"Transitions" - Light and Dark

One of my online groups chose the theme challenge for the month of June - Light and Dark.  It had me for a while. Couldn't get inspired.

I had previously done a piece on white paper with black printing ink, white paint and Pigma pen called "Directions."  This piece was inspired by that artwork but in the opposite.  I used black fabric, white molding paste (which gave it some texture), Pigma pen and white paint (just for the white dots). The title of this piece is....

Transitions

Directions

(the piece that inspired the art above)

Weathered Red Door

Just completed another of my Up Close and Personal pieces for one of my groups.  This series is based on several favorites of my own macro photos which I wanted to "redo" in textiles. Ancient Cactus was my first piece.

This is from another photo I took in a small town in Texas during a trip there. I LOVE peeling paint and old buildings and doors and this just fit all of those. It is from an old store front but the premises were empty at the time we visited. Wish I could have found a date on the building or something but all I know is...it was very old.

The door is from a breakdown screen print I had done at least a year ago. Found it interesting how much it looked like the weathered red door without a whole lot of altering!! I cut out portions so the black could show through when appliqued. I also used a bit of acrylic paints and Shiva paint sticks to get just the right look.  The "grate" in front of the door is some silver mesh.  It was way too shiny for this old door so I painted it with a charcoal gray acrylic.  I love the way it turned out.  So....here it is....along with it's inspiration photo.

Weathered Red Door

I'll be posting this on Nina Marie's Off The Wall Friday.

Two Roads Diverged

Well, it is finally done.
I did two sessions of painted shibori to make the woods. The cut out the two roads diverging. The "leaves" and "branches" were made with a brayer wrapped with a rubber band. I did some additional painting to creat the undergrowth by the road. The black marks on the aspen trees were done with a Pigma pen.

"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost is my favorite poem and my life story all rolled into one. It is short so I want to share it after the photo.

Two Roads Diverged - Kelly Hendrickson

The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Completed Today

The challenge topic - Favorite Movie

This sounded easy at first but proved to be a bit difficult. Many of the movies I love and the parts that make me love them are more concepts and not readily expressable (a new word I just made up!) in 2D art. But someone reminded me of Fiddler and I knew at once that was what I wanted to do.

I love this story. I laughed...I cried.  And many of the lines and songs from this movie are a part of our life now.  One of my favorites is when Tevia is talking to God in the barn about wishing he were a rich man.  "Would it spoil some great eternal plan...if I were a wealthy man?"  And the relationship with his wife and the loves of his daughters...so many faces of love and devotion.

Fiddler On The Roof - Kelly

This piece has all kinds of my own fabrics - hand-dyed, snow-dyed, discharged, ruching, confetti dyed, stamped, drawn on, painted. Only the fiddler is not my fabric but black Kona.

I have a couple of other pieces that will be completed by Monday. LOTS of handwork these coming evenings!

Gathering Pieces

I'm beginning to gather fabric, screen prints, etc for a series I'll be working on in 2013.  While some friends were here at the studio for a "play day", I did some pounded fabric to have on  hand for this series.  Tonight I remembered to check on it and it was all ready to iron.  I'm very pleased with how it all turned out! Love using Lumiere paints in this technique!!  These are close up photos.

Weekly Creativity - Week 6 - Large Screen Prints

While I have a "regular" sized screen for printing, I was excited when I read somewhere about how to make large screens...especially for more organic forms.  I so wish I could remember where I saw it so I could give credit to the person from whom I learned this technique.  If you know...please post it in Comments below!

The "screen" is made from organza taped at the edges.  Lesson for next time:  It is pretty much a two people job...at least for me it would have helped to have an extra pair of hands!  The organza shifted at a breath and the duck tape has a very permanent stickiness!!  But I kept on and finally got a fairly workable screen.

The completed "screen"

I then got out my Golden Matte Medium to spread in a rather haphazard manner onto the screen.  I put it all on top of some packing paper so I could just throw that away when it was done.  Lesson for next time: Don't even TRY to use a plastic spoon!  The sturdy wooden one worked MUCH better.

The medium

With the gel medium spread onto the organza screen, it needed to dry very well. I hung it up to dry overnight.

Drying the screen

When it was very very dry, the medium is quite sturdy...at least so far.  I used the duck tape again to lace a spare piece of  fabric down onto my painting surface. It needs to be very stable I think.  The first printing was made with light blue acrylic paint applied with a squeegie thingie.  Lesson for next time: It does take a good bit of acrylic to cover this size.  I had to get out another small bottle. 

First painted layer print

I then removed the screen to see just how the printing went.

