I'm Back

First piece of business is to pick a winner in the book giveaway. I used a random number generator and the number was 5 Penny Shine Gold. So Penny, drop me an email with your postal address and I will drop "Through our hands" into the hands of the post office.

For those interested in my journey. I met a cousin in Columbus, Ohio whose husband is very ill. I wanted to meet her but him as well. I am so glad I went. She isn't a computer person so we don't really know the exact connection (long story). Then I drove up to Fontana-on-the-lake in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. There we five close cousins including me. My cousin Cyndy and I are both adopted and she was luck enough to find both her mother and father. We also met her father and she was a sweetheart.

No real illuminations for me but we will continue to look, chart and try to find lost second cousins. Being with my blood relatives was such a magical experience and I miss them all already. Thank you for you kind thoughts and wishes.

Lady sings the blues

I am not a printer. This will become abundantly clear in my attempts to create an etching of Billy Holiday. Below is an image scratched into Plexiglas.

Here is the image after rubbing printers ink into the scratches

I covered the inked plate with paper (Reeves) that had been soaked in water, covered with a thin sheet of acetate then rubbed HARD with a spoon. I need a press!!

A very faint image but I will try this again with an image I can put through my pasta machine.

I share my failures as well as my successes but ALL are lessons!!

Art Giveaway

This week I am in Ohio and Wisconsin visiting relatives I have just found through DNA testing. I was adopted and I am closing in on my birth father. I am visiting 5 cousins: one in Ohio, two from Wisconsin, one driving down from Minneapolis and the last who I have met before from Colorado Springs.

In the mean time I am giving away a copy of this book: Through Our Hands

Please leave a comment for a chance to win this wonderful book.

Blue Book - just a start.....

This has nothing to do with cars. I am creating an altered book based on the color blue. I am planning on covering the book in some way with this piece of silk I dyed with MX dyes in hot wax, then steamed. It is from a Jane Dunnewold workshop I took years ago.

Transperse dyes

I was going through a ten year old sketchbook this morning and came across two sheets of paper I had painted with transperse dyes. I did these years ago and just for kicks I wanted to see if they were still viable. I found a piece of 100% polyester satin and ironed away. The heat from the iron causes the chemicals in the paint to turn to gas and become deposited on the fabric.

Of course these images were once very highly pigmented. I may paint right over the images I have and try again. I feel some hand quilting coming on.

On another note I was so surprised how many things in my sketchbook I have incorporated into my working life and how many things I thought were so cool I see now as very elementary. 

Felted Cuff

This summer at the "Maine Event" we are having a short felting workshop presented by Janine, my new friend from Ontario who recently moved here. We are also having a workshop on adding stitch to our work as well as some beading. Then I thought if people wanted to, they could practice their stitch and beading on their felted piece. 
In that vein, I decided to get a piece of felted scrap out of my basket and make a cuff. This scrap is felted wool with silk chiffon felted on to it. I cut it into somewhat of a "cuff shape" and got to work. 

First I stitched in a shisha mirror. Then I couched some sari yarn on the cuff and around the mirror.

I stitched these beads on using the fly stitch.


Then I picked out some beads from my huge bead stash. I used a larger cobalt bead to stitch the edges with a blanket stitch 

I had some two toned flat round beads that looked like they were raku. After that I made some dangley beads and called it good.

This is a Velcro closure

Marcella came to play

Today Marcella came over to dye some silk. She is taking a "Book Cloth" workshop this weekend so she brought over a few silk blouses to use for the workshop.

The first silk blouse

This is the silk blouse out of the microwave. Love those colors

Such yummy colors

This orange silk blouse was indigo dyed last summer but the marks look brown. Bleeck

Here it is over dyed with great areas of interest for a book cover

Look at that silk!!!!!

These were three or four monoprints on cotton that I made YEARS ago. I gave them to Marcella and we over dyed them today. Forgot to get a photo of the final product.

These are some crow stencils in dye on cotton

Here they are after scrapping on thickened dye

This was a piece of pre-treated cotton I had hanging around. I just dumped all the left over thickened dye on it and smooshed it in the fabric. A bit dark but it might come in handy sometime.