Early Morning Painting

Really early morning stuff.
Nothing on my agenda today so I finally took myself outside at 6:30 AM to paint in the cool still air. The weather has been too hot during the day to consider but I'd gradually moved things out of storage so I could act at a moments whim and replenish my fabrics.

I have a goal in mind.
Northern lights.
Yes, I can abstractly cut fabric and suggest the impression but I think I should be able to get paint to do a reasonable job.  Its the fading off into nothing, and they way the colours cross without blending that is still just out of reach.
If I used opaque paint then the lightness would disappear, so I need to play, play play with the transparent pigments.

First 4 off the line.

Playing with 'barely there' I added salt to force the paint to move and hung it up to control the direction.

The drama created by the pigment movement is astounding, and the wetter the fabric the better the action.

Each is different but reminiscent of sky or water.
A quick hot iron set the paint so these pieces are ready for phase two.
We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Felted Bear - Day 3 - Background decisions

I tried several approaches to a background for this bear. The issue as I saw it, was how polished was the final bear going to appear.
This was a relearning experience for me both using the felting machine again and also trying a new approach to my bear friends.
I decided the best path was to leave him 'rough'. Identifying where you might find that style of bear lead me eventually to one conclusion, a petroglyph.

This also gave me a way to use the plant dyed silks I had made last year. Layering 2 of them over a piece of walnut dyed material gave me realistic rock and a warm background.

I added a few pin tucks and stitch lines to represent cracks in the rock. Black wool as veins gives some weight.

I'll play around with the finishing and the positions for a few days. I've even thought about adding a hand print.
We'll see.

Spring Melt - Day 2

I found a few hours today, somewhere between the laundry and cooking brunch for  my wonderful snow shoveling son. (He's making noise about moving out West, so I better enjoy him while I can.)

Still working on the sky.
It's surprising how much colour was actually in this painted fabric. The placement is very objective, according to colour.

Collage Fish - Final

I brought this down to 20 inches square. It was originally 28x 40. That's a lot of waste.
But it brought importance back to the fish.

I wanted a very light finish, but it needed a definite edge.
This is raw edge with an overcast line of three strands of wool.

Collage Fish

Still not finished.
I have made progress.
I eliminated the second style of seaweed and concentrated on making the remaining strands realistic. This involved cutting one inch pieces of 6 strand embroidery floss (because that's what I had) and threading it through the yarn, gluing it in place and them 'fluffing' the strands apart.
I'm not finished, but its heading where I want it to go.

HOWEVER another issue has appeared.
I have used the "SEWLINE" brand air erasable pens for several years now. As promised the purple line disappeared, sometimes within minutes and sometimes a day.
This time is hanging around too long.
I drew a straight line on the water fabric to orient the bubbles. I used a stencil to get the bubbles perfect and varied. But the pen marks haven't gone yet. It's been over a week and I'm still holding on to my faith in the pen.

Until that time the marks disappear I won't attach the fish to the background. I may be spending time on something I will throw away but until I make that decision, I keep making seaweed.

Weekend Past with Maggie Vanderweit

What with all that's happening in our house lately, it's taken me a while to process all the information I gleaned from my Natural Dyeing course from Maggie Vanderweit of Stone Threads Studio in Fergus Ontario

www.stonethreads.ca


The new background of this post is one of the jaw dropping pieces I created on Saturday past. While I've dabbled in this for a while, (I like cheap and dirty), there were a few nagging "hows and whys" that I couldn't find the answers to. I have those answers now and can move forward with this 'new' medium to play with colours, my garden and the surrounding countryside.

I had lots of fun with 10 other like-minded ladies. It's a little late in the season and right now my plate is so full, but I will get back to this.

In the meantime here are a couple of my "keepers". I have lots of time to decide how to use this new source of interesting fabric.

A Break in the Rain = Painting Time

I like to paint first thing in the morning. The breezes are down so my drying cloth stays put.
I mixed some fresh green paint this morning. I want to round out my stash for vegetation. While I have been given a LOT of green fabric, the commercial prints don't lend themselves to vibrant leafy scenes. They are great for the under layers, or background.

I did one yellow piece as an experiment. Those leaves that turn only yellow like elm, poplar and birch, are often mottled, so I spatter painted a few colours on a pale background. The paint movement is caused by re wetting the semi dry material causing the pigments to move away from the rapidly evaporating areas.

A few Blue pieces for future water? work...

The pigment movement this time is cause by salting the wet fabric. I'm playing with controlling the direction of the pigment movement by hanging the pieces to dry.

I just may get those Northern Lights yet.
And last.. lots of green.........

