Marjie's Dye Studio

New Web Site coming soon!

2011-12-14T14:52:00.000-08:00

My brain and everything that goes with it is consumed with the formation of a brand new web site that will allow me the luxury of adding and subtracting my own products. My current site was built in 1999 and is flat out-archaic. Fossilic if that is a word which "spell check" says it is not. Having to learn how to do all this is mind boggling. I am learning a foreign language. My head hurts. I will let you know when it is ready to look at and when you can order stuff. Until then, the old site stays put.

Merry Christmas. The new year will be a welcome relief. I'm done with this one.

My Dyer's Garden gets blogged!

2011-11-21T12:28:00.000-08:00

As you know from the posting below- I am plotting out a dyer's garden for the spring. The lumber and "M Brace" at each corner was donated by one of my best friends who invented the marvelous gizmo. Here is her blog-

http://artofthegarden.net/project-blog

Fabulous product, fabulous friend, fabulous fun. Can't wait to start. I will blog (I promise) about the garden's progress and end results.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Zinnias as natural dyes on wool

2011-11-02T15:56:00.000-07:00

I have to tell you about a wonderful thing that makes me think more highly of humanity. I forgot to plant zinnias in my garden this year. Zinnias are one of my all time favorite flowers because they are easy to grow, are awesome colors, make nice cut flowers that last a long time and did I mention they are easy to grow? So I forgot to plant them and then sometime around late spring I remembered, as I had wanted to try dyeing with them. I mentioned this to my pal Laurie the "Biker Babe" and she said- did you read in the paper where Farmer So and So planted tons of them and they are free to the public? What?! She then gave me directions to get there and my daughter and I took a drive. There they were! Not just a few, but acres of them. There is one photo of me in the middle of the mass of flowers on my Facebook page somewhere. I can't find the photo now. Anyway- we chatted with Farmer So and So and he said he just did it for the fun of it and for the public to enjoy. Amazing. We did enjoy it and we told him we were going to use them to dye wool and he was only mildly interested. Go figure! I think it is the most fascinating thing ever but I digress.....
Here the heads of the flowers are simmering away extracting what looks like a tea colored base. These flowers were red and orange only so we were fairly disappointed.
Add the yarn to one pot full- no mordant added.
Add roving to another pot- also no mordant. We did use vinegar after everything was said and done.
As happens so often with natural dyes, the end results are tea stain colored. Oh well. It certainly would have been easier to flip some Lipton's in the water rather than get shoes muddy and spend the time snipping and then picking off the heads BUT the experience was a good one and another to chalk up to experience. For a truly outrageous color- see below where we used Pokeberries. Now that color rocks and rolls.

Thanks for looking!

Acupuncture, Shearing and Spinning, Pokeberries, and my Dyer's Garden

2011-10-14T10:39:00.000-07:00

Lots has happened in the month plus since I blogged last so I will make up for it with lots of pictures, okay?

The first thing to say is that for the last 7 months I have been in considerable pain from some mysterious thing happening to both my wrists and at times my thumbs. No, it is not carpel tunnel. No, I have not gone to a "real" doctor. Some may think this is foolish. I think it is wise at this point in time. I have my beloved Jerra who is way smarter than any "doctor". She is my compounding pharmacist. She has concocted a salve that only partially helps. I have concocted the other stuff that is just now starting to kick in to help a lot. It's herbal. It has an awful name that sounds like I am up to some sort of witchcraft- Cat's Claw or Una de Gato. It works. So for now, I do what I know to do which is herbs plus this, pictured above... and slow down on tennis and things that make my wrist and thumbs hurt.

Notice all the people flat out on their backs? This was a free clinic I went to to get in an extra session. I need to go and get into a routine until the inflammation and pain are completely gone. Needles are not just put into my wrists- they go in the tops of my feet, in the sides of my calves, and in both ears. It actually feels fabulous. No really. Try it sometime.

Okay- moving on.

Earlier this month was the annual "Hoes Down" celebration at Full Belly Farms in Esparto. The Yolo Wool Mill www.yolowoolmill.com had a tent set up for teaching purposes and to show off their beautiful wool products. Here is my daughter on the right teaching an interested young woman how to spin.
At the beginning of the teaching loop, there was a shearing demonstration which I always love watching. The sheep think the shearers are predators so they go totally limp which is a good thing, eh?
Here are the results of about a minute or a minute and a half's shearing.

The kids or adults then take handfuls of the wool to the washing station where they get to do the first step in taking the wool from "Sheep to Shawl". After washing, they get to card the wool. Then from the carding station, they bring it to the spinning station where they are invited to try a drop spindle or the wheel.
I had to include a picture of this goat. I kept coming back to it to marvel at how bizarre this is! This is, to me, God's act of hilarity. It is The Triune Goat. Three in One. Holy, holy, holy! Brown, spotted, black. Different sections. Different functions. Different and yet all still goat. Glory to God.
Next, I want to show you the highlight of the magnificent new adventure I am on surrounding the glorious fun involving natural dyes. In our yard, a mysterious plant sprung up two seasons ago. At first we were horrified. It was something we had never seen before but that's not surprising really. It grew and grew and grew and soon made bright red berries that the mockingbirds devoured and then pooped out everywhere. My botanist brother did not know what it was and took a sample back to UC Berkeley where he teaches. I never heard back from him about "the mystery bush" as we named it.

