Drawing with Thread

The Visual School of Philosophy offered a class in Stone Lithography. I decided to enroll. To begin, you must draw with grease pencils onto the limestone. Being more comfortable with a sewing machine, I decided to do some free motion quilting with my Featherweight.

Here are some of the experiments. These characters just come to life. I don't know what these people will be when I begin, really . . . except that I was inspired by paper silhouettes. The needle starts at the top of the head and then I just go, they make me laugh.

The tricky part is interpreting these onto the stone. The last image shows my first drawing on stone.

Cochineal Beauty in the Detail

One of my favorite moments in Irit Dulmans workshop in January was dying with Cochineal. We had what we called a magic dye pot, because everyone pulled out something that they loved, which does not always happen. Leaf prints were legible and shades of pink from the cochineal were stunning. Its been on my mind to try and recreate the magic. I ordered Cochineal powder from Botanical Colors back in January and decided to test it out this week. Pink is not one of my colors, but I have to say there is something about the Cochineal pink that is pleasing. Its a flattering color to wear on most people. Four scarfs and a silk dress made it to the magic pot and I plan to list them on my Etsy site.

Here are a few of my favorite images from the process.

Fresh out of the dye pot and hanging in my new studio. :)

Detail of the first bundle, the silk is still wet so the color is bright.

Rose and Loquat prints.

After washing and drying the colors are toned down, beautiful, like pink sherbet.

Demolition Inspiration

Here is the completed final project for Fiona Duthie's Surface Design course. My muse was a photo I took at a demolition site of a home to be renovated and sold. The image of a wall being stripped of red and magenta damask textured wall paper inspired me. I loved the graphic positive and negative shapes that just happened by accident. Since felting is often a surprise, it seemed like a fun place to start.

Techniques used in this piece: Nuno quilting, fabric manipulation, some beads trapped behind red silk chiffon, raised prefelts, and flat pre felts.

Included is a photo of my inspiration board. I enjoy the creative process, and hope this felted bag is as interesting as the images were to me.

More Surface Alterations in Felting

Embroidery is something I enjoy. I have many memories spending summers embroidering in the sunshine on Lake Sawyer, and it makes me happy working with the colored thread and needle. One of the techniques in Fiona's Duthie's class was to embroider on a piece of pre felt, which you can see in the black and white piece below. I used some wool thread that I had dyed in Indigo, along with a cream colored silk thread.

Wool and Felt Additions

Today I am back to working on samples for Fiona Duthie's surface design class. It was fun to work in my new studio space at the School of Visual Philosophy. The concept for this set of examples is to add design details like wool roving, pre felts, and separate elements like spikes.

Purses with a Story

It's always interesting to think of all that goes into making something and where all the elements come from. Like these bags for example. The brown linen fabric making up the background on these are design samples destined for the landfill, but rescued by Fabmo, and organization in the bay area that collects and distributes fabrics. I loved the weight, nice and strong so it didn't require a lining. The zippers, are metal and I rescued them from a thrift store. There is something about the old metal zippers, I even enjoy the packaging and the instructions that are printed inside. I previously dyed this batch of vintage zippers in Indigo, thinking I would make purses or small bags. The dupioni silk design panel, was white and purchased at Fabrics R Us in San Jose. I was going to make roman shades with it, but it didn't work out, so I had plenty to do dye experiments with. The lace, also dyed in Indigo, was an estate sale find, that took the color really well. Vintage lace often is so pure fabric content (likely cotton), in this case it eats up the color. I have more of this, so I will play with this again.

So, there you go . . . two purses with a history. It would be fun to make more, but this is all the linen I had. Two of a kind.

More Surface Design in Felting

This is one of my favorites that I will definitely use again.