28 February 2015

4th Edition of Through Our Hands

Through Our Hands magazine - 4th Edition is out now!! Click to read

27 February 2015

Tutorials

One of the people who commented on a blog post gave me an idea for this post. Some people don't realize that I have 21 tutorials on many subjects. The tabs for these tutorials are just above, under my header.

Some are old and a few were done in 2015 like Snow Dyeing and Making a Permanent Gelli Plate. Take a walk through the tutorials and get some ideas for a project or surface design technique!!


  • Deconstructed screen printing
  • QAYG
  • Make a Stamp from a Photo
  • Simple Batik Tutorial
  • Unique Batik Tutorial
  • Best EVER book covers
  • Tray Dyeing Tutorial
  • Dyeing embroidery thread
  • Framing - 3 ways
  • The Art Greenhouse
  • MidCoast Surface Design Workshops
  • Paste Paper
  • Rice Bags
  • All About Thermofax Screens
  • What is a thermofax screen and how do I use it?
  • Making your own sketchbooks two ways
  • Travel Sketchbook with Removable Signatures
  • Making screens for silk screening - 2 ways
  • Avery Note Tab Stencil
  • Make your own permanent Gelli plate
  • How to snow dye

26 February 2015

Insulated Rubber Gloves!!!

One of the commenters, emailed me and asked where to get insulated rubber gloves like the ones I use for snow dyes and washing out fabric in ice water. I looked at the place I bought them but it was years ago and they don't have them anymore. Then I remembered I live on the ocean in COLD water so I went to my local marine supply store and I found many. These were the best for the least. 


Large above   Medium below



They are fleece lined and the fingers and palms are slightly textured for a good drip. The Medium size gloves would be good for small to medium hands; the Large gloves for larger women's hands. I have larger hands and I like the large because they give me a bit of room to flex. The medium also fit me tightly with not as much "give" when flexing. I could live with either size but I like the large ones better. The best part is they are only $9.95. I bought a few pairs and will have them in my online retail store when it "opens" the end of March. If you are interested in buying any now, email me or use the contact form at the bottom of this page.

25 February 2015

this and that

Here are things you might be interested in. None of them are big enough subjects to create a post. This is a very cool book I just bought "used" for 37 cents plus 3.99 postage. Great ideas and altering books is really fun. Unfortunately now I am so busy I really don't have time but soon...
I walk five miles a day with my new dog, Owen. I kept passing the fork in the road - no pun intended but interestingly enough it was in a fork in the road. It had been driven over so many times, it was a flat as a pancake. Finally, I realized it was waiting for me to bring it home.



This is one of those "vases" that flowers come in. What do you do with them. I feel guilty throwing them away and recycling won't take them. I decided to start sticking those annoying stickers from fruits and vegetables on plus any other stickers I came across. When it was covered I gave it 3 coats of water-based poly then used it for flowers. 



This is the newest vase which is close to being completed.



This is 6 yards of fabric I wanted to dye olive. It came out brown much to my horror. Then I over-dyed it with intense blue - a save!



Ironed and folded!



These are some cloth beads I made. One of my friends liked them - and she really loves color - so I gave them to her.



Here are new ones I made today. I'll tart them up tonight while I watch an old Columbo episode on Netflix.


Now those are all gone. I used them on pencil cases for my new online store which isn't open yet. Here are the replacements.


Above are waiting for their wraps. The ones below are the only ones I have wrapped and ready to go.



I am still making things. Here is a preview of two of the pencil cases.


Crows



Goddess Journey



23 February 2015

Another doll with copper hair.

This is a head with copper hair that I made about 6 years ago. I stuck it on a chop stick and it just lived in my cup of pens. Then I made those white heads and thought I might do something with this one as well. I made an air-dry clay "vest" to attach arms. How to dress her was a real challenge.


I had been making cloth beads and decided to make a bead to wrap around her neck directly on the chop stick.