The bush died back that winter only to reappear the next spring...along with about 20 friends. Yikes. It was getting totally out of control.

This spring after we did almost everything except set it on fire, it came back as did 100 of its pals.

One day, Marcail came running to me with her newest natural dye book- mystery solved! It's called POKEBERRY! Not only was the mystery solved, but we saw that it makes the most luscious berry colored dye EVER! Not brown, not beige, not yellow- RED! Where on earth did it come from and how can we get it to not be pissed off at us for the abuse we threw its way? Why did it chose OUR yard and how blessed we are to have it land here!

Now to the problem of apologizing to the bush and seeing how we can encourage it to get back to the enormous height and width it once was. Sorry pokeberry.

Here is what the berries looks like.Dyeing with the berries is tricky. Almost daunting actually but we decided to try it. The wool needs to be pre-mordanted which we did using vinegar and heat. Then the berries were squished up with our hands. It's okay to do that. It washes off skin. The book says its okay to do this but in the future I may use gloves just because.

Pokeberry has a very interesting history. The early Americans and colonists ate the "spring greens" but after some time the leaves become poisonous. The leaves actually could be bought canned in stores until the 50's when it fell out of fashion. Don't know about the berries. Don't want to try.
The last step was to fire up the BBQ and to heat the wool to the magical temperature of about 115 F. Lower than the usual simmer. This apparently is critical as the color can be temperamental with heat.
Here are the glorious results. We unfortunately did not have the requisite 25 to 1 ratio of berries to fiber. Next year we will. The color is lovely, don't you agree? There is enough left over for another run or two. Will post more results as they come in.
The last thing I want to show you is my backyard garden. This spring we rototilled up all the Bermuda grass and planted veggies. Huge success. One section pictured above is now being prepared for a Dyer's Garden.

My dear friend, Jill Plumb has invented a fantastic product called an "M Brace". You can see more of this on her web site: www.artofthegarden.net. She has graciously given me sets to play with in my yard along with the lumber in exchange for photos of my progress.
Here is how it looks today with the plots in place waiting for the compost and dirt. Fabulous.

To be planted in the boxes will be Japanese indigo, yellow cosmos, dyer's coreopsis, purple basil, black eyed Susan, marjoram, orange cosmos, bronze fennel.

Outside of the boxes will be sunflowers, and hollyhocks.

I'm dreaming of spring already and it's not even fall yet!

Wish me blessings. I do for you.

Thanks for looking.

Wool Dyed in wine

2011-09-06T09:51:00.001-07:00

Marcail and I are combining our efforts this year for the Art Farm exhibit to benefit the Yolo Arts and Ag Project and the Yolo Land Trust. The exhibit will run from October 7-November 30.

I dyed the malabrigo yarn in local wine from the Bogle Vineyard. (See the process below). Marcail invented a new stitch and made the cowl and beret above.

The beret was dyed in the second run of the wine since there was still come color tannin left after the first run was completed.

We are happy with the results. Hopefully it will bag some bucks for the affair.

Thanks for looking!

More on Dying and Dyeing, naturally, and about finishing things-.

2011-08-30T18:13:00.000-07:00

So now that some of the dust has settled, I was asked by one of my followers if I had any pics of some of these projects completed. While it is true that I do move at an alarmingly fast speed, often I do not post the final results of things because I never finished whatever it was because it is always the next thing that interests me more, OR because I simply forgot about the posting made and the project. There are a number of things that come to mind that I will show you soon- projects started and blogged about but never shown as a finished piece.

Dad died. I feel the loss. We scatter his ashes this weekend.

My husband's brother died 5 years ago. We scattered the ashes last weekend. Talk about not finishing things!

My dear friend JoDean still has the ashes of her son who died 25 years ago. I invited her to leave him in my garden this weekend.

Max, my tennis friend died a few days after Dad. He is being scattered this weekend as well.

I have had enough of dying....But...that leads me to dyeing.

Coming up soon is the Yolo County Arts Council Art Farms show. I need to enter something as it has been a wonderful link in Woodland. I have so enjoyed touring the farms with the best of intentions to do something this year for the show. Do you see a theme developing here?

Above, you will see some wine on my stove from one of our many local wineries. Bogle Vineyards opened their acreage for artists to tour and become inspired. I dyed two passes of Malabrigo yarn.

Excellent color. Here you can see how the yarn looks before dyeing and then the first round of dyeing.

Take either my Tea and Spice Dyeing class at www.quiltuniversity.com or the Wool Dyeing course to learn how to do this.

