And more production-

I have some stories to tell you today about this next set of fabric creations. The silk you see above is crepe backed silk satin that almost got sent to the Woodland landfill this week. About a year ago, I had a customer order 7 yards of this beautiful fabric and wanted it hand dyed blue and purple which I often make for people. Somehow it got away from me and turned out very pastel and not right due to whatever reason; an over sight in measuring or perhaps I forgot to add the right amount of chemicals. Anyway. I had to start over again so I tossed the whole lot of it into a barrel and left it without even rinsing it out; sometimes you just have to walk away and let it all go. A week or so later I had a very intense navy blue run of some cotton and after all was said and done, I tossed the left overs into the barrel with the forgotten silk and then while cleaning, took an old shirt I had used to mop the dye room floor and threw IT into the vat. A week or so after THAT, I tossed in some more blue dye and another t-shirt rag. There it all sat for...get this...almost a year. The barrel got shifted around and I put off taking the stuff out of it and then it migrated behind my drafting table and dried out completely. Then...two days ago it began to smell baaaaaad. I looked and looked for the source of the stinko and found the bucket. I knew it was time to just dump whatever was in there, which I did, but when I saw all that silk in the bottom of the toter it sang to me! "Woah", says I. "Gotta have a look at THAT!" Took it to the sink. Started rinsing. Glory. This silk certainly had time to suck up the dye. Never have I attained such a depth of color on crepe backed silk satin. So....I have 7 yards of it. There is some mottling. Some splots of unusual color. It is going to make one hecka dress. Can't reproduce that one. All those people (like myself)who say silk should NEVER sit in soda ash for more than 6 hours....I've got some news (and fabric) for you....
This piece I call "Hiroshima". There are about 5 yards of it. It's 43" wide. It is silk chiffon that was hand dyed, then discharged which I knew would considerably weakened the fibers in places. Those holes have been enhanced and reinforced with machine stitching. It was then attached to an underlayer of cotton. The whole thing has been redyed many times and several layers of fabric paint and house paint have been applied to help support the weight of the piece and build up it's ability to support itself when hung from a rod. The depth of color is beautiful and ugly at the same time. It reminds me of our time in Hiroshima at the Peace Memorial. Such a beautiful place and such an ugly place. Such peace and such violence. It's so rewarding when you work and work and work on something and almost OVERwork it and then you step back and have to stop before it IS too late. It's a "there it is" kind of moment and you know it's a winner. Satisfying.
This is fairly traditional, eh? I designed this piece because I love fish and wanted to start a series using them as my subject matter. I have one and a half done. I stalled out but may pick it back up some day. The piece sat for a long time until I went to visit Myrna and play in her studio. I took it with me to experiment with machine stitching. Down in the center of the piece where the rocks are is where she started me thread painting with her machine. After about a minute I burst into tears. This was so totally cool and fun and dimensional! How could I not do this to any fabric painting I ever make from here on out???? It certainly rocked my world. Thank you, my friend. She gave me another tool for my fabric making tool belt. This last piece is silk velvet that I shibori dyed today. It is about 36" x 45". I wanted to check a project I have the beginning shibori students attempt in my Quilt University class and have always liked the final results of this exercise. I modified the recipe a touch but have decided to keep it the same for the class. I call this piece "Navajo".

Thanks for looking.