New Cloth - Dried and Pressed

This is the exciting part.
After the colours have shifted and blended in the sun, ironing sets the paint. Often the backside is just as exciting if not more intriguing or usable.
Some cloth is destined to be cut up and incorporated but some takes on the staring role. I never know until it's time to create.

The first three photos are the top side of the 12 pieces I painted today. They are all fat quarters.

The next three photos are the backsides of  some of the above. Choosing which is the "good" side all depends on where the art is going.

Some of these will stand alone as backgrounds or as a feature.

AT LAST - a Paint Day

While all this rain has made for a fabulous garden, I've had to shelve any ideas about painting.
Thought it was a bit breezy this morning I decided to go ahead anyway.

Today was actually a purge day. I've known I needed to do this for a while. The problem with holding this brand of paint was, (Seta Colour Transparent), it's not meant to be held this long, 2 yrs+ actually.
It was starting? to get gloppy, clumpy and slimy.

But I hated to throw it out. So I spent a fun couple of hours....FINGER PAINTING and used up as much as I could.

I went through the colours, by working around the colour wheel and blended 2 or 3 analogous or similar colours on a fat quarter of white cotton. They should dry quickly today.

I was also able to add to my coloured cheesecloth collection. It comes in so handy to add a different shade or soften colours in my landscape work.

A couple of uninteresting pieces I scrunched for texture.

And the "dead soldiers" will head to the garbage. Time to mix fresh paint.

Cardinals - Final

This piece will be hard mounted on a frame.
If I don't have to ship them......they can have the royal treatment.
One day to paint them and one day to finish them. I wish everything I did was so straight forward.

Birdie, Birdie in a Tree

I decided last night to tackle some of the birds and get them off my to-do list.
The Cardinals are the only ones in a pair.

After trimming them carefully, I auditioned them on a few backgrounds. In the end, I knew I wanted them against the sky, but not a plain blue sky, and not a cheater sky with clouds. Two minutes of staring at my shelf of hand dyed/painted FQ, one caught my eye.

(It hasn't been there that long but it was the devil to iron all the creases out. Perhaps the paint increases the sharpness of the fold?)

After making a "branch" from twisted wool, I auditioned several positions for these two. As silly as it seems the concept of dominance crept into my head. Is the position on the branch purposeful? or chance? ( Too much time reading about political correctness.)

Male Cardinal's head is obscured

Too much space between them

Too crowded

JUST RIGHT!

In the end I'm going with the one I like..... this last one!

1:30 pm

Couching the branch was quick. I straighten it a bit as the "corkscrew hazel" look was too unnatural looking.

I decided to go with a Spring theme, the buds just bursting. It took me a while to decide how to add that touch of red that most trees show when they are first coming alive. A little piece of maroon cheesecloth did the trick.

Small triangles of green fabric rolled and tucked into the stem gave me bursting buds.

A small piece of batting behind each bird, rounds their bellies a bit. Stitching them down will be the last thing I do today.

Birch Fabric

I spent a few days gardening, patiently waiting, since April 1, to hear if  had been accepted into the TO show in June. Their letters were only 12 days delayed but now I know I'm in and do need to replace the major yellow pieces that are going to the CQA show, later in June. The issue is, those pieces will be in the hands of the quilt show by the end of May, so unavailable for the TO show.
This TO show is the first weekend of June so I do have lots of time.
But I don't work that way. I now feel the need to start.
So
Today was material painting day.
I only need the birch material.
It took about two hours but most of that was drying and ironing time.

All the pieces I craft are different. This one was double spattered with paint, first with dilute black and then with a more concentrated black. Third came an effort to make some horizontal runs across the fabric but that didn't work well today. I had no "walnut water" left, so I finished this by "staining" with pale brown and pale orange, for those dirty spots on the mature trees. Anything else can be penned in at the end.

And a little slice shows how it resembles a birch tree.

 

Thread Therapy !

A few days of gardening, some sore muscles and a busy guild meeting!
That's enough to get me all twitchy and longing for my sewing machine.


My girls and I are having another workshop day on the 21st. This time we're being guided by another member of our talented group who loves WATER. As this is not a strong point with me I"m looking forward to participating.

Remember this piece?

While tidying up this morning, I came across the cutout for the moon.
To get into the mood I stitched this "little" piece, (maybe 10 inches.)
A small homage to Hokusai.

Leaves

Nice colour for a cold and dreary day.
Almost there, just a few more. I knew I was getting tired so when the bobbin ran out, I took it as a sign.
Enough for today.

Moonlight - Revised Final

One thing hubby often says to me when I ask him to critique my work is "It should tell a story"
and while the moonlight was wonderful, in my soul, it remained empty, hollow.

I hadn't intended to turn this into a moody piece. It may feel that to some.
To me, now it's complete, it has life.