The ball on the left is from the first run. There was some color left after 1 3/4 hours so I added a second skein for a 1 hour uptake session. It is lighter and will be the perfect accent for the wearable art my daughter will be creating for the show.

I do promise to show you how the projects came out and who ends up bidding on and buying the set of items.

Next time I post, I will show you the yarn that was spun from the oxalis grass dyeing we blogged about earlier this summer. I promise.

Thanks for looking! I have no idea how this underlining font came into being or how to get rid of it. Certainly makes this look emphatic.

On death and dyeing

2011-08-16T09:33:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite things in the world to do it to dye silk and just about any other fiber there is. One of my least favorite things to do is experience dying, no "e".

I haven't posted in a long time because I have been dyeing a lot of silk lately and walking through a dying experience with my dad.

Both experiences-dying and dyeing change things. Both are complicated. Both forever change what they touch. Both start out one way and end up another way. Both can be a beautiful thing. Both can bring tears to my eyes. Both are mysterious. Both can be spiritual. Both involve chemistry. Both teach me about myself. Both are transforming. Both make me introspective. Both make me cry and both have such potential for commentary.

I'll be back to blog later. For now I need to think and pray and regroup.

Dye on.

Belly dancing veils and more silk dyeing-

2011-07-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

I have been busy dyeing and inventing and dyeing some more. Are you surprised?

Many of you know that I have an alliance and friendship with Jes (see above) of A'Kai Silks based in Hawaii. She is keeping me waist deep in dye and silk which is no better place for me to be. So here's a look at what I have been doing lately- the above half circle veils went to Singapore (48 of them) and now we are working on 30 that go out to Japan.

Here is the silk.

Here it is all cut up and ready to go.

Dyes are ready....

Dyed and rinsed and drying in the California sun.

One problem that I had been having is the Turquoise dye makes streaks on the silk if any portion of it is exposed to the air and dries. There is such low humidity here that this is a real and constant battle with this particular color. Even when I have it mixed with another color, it can and will do this at about the 20 hour mark. If I am diligent and remove the dye at the 15-17 hour mark, I can sometimes fend off the marks. If I am persistent in pressing down the plastic to keep air out then drying out is not a possibility and time is not a factor.

I do not dye these silks the way I teach at Quilt University, but I use Jes' procedures and techniques exclusively which is why such a long amount of time is dedicated to the curing process.

As far as inventing goes, the two of us have come up with something new and wonderful soon to hit the markets. It's called a "Scarcho". Will post a picture when Jes says I can....until then, I will let you try to imagine what this thing looks like.

Until then- thank you for being patient with me- the nonblogger!

YouTube video about Procion Dyeing Problems

2011-06-10T22:33:00.000-07:00

It took me all day long to shoot, edit, and then post this 5 minute YouTube video. Yes....it's true....ALLLLLLLL day! The next one will be easier I am sure because the hardest part was trying to figure out how to edit the thing using some 12 year old boy's TERRIBLE video on the subject which may be what I tackle next- how to do this if you are 58 years old and clueless.

Anyway- here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HRzhXAIYJQ

This problem of poor results when dyeing comes up again and again in my Quilt University classes and total strangers, out of the blue, from all over the world, find me on the internet and ask what they are doing wrong so I thought I would run the video to help people over the first hurdles as well as do some advertising for Fabric Designs and QU as well.

The out takes were great. Someday I will show you a few of them. My favorite is when I didn't know the camera was still going and I was thinking about what I should say and how I should say it.....whoooohahha. It's "Crazy San Francisco Person" good, if you know what I mean.

Love you all. Anyone dyeing out there? I have about 80 belly dancing veils in need of dyeing coming my way. Wanna see? I'll take you along on the journey if you want to watch.

Huge dyeing messes-

2011-05-19T07:54:00.000-07:00

Back to synthetic dyes this week.

I posted a challenge to my Quilter's Palette class to see who has the biggest mess to contend with and while I always have huge amounts of awfulness all around me, I am sure that I am not alone in my crapulence.

My dye studio looks like I slaughtered a pig or did some sort of ritual sacrifice. It's gruesome if you don't know the truth of the matter.

I also have a large fabric painting I am working on that you cannot see in the photo.

It seems to me that the worse the mess, the higher the level of creativity and glee. Is this true for you as well?

Olives as natural dyes

2011-05-04T15:46:00.001-07:00

In our quest to find even more local resources for natural dyes, my daughter and I headed out a few miles from town to an olive orchard.

Our Yolo Arts Council has an Art/Farm program that is fabulous. A number of times each year, opportunities for artists to visit the farms with easels and cameras and paints are opened up allowing us to spend the day puttering or painting or pondering. The really sweet deal is that they reward our participation with a stipend for supplies with the hopes that in the fall, our creations will be a part of the Art/Farm art show.

Now I ask you, isn't this something you would participate in if afforded the opportunity? You can spend the morning in the fresh air, in peace and serenity, walking among fields and flowers and trees; occasionally chatting with another artist you come upon...drinking it all into your soul. Then you go home inspired and ready to make art having been paid to do what you would pay them to do? Win-win.