Screen removed

Mainly because I used acrylic paints, the screen had to be rinsed right away. I just filled my sink enough to cover it and soaked it for a minute, then used the sink sprayer to get all the paint off.

Screen Rinsing

I then repeated the printing process with two different colors of green.  I rather like the effect.....kind of like peeling paint.  I especially like the part over the clocks.  

Printing completed with second layer of two greens

Clock detail

And the screen is very much usable again! I'm not sure how many times it will last but it has already been worth the effort.  Now I want to try making a large screen like this but use a more regular pattern or form stamped with the gel medium.  

The Long Road Home

After my original idea for this challenge for one of the internet groups grew to 20 X 20, I had to come up with a new idea in that theme.

This month my husband and I did a whirl-wind trip to Texas. Driving straight through there (1,100 miles one way) and straight through back (another 1,100 miles). The reason - my dad's memorial service. All this in 5 days. So Road Map was an appropriate theme for me this month. And due to this long road trip to my home state, to my parents land where my dad's ashes are now buried, I've chosen to title this piece:

The Long Road Home

So, I went quite literal this time. White cotton background (just like a real map) The roads, county lines, road numbers, railroads, rivers, etc are stitched. I then painted in the colors of the different roads and the river with Pigma Brush Pens.



Weekly Creativity - Week 3 - Sugar Resist

This week I tried a new resist technique I had read about on another blog (And Then We Set It On Fire). I've done resists with commercial products, flour, even baby cereal...but never sugar! So I just had to give it a try.

While the main emphasis was on sugar syrup that one makes with granulated sugar and water boiled, etc. I had limited time so I just found the other sugars mentioned by someone else on another post....pancake syrup, molasses, and corn syrup. Sounded like enough to give the technique a try and see what happens...and here are the steps and the results.

First I set everything out - vinyl work cloth, palatte for resist, fabric, resist printing tools, syrups, and Jaquard Dyna-Flow paints (on the original tutorial - thickened dyes were used but again - time constraints won the day)

All Set to Start



Then I applied the resists

Pancake Syrup / Computer part

Molasses / Commercial Stamp and Punchinella

Corn Syrup / Squiggly Straw and tray from package of glue sticks

Jaquard Dyna-Flow paints were applied with syringes. I used Violet, Periwinkle and Midnight Blue on all the pieces.

Pancake Syrup

Molasses

Corn Syrup





And here are the results

Pancake syrup

Molasses

Corn Syrup

So in the end, when I had hung the pieces up to dry, I had a very interesting design of paint left behind on the vinyl work cloth.  I decided to use it for a monoprint. My bonus piece from this technique experiment!

Bonus Monoprint

I really like the results from this technique. So much so that I'm sure I will give it a try sometime soon using the thickened dyes and maybe even make the sugar syrup!

Creativity - Week 1 - Organic Stamping

It's done!! Final layer - I have a brayer that has a rubber band wrapped around it. Thought the piece could use some straight lines but needed a more random feel to it. So I used Jaquard Lumiere Pearl Blue paint and applied it with the rubber band wrapped brayer to get the random lines.  I'm happy with it now and it will go into my stash to be used someday when the time is right.  It always surprises me when I get an idea for an art quilt and so often find just the right piece in my stash...often one that was "made" even years ago!!  LOVE to have that to draw from.

Wanted to test both the technique and the paint color so I used the Wrinkled and Rollered small piece first.

Onion Stamping - completed



Onion Print - step 2

Figured out what I wanted to add to my onion stamped fabric! I used a bit of punchinella as a stencil. The paint is Jaquard Neopaque Violet applied with a stencil brush. Since I wanted it to look like the onions were printed on top of the punchinella, I took care not to overlap the onions.  Not sure if it would look like I wanted it to, I first practiced on the Wrinkled and Rollered piece. Liked what I saw and continued on to the onion piece.

Wrinkled and Rollered - Step 2

The test

Onion Stamping - Step 2

Still want to add another layer...just waiting to see what that might be...........

Creativity - Week 1

One of the goals I've set for myself recently, is to do one thing every week that I either haven't done at all before...or...a twist or tweak on something I'm familiar with.  So yesterday I did some stamping with a dried onion. This is something that Wil did on her visit here but I was doing something else that day and didn't get to play.  So now it is my turn.

I cut the onion in half and let it dry for quite a while...days and days. The background is a piece of my own hand dyed fabric. I stamped with Jaquard Lumiere Metallic Olive Green. I love the effect! Not sure if I'm going to add to it or not. Just living with this for a bit to see if it is fine as is or needs something else.



