Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Cicada Song

At my dye retreat in 2011 we experimented with some deconstructed silk screen 
prints. I have been looking for a way to use my prints. I started hand 
stitching around the colors with a single strand of embroidery floss.


Then I experimented with several direct transfer methods.


The most successful was a laser print – the kind with heated powder ink –
on high rag content letterhead paper. I transfered the print by applying Golden 
Soft Gel to the surface of the fabric. While the gel was still wet, I put the laser 
image face down on the fabric and rubbed to smooth out the air bubbles. 
After drying overnight, I wet the paper with water and when saturated, 
I rubbed the paper pulp from the print leaving the ink in the gel.

Here is a Website with video and instructions on 
“Direct Image Transfer” by Golden.

The cicada was a favorite of an old friend so I chose this vintage drawing.
I was inspired to try some freehand journaling by Deborah Boschert's 
blog here and here. Unlike Deborah, my writing is readable, 
at least to me. I wanted to explain my reason for the cicada.




"Cicada Song" 16 x 18"

I colored the cicada with Sharpie and added the organza 
leaf blades to pick up the red in the silk screen.


I'm still thinking about what to do next time.
I have lots more deconstructed silk screen prints.


Friday, October 4, 2013

The Recycled Challenge

Members of the Not Your Grandmother's Bee recently completed 18 x 18" works the were made of at least 75% recycled materials.


Just Crabby is a piece of a kimono that I dyed in 1992.


I used thickened procion dye to paint the crab.
The batting was purchased at a garage sale and
the back is fabric from the quilt guild free table.

Around the same time in the 90's, I created some batik tshirts.
I saved this batiked circle from one of them.


Aquarius


The circle of batik fish is fused to a piece of muslin from the quilt guild free table
that I dyed. The batting was a small sample of black 80/20 given to me by
Hobbs at a quilt show and the back is a man's dress shirt from a thrift store.

There are 15 quilts on display at the local SCRAP store in Denton for the
month of October. SCRAP is a non-profit creative reuse center in 
downtown Denton, TX that offers inexpensive reused art and 
craft materials, plus office supplies, to the Denton community in their retail store.

The opening reception is tonight from 7-9 p.m.


I can't wait to see the other quilts.
Hope to see you there!