Above are the results of last month's flower dyeing of wool roving on the far left. Merino wool yarn is next to it that had a weak baking soda mordant added. Next to that are two examples of wool dyed in an olive brew that was made from olives that weren't quite ripe yet. We did not want to pick the olives so only allowed ourselves to gather fruit that were already on the ground. They were still pink or dark red- not black yet which certainly affected the final color.
Here is a photograph of the rows of fairly young trees where we gathered the fruit.

This is the wool in the dye bath. It made a nice medium brown.

Finished wool yarn with baking soda rinse.

Beautiful results.

We have yet to use the leaves we collected which also will yield color.

This was easy to do and we intend on trying again now that we know what we are doing and once the olives are ripe around town. There are zillions of trees available where we can gather what we want without guilt that we are taking a farmer's lively hood away from them. Sometimes you have to try a process to know if it is worthwhile or worthy of further investigation, yes?

Next time I will show you what I did with left over fabric and my garden umbrella. Cool.

Oxalis (sour grass) as a natural dye

2011-04-15T08:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my daughter was inspired by our small terra cotta fire pit. How can we use this as an outdoor stove to dye some wool? We thought about it and tried some of our ideas that involved ways to set the pot on it without trapping too much smoke. My idea to take the burner rack off the grill and set it on top of the chimney worked perfectly.

The substance she wanted to try was oxalis which is prolific in our yard in the spring and the fall. Should we do just the leaves or just the flowers? Let's do both. Let's do an equal ratio of dye stuff to wool. Here it is in the pot on top of the chimney. After 30 minutes, there was a fantastic yellow brew!

The wood brought the water temperature up quite quickly and it stayed at 185 for 30 minutes. We had to only once pull out a log to let the heat come down a bit.

She had a meeting to go to so we decided to let the whole thing sit there until she came home which was about 3 hours later. It did not seem to darken up much over that extra long time in the brew.

One thing- I did call my neighbor who lives across the street and can see into my back yard. She is also an artist so when things a bit out of the ordinary happen, I let her know so that she doesn't panic or so she can come over and watch. Last week she called the fire department because flames were leaping from behind my hedge and it didn't seem like I was home. I was home, but didn't see that our neighbors had a BBQ flare up but everything was under control. That was exciting what with the police cars and fire trucks and ambulances and all but she panics fairly easily so anything a bit "different" needs to be discussed. This was going to be "different" but the good news is that there was very little smoke and flame.

Fun, eh?

Hand dyed wool yarn, felt, flannel and roving-

2011-03-23T08:31:00.000-07:00

I am back from the land of the zombies. 12 hour days over a span of several weeks do not make for a stable life or brain. Above, however, you can see the lovely fruit of my labor which makes it all worthwhile.

Over the last three weeks, I have dyed miles of roving; zillions of yards of yarn; fields of felt; and flanks of flannel.

My not so perfect colors are being over dyed or bagged up for my felting friends and samples saved of each and every dye run which is then documented in four huge binders.

I took over 750 digital photos of the above samples. I edited about 170 of them and sent them off to my web master.

Fabric Designs (www.fabricdesigns.com) will soon feature 28 colors of each item with three kinds of wool yarn- Prime Alpaca, 100% Merino Wool, and Malabrigo Wool so you can knit yourselves into heavenly bliss. Spinners will love the Romney wool roving also in 28 colors and felters and rug hookers will at long last be able to get their materials in the color and value they want and need. All wool can be dyed solid OR mottled. The possibilities are endless.

I love what I do. I love what you do with what I love to do. I love fiber and I love dyeing. If you were to stack everything I have ever dyed in my 40+ year career, it would form a line from here to Saturn and back.

I'll let you know when it is ready to see and the stuff is available for sale.

Happy dyeing and wooly booly to you.

Silk Vest

2011-03-11T07:30:00.000-08:00

I'm making slow progress on the silk vest. Here is a picture of it almost finished- unpressed. All that needs to be done is the collar. It looks good. This is the back, of course.

I have not been blogging, or much of anything except dyeing wool yarn (three kinds), felt, and flannel for publication on my blog as new products. Next posting will be all about this addition to the Fabric Designs line of art fibers.
Thanks for looking everyone!

Cut and sew

2011-02-24T08:38:00.000-08:00

The large waterfall of silk (see posting below) was not enough fabric for a kimono but I did have enough for a long vest. This would be a good starting place anyway since it has been a long time since I used the techniques from "Make Your Own Japanese Clothes" by John Marshall. It is a wonderful book. I do not believe it is still in print.

The Japanese way to take measurements and then create the patterns is fascinating. Putting the thing together is a mental fete at first. Quite a bit like origami actually. One wonders how the heck this thing is ever going to come together and then all of a sudden- bam!- there it is.

Above is a picture of the paper laid out to start drawing the pattern.

