Sticking with it!

I've had a little problem with the template for my blog, and hopefully I have them fixed.  I would like to post a collection of the latest prints by Marilyn Hines, one of my students in her 80's.  Marilyn doesn't think her work is worthy, but I think they are just spectacular!

Marilyn set out to design her own quilt fabrics.  She uses the clay paste resist technique with stencils, brushes, and or stamps.

Marilyn enjoys combining stencil designs to create unique fabrics.

Clay paste resist can be very versatile, and works extremely well on cotton.

This piece combines wood stamps, stencils and woodblock stamps.

Marilyn loves this design because it creates so many patterns when cut into quilt pieces.

Marilyn took great advantage of this white on white cotton print.   Her clay paste resist stencil design were elevated to a new level of design.

Marilynn has a new quilt top underway using many of her hand printed and dyed fabrics.  At present she is creating the pattern "Court House Steps" from 2" strips of her fabric.  I will be sure to post the results when it is completed. 

I will try one more time!

Backside of a beautiful Twist a& Tie piece by Linda Johnson.

More twist and Tie designs by Linda Johnson.  The designs also fell just right on this piece.

This is the back side of the Twist and Wrap cotton blouse by either Maggie Clark or Linda Johnson.  Sorry girls, this blog is have a field day again and I can't jump back to the photo file to get the credits straightened out.

This is the front side of a thrift shop cotton blouse with various Twist and Wrap techniques used on it.   It really turned out pretty .


(As you can tell by now the photos are not falling in the correct order, but I will continue to post them just to get them viewed.  I the credits get mixed up, my apologies and I will try to straighten them out later.)

I am going to try one more time to post the rest of the photos from last workshop  I hope FB and Google will cooperate.  I apologize to my students for the delay in getting the rest of their work posted, but it was beyond my control.  I will try posting and captioning one photo at a time to prevent the lockup.

This is a lovely pole wrapped thrift store find and I love the lace and the contrasting Arashi stiping.  Nice job, Linda Johnson.

This lovely cotton dress with kimono sleeves and handkerchief type skirt was Arashi wrapped by Maggie Clark.  Amazingly, the color fell in all the right places.  A beautiful project, Maggie, Congratulations!

Here We Go Again!

For all of my dye workshop members:  The dye workshop scheduled for May 15 at the Pioneer Florida Museum is being re-scheduled to the 22nd of May, 2016, again at the Pioneer Florida Museum.  Due to a scheduling error, a Volunteer Dinner was scheduled on the same date and time.  It is easier to reach the members of my dye workshop than all of the Volunteers who received mail out invitations already.  So I will see you at the Pioneer Florida Museum on Sunday May 22 at 9am.  If you know some of our students that don't have computers, please let them know.  I apologize for the mixup.

Indigo Blue and Sysyrinchium too!

Last Sunday's workshop had everything going for it, beautiful weather, energetic students cranked up for creativity and a great feeling of esprit de corps in the air.  I hope these photos can show just how willing they were to stretch the boundaries of techniques, create new folding and tying patterns,  and whenever possible to just stretch their wings.

First the clay paste resist technique:

Amy Grief's chicken stencil with stitch resist was adorable!

Nancy Greenland had a lot of patience with this stencil of dots!

Twist and Tie over marbles

Accordion fold then twist and tie

Getting the hang of Stitch resist.

Linda Johnson's folded and clamped piece had some strange results, but is very nice.

Maggie Clark's uniquely folded piece also had some strange results but the piece is lovely.

A  folded piece in multiple directions.  I could not predict this result.

This antique wood block stamp used with clay resist could have used more thickener

Maggie Clark decided to re-process this piece previously dyed with cochineal
Her hand-painted crows turned out beautifully when mixed with some cut stencils
and clay resist.

Then came the Shibori techniques:

Folded and clamped, but could have used a little more pressure.

It is becoming more and more obvious that blogspot is having a bad hair day.  Nothing is moving from photo files to the correct position.  I have tried starting over twice, but something is happening at the server level, so we will just have to do the best we can.  I hope we can keep the correct captions, but the names of the artist will be missing until I can solve this problem.  Thanks for your patience, and my apologies to the artists.

What if I mordanted my paper with........?