Then when I was finished with that piece, I had a bit of paint left so I grabbed another bit of my hand dyed fabric and wadded it up then rollered the paint over it.  Repeated this several times until I got the coverage I wanted.



Also made a print of the onion on paper. Thinking I might want to make a screen print of it soon.

Second in the Fig Study series

I know...I said I would take photos of the process this time.  I just have so much fun I forget.  Third times the charm???? I have the canvas now for the third in the series.  I'll try to do better with the camera this time.

This second piece is called Figs of Gold.  The background is hand dyed fabric, the figs painted with metallic paint.  The shading is pen and ink. And here it is!

Figs of Gold - the quiltlet

Figs of Gold - stitched on canvas



Figs of Gold - Completed

Figs of Gold - Detail 1

Figs of Gold - Detail 2

(This one looks a bit different because I had to turn off the flash. The reflection was wiping out the details. I wanted to carry through the stitching around each fig so the ones on the canvas are "stitched" around with pen and ink.)

Now...onto the third in the series!!!  Here's hoping I remember the photos this time!

Back now - Hopefully!!

Yep dark days....survived to tell about it. THEN I get sick....yes....AGAIN!!  But now I'm back for what I hope is a good long time!!!

Time has not be totally wasted however. I've started on a new project that I am quite pleased with.  I was inspired by a couple of techniques a friend shared with me.  I modified them a bit, combined them and found that I really like the results.  The origianl idea is to use this technique for my individual manhole cover projects but I wanted to try it out first to see if it would turn out like I envisioned.  So, I had a series of little quiltlets that I had done for a class. Why not try it out with those and see what happened???

So here is my Fig Study series as I begin to complete them with these techniques. I was so excited and having so much fun that I didn't take photos of each step (drat!!) on the first one but I'm trying to do that on the second one. I do have one confession.....it was difficult making that first brush stroke with the paint onto the fabric!  But I'm glad I did!

First is the branch with little figs growing on it. It startes with the original quiltlet.

Fig - Branch (quiltlet)



Then I stitched it to the canvas (didn't get this photo).  Next I mixed acrylic paints to get the color I wanted and then painted the canvas.  Also extended the branch and the tip of the leaf. (I did later adjust the color on the leaf tip....looks much better later on.)

Fig - Branch (stitched on painted canvas)

Next I painted with acrylics to add an additional branch and leaves.  All branches and leaves wrap around the canvas on the sides as well.

Fig - Branch (completed)

One last step.  I added shading with pen and ink on the fabric as well as the painted leaves and branches. Just making little dots with the pen and ink. Here are a few detailed photos.

Fig - Branch (details of pen and ink shading)



So, that's what I've been up to lately. I just stitched the next quiltlet onto canvas and when that one is completed I'll post the photos of the steps on that one.

Fun Stuff From The Past Month!

FINALLY!!! I am getting to post about all the fun stuff we did when Wil was here! Always a fun time of "playing" in the studio!

First is a pounded fabric piece. (Ahhh the patience needed for this one! Good character building actually I guess)

Then a couple of sunprints. On the purple one I used the plastic rings from milk containers and some river rocks. The picture is actually of the piece all ironed and smooth. The "wrinkles" were made when doing the sunprinting.

This one I used rice and salt. This one is also ironed.

I had never done any splatter painting so one day we took the paints and fabric outside to play. We had picked up a tile covered little breakfast type table for free on the side of the road just up the street. It was PERFECT for these projects because we didn't care if it got paint on it or got left out in the rain. These were lots of fun and I really like the results.

Next we did some ice cube dyeing. We used some dye that I had still in leftover from a previous project. All mixed with water but no soda ash. Thought it would be interesting to see how much "oomph" it still had. Not too bad really!! Especially considering some of it had been quite diluted for the original dyeing session. Another patience builder but this on is only overnight! The fun of it is that when the dye is frozen in the ice cube trays you can't tell what colors are in which cube! Always a surprise! I love that!

Then I wanted to do some more breakdown printing. (I must have a need to build patience come to think of it....this one requires waiting 3 days or so for the thickened dye to dry on the screen! No instant gratification there!) These started out as red and purple I think...but ended up a bit more on the red side actually. A bit too much on the red/pink side for my taste but they are so beautiful and textured I know they will be awesome either overdyed or as a background for some other technique! I just love the urban-ness of them. Totally different from my love of outdoors and nature. Funny how that works, huh? I am posting them below in order of the printings I did. The first one is the lightest because not that much of the dried thickened dye comes off in the first pass. They get progressively darker.

I've been busy this month getting some things ready to sell (at least hopefully sell!) So, now...back to the "grindstone"!!