One other reason for making the smaller, less complicated vest is that most kimono have a seam up the back. Japanese fabrics in days of old were 36" wide or less, necessitating the seam. Also- it was thought that if there wasn't a seam, evil spirits could come "get" you. With this intermediate vest making step, I hope to see if there is a way to side step the back seam when I get to the bigger and more ambitious kimono. I see that I can do it now without a seam so that answers that question....Plus...I learned about Semori which literally means "back protectors". They keep the wearer from evil influences, not that I would need one, right? I like the thought that they would "have my back" but I have a Higher Power already doing that for me- can I get an amen, anybody?

All the pieces plus lining fabric cut. Now the sewing begins. It went fast and smoothly with only one seam needing ripping out and redoing. Not bad.

Last thing to do is sew on the collar and I'm done. More pictures later.

Until then- I got your semori!

Waterfall of silk

2011-02-07T13:51:00.000-08:00

I thought you might like to see how I dyed a 3 yard run of Crepe Backed Silk Satin that I will eventually turn into a kimono.
First, I hung up a large sheet of plastic and then put the silk on top of that and secured it all with some patio candles. It's very important that you use patio candles for this, by the way. It adds a certain- I don't know- excitement to the process because you don't really know if a great gust of wind will come up and take the whole thing down at any moment. You could use push pins but that would eliminate the element of surprise.

Next I poured blue dye from top to bottom.

Then some Turquoise and a bit of Cayman Island Blue came next.
Finished it off with some Fuchsia Red poured VERY conservatively here and there. The dyes were allowed to pool at the bottom. The silk then sat for 2 days. The top part dried within 2 hours and the bottom part never dried. At this point, a big gust of wind DID blow down the top but I left it sitting in the very old dye on the bottom for another half a day before rinsing.

I'll show you how it looks next week. It really is lovely with just the effect I was looking for- long streaks for the front and bunched up color for the back.

The plan is to start cutting and sewing Friday. Wish me luck.

The other things I have going are three very large orders via Fabric Designs.com consisting of two wedding dresses made of hand dyed silks, and an order for every color I make in raw silk. You can see the progress on that order in the picture above. 21 more pieces to go and I'm there! Fun stuff but time consuming.

So what are YOU doing these days?

One more time-redye!

2011-01-31T08:58:00.000-08:00

The silk came out nicely but there was too much white left undyed on either side. I decided to dye it again. Here it is laid out in the bathtub with dyes applied.
I only applied a small amount of dye this time- probably 1/4 of what was used in the first round

Finished, the interplay of colors is smashing.

Here's a detail of the subtle colors on this silk.
Next step is to do the same thing on a much larger scale. I will have to rig up a sheet of plastic outside on the ground as the tub won't hold the length of silk I want to use. Stay tuned.

Wicking on Silk, Dyeing Silk, Manipulating Dye on Silk- it's all good.

2011-01-12T11:17:00.000-08:00

Hi and happy New Year. About time I blogged something, eh? I apologize for not being around but I was down with a rip roaring sinus infection. Way better now.

The neighbor's dog woke us all up at 5:55 a.m. I am not a violent person but that whole situation makes me want to take a baseball bat like the one next to the front door and...but... I digress.

The only good thing about being awake at that time of the NIGHT is that I had a bit of alone time to think through another way to manipulate the dyes on silk. Here's what I decided to try today:

First I propped a piece of crepe backed silk satin that is about 45" wide by maybe the same length in the bathtub.

Next step was to mix a nice deep red. I decided NOT to mix it OR even to filter it. I was going to throw all caution to the wind, or to God, or to the dog next door; whoever had the most power to make chaos cease in my life.

Then I poured on blue. Unmixed. Bits of powdered dye slogged onto the top and began its journey southward.

Then I poured Turquoise next to the blue. In my other wicking and dyeing adventures, I have enjoyed seeing what Turquoise does. It's got a mind of its own.

Lastly, I poured unmixed yellow on the far end and let it also have its way.

By now the dyes are mixing and pooling at the bottom of the cloth. Shall I plug up the drain and save it or let it go? Let it go.

One last thing I did was to scrunch over the open portion of the red that you can see on the left hand side. I wanted it to get some dye action.

Now I leave it for about 6-8 hours. Hopefully no one will want to take a shower between now and then.

The temptation is to poke and pick a bit here and there but for this particular piece, I am done with it and am too tired to work further on it. I also have three orders for fabric waiting so need to get busy on something that pays the bills.

Here's to 2011. May you dye hard and dye strong.

Class Schedule for 2011!

2010-12-22T16:46:00.001-08:00

Here is my online teaching schedule for the first half of 2011. If you would like to have any of the supply lists, email me and I will send it to you right away.

All classes are offered through Quilt University (http://www.quiltuniversity.com/)

Notice that my brand new class, Dyeing Wool is making its debut on February 25. Can't wait!

