outside. Janice also gave us a tour of all the beautiful work they've had done on their property.

At the end of this stone walkway is a chicken coop, such a beautiful setting - lucky chicks!

This is looking into Janice's studio and the view from inside is even better.

Show and Tell is always such fun but this time, one of the best - seems like everyone has been busy in their studio. Dort has been working on a series - modern day family crests with sayings so apropos for each one. The above is Dort's family - "Full speed Ahead" as they are rushing madly with Washington, DC in the background.

A wonderful use of fabric!

And another one of her family member's family - "What's Your Hurry".

The detail on this is amazing which is a trademark of much of Dort's work. The coffee mug is a real little mug and....

the dog has a collar and carrying a leash.

And another part of her family - "Leave no Dish Unturned" - apparently into eating and picnics.

And again, such detail.

Dort is also working on another series with her cousin which centers around natural disasters - this one a tsunami. The large waves are effectively done using lace !

Janice showed us her new cat - This, who is a real "People Cat" so my being a cat lover was in heaven. Thia really enjoyed hanging out with us.

Georgia showed us something she found on facebook and tried it herself - all done with thread and tracing her hands - pretty clever I think!

Kate showed us one of her prints from our Indigo plant day. I did this also but didn't have nearly the great results that Kate had. This was done using an Indigo plant, rubbing it over some plastic doilies and then scrubbing it with soap.

Kate recently took a weeklong workshop with Sue Benner - she had so many beautiful pieces to share but this was one of my favorites - whole cloth and done on a large table with mx dyes.

And one of kates beautiful journals that she creates using her marbled fabric - beautiful and functional. Tomorrow is Fiber Junkies and we'll be marbling so lots to report...Til then...

May We Never Forget

15 years ago today, hard to believe it's that long that our lives would be changed forever. My friend Barbara was coming over to dye fabric for her studio; she arrived at 9:00 am. unlike myself, she had the radio on..on her way over. I answered the door and her face was white as a ghost. For those of us old enough to remember where we were the day Kennedy was shot, this is one of those days we will never forget .

 To all the wonderful, brave men and women who lost their lives that day long with their families, our hearts and love are with you.

 I had the opportunity to visit Ground Zero years back, it was an incredibly moving experience.

 I will be returning to the museum this fall.

 Our new Freedom Tower....

 and the memorial.

May we never forget.

Golden Autumn

I have done a number of quilted marbled pieces over the years...this is a more recent one that was part of the NC Arboretum Exhibit in July. This piece was a sample for the marbling book I wrote eons ago. I never did anything with it although I really liked the sample. I decided to finish it for the show; I used free motion quilting following the lines of the marbling pattern and then mounted it on a pre-stretched canvas.

 This was a more difficult technique as I used a mask  of contact paper in the shape of a leaf and laid it on the white silk before marbling. The marbling being a quick process did not loosen the contact paper shape so when removed I had some white leaves in the center of some pretty marbling. I then painted the leaf using silk paint.

 I wanted the leaves to pop so I put an extra layer of batting behind the leaf. Next came a full layer of batting covered with "soil separator cloth" from Home Depot; this "fabric" found in the plumbing dept. is similar to pattern duplicating material and much lighter than a traditional backing fabric and it would never show.

 I wanted decorative threads for the quilting and decided on 2 different ones - a rayon for the overall quilting and Burmilana to outline the leaves. Burmilana, think it's been shortened to just Lama is a wool acrylic thread that can be used through the top of your machine with a topstitch #16 needle. It has a wonderful presence although it does create a lot of fuzz underneath the throatplate area and should be cleaned often.

 I quilted the leaves first and then went onto the background - a mighty tedious job but the piece was small so it didn't take forever.

And the finished piece - "Golden Autumn".

Sunprinting with Fiber Junkies

We had a second meeting of Fiber Junkies this month as we had to miss July completely...we were shy 2 members but had Gen's daughter Carol with us. Carol loves to do what we do - making messes with fabric (has her mom's genes) and fits in with our group so perfectly. We decided to keep the meeting light and hope for sun as we decided to revisit sunprinting.

 We used Set a Color paints - transparent but I do know that any transparent paint will work. I've used Createx transparent with good results. The paint needs to be watered down...it's suggested 2 parts water to 1 part paint. If they are not thinned enough, the printing can not take place as the paint is too dense to start with.

Most of us used cotton, but really anything that works with Set a Color should work fine. Paint was applied to the surface - on the left Mary is using wool as she works with wool so much.

 Clever Carol and Gen used several colors which made for a more interesting finished effect.

Gen also used an interesting piece of netting to lay on top. I didn't think it would do much as it was so thin, but it really worked well.

 Some really good things to use - a plastic holder for paper plates and a plastic rack for holding yards of lace.

 Things that were heavier and able to make a tight contact with the fabric gave the best results....above a mat for the sink - also great for deconstructive screen printing.

I had some gummy stick on window decals purchased after Valentines day and on right, fabric leaves.

The glittery fern worked well as it sat closely to the fabric surface.

 I didn't see the results of the above as we left before all things were uncovered....

The sequin waste worked great...one of my favorites...along with the stencils.

 In my never-ending quest to do something with leaves, I did find some flat ones that seemed to hug the fabric....at last, maybe I'll get some good leaf images.

 Here was some construction fencing....

AND NOW THE RESULTS....The paper plate holder and lace rack - great!...the sequin waste...really great. We all loved the way some parts not touching the fabric allowed for some spaces. My leaves (on right)...total failure and my cupid's hearts...semi okay

The fake glittery fern was kind of nice....as for the rest...will have to wait until next time to see the results. After these dry, they should be heat set with an iron (or whatever your paint recommends) then rinsed in a bucket of water.
Til next time....