Surface Designs on Silk

Last week was a very successful week for me at the studio. Below are some of the latest designs.

Crazy Quilt Samples

My dear Aunt Fran and Nell kept all their fabric scraps and I ended up with some of them. I worked with all the silks that I could find and created these squares and a case for my sun glasses.

Black Licorice + Shibori

Having a black scarf in your wardrobe is a must. I spotted some wild fennel on the freeway off ramp coming home from Davis. And decided to harvest some for these three scarfs. The wool gauze dyed nicely to a golden yellow. Silk crepe de chine and silk chiffon dyed a very light yellow. Next I decided to over dye with black. Love the contrast of the black. While ironing these, the smell of the fennel with the black shibori patterns, made me think of black licorice.

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.