Tea and Spice Dyeing- January 7
Silk Dyeing- January 28
Basic Cotton Dyeing- February 11
Dyeing Wool- February 25
Fabric Painting- Using Jacquard Fabric Paints- March 4
Thick and Thin -Using Sodium Alginate Thickener- April 1
Quilter's Palette- Intermediate Cotton Dyeing for Portrait and Landscape Colors- April 29
Shibori Dyeing- May 6 (only time offered)
Basic Cotton Dyeing- May 27
Batik- June 17 (only time offered)

Making art again!

2010-12-13T09:27:00.001-08:00

The fiber art show went well. I had a great time. Sold the piece called "Layers" and got two more commissions for fiber art projects like it; one a smaller version and another in different colors but with the same 16 layers of hand dyed silk organza. Nice!

Above is the Crepe de Chine poncho that I took to the show to demonstrate how gutta resist is done. Simple circles were drawn with the resist; allowed to dry and then painted with Procion MX dyes. It is still a work in progress because I have a show deadline coming up on December 20th and need to finish a few things first. More on that in a minute...

Here is the silk poncho from farther back. It's very fun and relaxing because I really do not have to think at all; just paint. I plan on doing a few more rows of bubbles and then allowing some pastel dye to creep up from the top row and onto the draped portions of the poncho. I'll show you how that looks when I get there.

I have two more projects I am working on at the same time. More wicking color projects. The one below is small- about 36" x 50". I will be adding some text to it using fabric paints.

The other silk piece I am working on has written text applied to dyed silk and is 45" x 72". It is a wicked piece using deep cobalt blues, then olive greens and yellow. I would show it to you but it is still in sections on the stretcher bars. Next week, okay?

I also finally finished a piece called "My Father's War" which is a reflection of a time I spent in Hiroshima, Japan. It has taken me 3 years to figure out how this one should look. Pictures will come next week.

So for now, I have the momentum going! I am dedicating Fridays to art making (again). Let's see if I can stick to the plan. Maybe I can do it for more than 2 weeks running. Actually, with the Folsom show "Text and Texture" coming up, I have to work today and tomorrow so whoo hoo for me. I'm getting there.

Fiber Art Show Tonight!

2010-12-03T08:23:00.000-08:00

I do apologize-again- for the absence from blogging. Tonight is the opening of the show I am spearheading for the California Fiber Artists. It opens here in Woodland, CA at the county administration building.

I have three pieces in the show all of which you can see here on this blog- Organized Chaos, Layers, and the Crepe de Chine poncho with the Iris on it.

Two of the three pieces have been in other fiber arts shows in California and will now be retired if they do not sell.

Organized Chaos is the 45" x 85" piece with the intentional wicking.

Layers is the spectrum of hand dyed silk organza in layers.

The silk poncho is done with gutta resist and you can see that process in pages from the past.

I have enjoyed putting this show together. I will post pictures next week.

The one thing I have again been keenly aware of is that I DO NOT MAKE TIME TO MAKE ART. I keep coming back to this problem. Years ago I intentionally made Fridays my art day. No work. Only art making. I did that for a whopping 2 weeks and then fell back into my old ways of working only. Since my work IS art making, to stop and change gears to being what I want to do the way I want to do it is difficult.

This will be my New Year's resolution. I suppose blogging about my success at keeping this resolution would be one way to keep me honest.

What do you do about this? Do you have a schedule or use whatever is left over in a day to make art? Little help please?

Painting with dyes

2010-11-18T08:35:00.000-08:00

I am trying to use up some of the supplies that are taking up space in my dye studio. One box is full of weirdo gutta resist products that I have collected over the years. One mysterious bottle of resist has turned amber colored (not unusual) and has an almost frothy consistency when it dries. It looks like it is penetrating all the way through the silk when it is wet but when it dries, it's kind of crusty. Oh well. I will try applying more on top of the crust and plowing ahead anyway. More on this piece in a minute...

Sorry that I have missed some days blogging. My usual once a week schedule got thrown off as I have moved into the next project which was reclaiming my house after the long session of dyeing wool and writing it up for the next Quilt University season.

Above is a second Crepe de Chine poncho that I am making for the California Fiber Artist's show I am assembling that will open December 3rd here in Woodland, CA. 20 of us submitted pieces for the show.

On the 3rd, four of us will be doing demonstrations of the kind of work we do and talking about our fiber art. The circles of gutta will be there and I will show how to apply the resist and also how to apply the dye to the areas that are dry.

I will take pictures along to way of my progress with this silk painting.

Thanks for looking. Monday, I promise to add some more to this blog.

All I do is dye wool and write, write, write!

2010-11-08T14:16:00.001-08:00

This big old box is jammed full of hand dyed wool yarns, roving, felt, flannel and fabric. All I have been doing for weeks and weeks is dye wool, test wool, anticipate questions, anticipate wild and crazy students who will try and out think me by veering off to the left or right of "normal" and getting notions that they are invincible. I try to second guess them and head off disasters before they start by doing the wacky thing myself so I know what to expect when a riot erupts in the classroom.