One of my Facebook friends asked in a post if anyone had ever used oak gall tannin as a mordant for paper.
I had not, but I responded that I was planning to make paper prints today and that I had some gall nut powder left and some Myrobalan.  I had found some late leaves on a Red Maple tree in the swamp that was also loaded with this years samaras (helicopters) and that I would try both today.
I set up two Stainless steel pots with plain tap water, and used 1 level teaspoon of gall nut powder to a half galloon of warm water and 1 teaspoon of Myrobalan to 1/2 gallon of warm water as a mordant/soaking liquid for my papers and my maple leaves and samaras. (Each in their own container)  I prepared each stack of prints between two ceramic tiles then bound them tightly with natural rubber bands and place each in a separate pot of boiling water.  I cooked them for 1 hr. and then let them cool.  The prints soaked in Myrobalan had a pale yellow background, some good prints and a couple of outstanding prints.  The prints soaked in gall nut tannin had a darker, more brownish background and slightly darker colors.  As the tannin prints began to dry, areas of blue grey began to appear.
Here are the photos from both groups.  These are both front and back photos of the same prints, so some will appear clear and some will not.  I can also tell that the stacks could have been tied much tighter as are was trapped between the leaves and the paper.

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These are all prints from the stack that had been mordanted with Myrobalan on 90# card stock.

These are the prints that were mordanted with Oak gall nut tannin.

There is as very real difference between the two mordants and I imagine that if you added iron at all, the gal nut prints would go very dark.  You might would need to decrease the amount from 1 teaspoon.

Fold and Stitch--Shibori Style!

I just got a chance to photograph Amy Grief's latest machine-stitched Shibori pieces from the last workshop.  She is really coming along with her design style in her effort to produce her own quilt square of indigo dyed Shibori fabrics.  Hope you enjoy seeing her work.

   

Once we get the hang of tension adjustment, I think these designs will really shine!

Springing into action!

Our last workshop was held on a beautiful Spring day here in Dade City, and I had several new students along with a large group of continuing ones.  Perfect weather, great location and an interesting collection of plant materials to work with made for a great time.
Most of the new students wished to start with Eco Printing on paper, so we got the workshop set up, mixed the vat of indigo and allowed it to settle while we walked about the Museum grounds gathering plant materials for our prints.  I sometimes forget that I have been doing this for a while, and can sometimes overwhelm new people with too much information.
We got back to the workshop room, and I had the students set up their soaking tubs for their papers and plant materials and tried to explain the why's and where for's for doing these things.
It was such a pleasure to see the eagerness on their faces as they put their creative energy into building their paper stacks between two ceramic tiles.  I like to leave them to their own devices during this time and just walk around making suggestions as to how this or that change might affect their print.  They are like sponges.
By the time we get this all done, it is time for lunch.  The students that are going to do dyeing projects have their pieces stitched, folded clamped or whatever procedure they are going to try with indigo.  Some are combining eco printing bundles with post dyeing in indigo or cochineal.  It is going to be an interesting afternoon.
I have not yet photographed the dyed projects, so I will only show a few of the paper prints today.  Opening the stacks of prints was like Christmas, and it was such a delight to see the faces get wide eyed  as they viewed their creations for the first time.  This is always my favorite part of the workshop.  It is also the busiest as there are so many questions about what to do with the print, how to care for them, protect them, use them...  What made this color and what was this leaf again?  Now for the unveiling.  I'm sorry I didn't get everyone's name attached to their prints, but time constraints were great.  If you spot your print, please do post your name on this blog.  Just click on the words "No Comments" and leave a reply in the drop down box.  You probably should chose a number for your print and then add your name.

Liquidambar, cotton leaves and rose petals with thin steel wires.

Liquidambar (top left), Gossypium leaves (cotton) bottom, along with some leaves of Hibiscus Snow Queen leaves and the calyces of the cotton plant.

Liquidambar and Gossypium leaves, steel wires, bottle brush leaves, rose petals.

Liquidambdar along with rose petals and a cotton leaf as a resist with steel wires and some oak leaves. 

Liquidambar leaf with rose petals, some Hibiscus Snow Queen leaves. a spent blossom of H. sabdariffa.

Coreopsis flowers and rose petals added some bright color to this print laid on top of Boston Fern leaves.  There are traces of iron from within the stack that bled through to give some edge definition.

I will try to get the rest of the photos done as quickly as I can so you can see the lovely dye work that my students did with indigo and cochineal.  I hope you all have a lovely day.