Next conundrum...how to make "sleeves". I decided to poke a hole in her "coat, stick the arms with cloth beads slipped on through the holes and right into the vest of clay. I used Elmer's to get the sticks to stay in the holes in the clay. I also used a piece of wool batting to make a body to fill out the coat.




Her she is with her sleeves and coat in place. I am calling her the Sorceress 

Back of her coat with couched silk sari yarn, beads and the "rope" stitched over.


On her wooden stand




22 February 2015

Winner of the giveaway

The winner of my disperse dye painted crow quilt is Elle.

20 February 2015

Going from paper to cloth

This is a piece of tracing paper with a few f my handmade stamps on it. I wanted to make some stamps to use on organza as an overlay on a new piece I am working on.



Hot glue gun on a wooden block


Two layers of hot glue on foam core board


I always try my stamps first with a stamp pad but all three of mine were almost dry. I finally pitched them and ordered two new ones.



Two layers of hot glue on the X and O as well.



I really like these



Here they are with paint. The circles on foam core board were pretty anemic so I tossed it. I like the X and O stamps in paint.




Trying out a new substrate to monoprint with. This is acetate on a roll. It is pretty heavy weight and I think it will work well.


Circle in black. I like the texture.


18 February 2015

Another giveaway!!!

This time it is one of my quilts. I painted this image on paper with disperse dyes and ironed it on to polyester fabric. Disperse dyes will turn to a colored gas when heated with an iron and become impregnated in the fibers of synthetic materials. You can make many prints with one sheet of paper but they will get faint over multiple uses.

On this piece, I painted the crow then heavily machine quilted it. I made another with hand quilting then donated it to the SAQA auction many years ago. It also had wavy edges and I hand stitched it to a backing fabric. The same could be done with this one.





The 8 with the line through it is my signature.

16 February 2015

Experiments from a dream

Sunday is the only day I can sleep past 4:30 , yes, a.m. My new puppy of course woke me up to go out and I was determined to get back in bed and sleep til 6 - a real treat!! When I finally did fall asleep, I had this dream where I was doing some surface design experiments. One was to write on the fabric, one was the use of DNA strands as a design element and the other was to try to see if I could get oil based crayons to shed paint on cloth like it does on paper.



This is one of the notes I put in my sketchbook immediately after throwing back the blanket. It is Dye-Na-Flo paint over olive green oil pastel.



My camera will not focus on white (go figure) so I had to put a small paper box Marcella made me on the paper. This is freezer paper with a small square of white cotton ironed on so I could mark on it.



Markel paint sticks. Laura Kemshall once said, don't save these for some special occasion because they will dry out over time. Even in the plastic bag these are hardening after about 4 years.



Markel on the left and an oil pastel on the right



With Dye-Na-Flow wet (above) and dry (below). I will heat set both after 3 days 


Experiments till to come are getting a rollon deodorant from the dollar store,cleaning it out and adding paint to see if I can write with a rollon and making a thermofax screen with DNA. Don't you love dreaming?

13 February 2015

A thickened dye experiemnt

Pre-treated cotton.


I rarely NEED pre-treated cotton since most of my dye work is wet. This was the perfect occasion for nice dry pre-treated cotton. I wanted the thickened dye to "stick" to the spot I put it and not wick like it might on wet cotton.


I used both grey and black (MX Cotton Black 602a). I made the grey with a scant plastic knife tip of MX 602a and about 2/3C of print paste. The black was also 2/3 cup of print paste with a level tablespoon (dark) of MX602a. Below you can see I hadn't blended the MX powder well with the print paste. Colors are splitting out. Hopefully it won't be distracting.


I LOVE this grey and will do more with it later. I only applied the dye to one side of the fabric, crumpling it and doing a small amount of smearing. I want CRISP lines.


I covered it with plastic and let it batch under heated rice bags.


I absolutely LOVE the outcome. It was just what I was going for.


Front above, back below




Front above and back below. Either side is a winner.