I apologize to those of you who follow this blog and have kept coming up with the same old thing on the same old page but that is really what is happening in my life right now. It's the same old thing- dye wool. Log the results. Write what happened. Test recipes. Anticipate questions.

Once again, I estimate that this new online course is composed of about 200 hours of my life. At least.

I think I will be sending the class to Carol tomorrow. Total pages? About 40? Total pictures? About 115. Total projects 15, I think. Potential for a zillion if you try all the recipes.

I need a vacation.

More testing, more writing, and more testing, and more writing-

2010-10-25T18:18:00.001-07:00

I'm so glad the weather has turned cool because it's perfect for all the wool dyeing I am doing in preparation for my thirteenth Quilt University class (www.quiltuniversity.com) which should debut early in 2011.

I have located the places where I will order the wool yarn, roving, wool flannel, and wool felt my students can purchase off my web site. New products for the supply list!

Now I test, test, and re-test and then write, write, and re-write some more anticipating questions and problems my students may have as they try the projects.

Pictured above is a fun way to get three variations of one color on one skein of yarn; or perhaps you will want to variegate your roving or felt or flannel.

Here are my final results. It's so easy! I can't wait to see what you do with these lessons.

So far, I have purchased 8 skeins of wool yarn (almost 3,000 yards worth) and many pounds of roving along with several yards of wool flannel and felt.

My daughter is in hog (sheep?) heaven because after I dye the stuff, I turn it over to her to spin and knit and torture with the barbed needles. It's high production around here.

And here's something I just learned: do you know the difference between "felting" and "fulling"? It was news to me!

Happy dyeing.

DYEING WOOL WITH ACID DYES AND MX DYES

2010-10-14T11:42:00.001-07:00

I am dyeing and writing and writing and dyeing then writing some more.

The next new Quilt University (www.quiltuniversity.com) class, Dyeing Wool is coming along. Above you can see my first round of experiments using acid dyes on wool fabric, a bit of roaving, and yarn. Glorious.

In lesson one we dye bold bright colors as well as multicolored and variegated colors. Next week I will show you what's up for lesson two and three.

One of the very best things about acid dyes is that what you put into the pot gets used up so you know there are no left overs. This is the "after" shot....

This is the "before" shot when the dyes had just been added. Amazing, eh? I'm loving this.

Just ordered some exotic yarns to test. Yahooooo!

The wool yarn, roaving, felt, and fabric will be available on my web site sometime in December so you can get started collecting your supplies for this online class.

I expect Wool Dyeing to be available early 2011. Are you ready??

Dyeing Wool- let the games begin!

2010-10-04T13:55:00.000-07:00

Last week I started writing my next Quilt University course called, imaginatively enough, "Dyeing Wool". It will be a four course affair covering the basics of dyeing wool yarn, wool roving, wool fabric/felt with acid dyes, Procion MX dyes and some natural dyes.

I have posted some dyed wool yarn results on this blog so now need to test roving for those spinners out there or felters who are in love with nuno and needle felting and other fabulous fiber fun.

I started with one ounce of roving which measures about 58" in length.

I made a recipe with the acid dyes that I can duplicate with Procion MX dyes. I wanted a red orange color; the point being to see the differences in color when the Procion MX dyes are used fresh; after 1 week, and then again after 2 week's time. This is the MX dyeing the roving. I had a pan next to it that contained the acid dyes. When "cooking" the colors looked fairly similar.

It was in the rinsing process that the big shift occurred. About half of the intensity of color came out with the rinse but of course the acid dyes held fast and rinsing was a snap. What goes in, stays in. Beautiful.

Here you can see the difference in the two colors. Everything is identical except for the dye powder used.

I have saved some liquid Procion MX without any chemicals in it to test again in one week. Then I have a third batch that I will test again in two weeks. Supposedly, Procion dyes can be used as acid dyes after a two week wait period. In my testing so far, this has been true. Bright, vivid colors. I'll keep you posted.

I would expect this class to be ready for public consumption early in 2011. Interested?

Not just fabric-

2010-09-27T17:37:00.000-07:00

About 12 years ago, I started a project at my parent's summer home, decorating the dining room table. The first session involved painting the table and the chair fronts and backs with the cream colored border and then painting the botanicals; then finishing it off with sealer. Not bad.

The leaves were unfinished and would cause momentary guilt when large gatherings would sit down to eat....like over Labor Day.

I finally finished it this last weekend. Yay for me! I am posting pictures of it so you can see that I don't just paint on fabric but occasionally paint on wood or walls or whatever is in need of some attention.

I made up the botanical plants and flowers with some butterflies in the mix that span the entire length of the table; going around each end as well.

The width of the border is about 4". The table, without leaves can seat 6. With the 2 leaves we can get 8 in there; 10 if we squeeze and have enough chairs. Please put the left handed people together on one side.

The paints are acrylics and of course I only bought yellow, blue, red, and white. (If you have taken my QU classes or "in studio" classes, you know I have a thing about that!).

Once dry, three layers of sealer will keep the paints from chipping and wearing off with time.

Anyone for Thanksgiving at "Aerie"? There's room now at the table.

Water silk and trusting God-

2010-09-16T17:21:00.000-07:00

I apologize for dropping off the face of Blogger but I have been running so fast, I crashed into myself going back in time. Einstein would be very happy to know this.

One silk project you might like to see, is pictured above. The subject the customer was having me dye was along the lines of "spiritual water"/ "Holy Spirit as living water". I have never had a customer say for me to pray about how it should look; make it for her; send it to her and she knows it will be right. Woah. That's trust. That's totally believing that I am capable of transcending all wonkiness and able to let goodness out of my hands, mind, and heart. But she has seen my work; loved my work; come back to me time and again for more of my work and knows I love God.

The first run was prayed about as I saw in my mind's eye the water containing some green in the mix. It is lovely but not right. Had to adjust my sights. That looks like water that has been standing around for awhile.

The next run was better when I eliminated the green. I prayed over this one as well and while it is also beautiful, I felt it was too transparent and too cartoony blue for water that is living and healing. It also was a bit labor intensive and there is the potential for this run to be requested in multiple yards so can I/do I want to/should I streamline the process down more so that it is not only more transparent but also more user friendly? The answer was yes.

The customer also wanted streaks of metallic silver added to the mix which, along with the theme, were the only guidelines given. Here is how it looks on the final blues I dyed. Nice.

Here is a middle section of the run now called "Deborah's Living Water". It has several shades of blue which wick out into grays traveling the length of the fabric. Third try was exactly the way I was envisioning this silk to be so I sent it off today.

This was a first. I loved doing it for her, along with help from Above. I always seek God's guidance when I work, but this was extra special because of the free latitude given me.

Even if you do not buy into any kind of "higher power", it is an excellent exercise to work outside of yourself now and then. Try it. See where it goes. Allow yourself to listen and hear from outside Sources. Let me know how it goes or if this is a part of your fiber art making experiences.

Soy wax yardage

2010-08-31T07:54:00.001-07:00

For my dear friend's birthday gift this year I batiked her several long runs of cotton fabric for her next quilting project.

I used soy wax this time rather than traditional wax because I wanted to log in more hours using the stuff to see if my opinion of it would change. It hasn't.

On the plus side, it covers well. It brushes on well and is fine with the tjanting needle.

After ironing out, it rinses off reasonably well which is a plus- no paint thinner or boiling out needed.

On the negative side, it feels terrible on my skin- but why would one put it on the skin anyway, right? Sometimes batik wax splatters on me and this did the same thing but it felt icky. Don't like the feel of it at all. It's oily and crumbly.

The other critical thing is that with full immersion dyeing or even when I would get liberal with the dyes and really heap them on, the soy wax deteriorated at a very high speed and crumbles up to the point of ridiculous. For those times, traditional waxes are needed. When painting on the dyes with a certain amount of care, it's fine.

For me- I will probably use it 10% of the time. The rest of the time, I'll stick with bees, batik, or paraffin mixed waxes.

What do you think?

Happy dyeing!

QU classes to round out the year

2010-08-24T07:59:00.000-07:00

Have you ever dyed so much fabric that you ran out of containers? I have a white board that keeps track of multiple dyeings like this so that I know exactly what container has what in it and how much longer it has to go before rinsing. Sometimes it gets wild and wacky around here but for the most part I can do 20 things at the same time with good results. Mega-tasking is something I am pretty good at doing.

Upcoming QU classes (www.quiltuniversity.com) you might be interested in taking include Quilter's Palette for Landscape and Portrait Colors- September 3, Fabric Painting using Jacquard Textile Colors- September 17, Gutta Resist on Silk- October 1, and beginning Cotton Dyeing- October 8.

Fun stuff. Come join us.

Weddings and speaker covers-what do they have in common?

2010-08-16T08:06:00.000-07:00

Things have been rather slow this week in the world of hand dyed silk and cotton textiles.

I have made a few custom orders for weddings and formal wear and completed some more silk used for speaker covers as you can see below. I occasionally get orders for this kind of thing and enjoy the men I get to work with which are totally different from my women customers who make up 90% of my client base.

Today I have another custom color run to do that will include some metallic paint applied to the silk. It is a very interesting color combination this time- Navy blue and gray on silk habotai with silver flecks. I will post about it next week.

With the sagging economy, I thought a long term dip would have hit sooner than this but I really have been doing okay. I have been at it long enough to know that this is the time of year when things coast to a near stand still before picking up again in the fall.

Life is all about pacing yourself. I tend to be a sprinter. I forget that most of the time we have to be distance runners rather than speed demons.

Thank you everyone who has helped make Fabric Designs.com such a huge success which has sustained me and my family for these 11 years. God has richly blessed me with a job that is my passion as well as my business.

So for this week- heed my warning: pace yourselves.

Happy dyeing.

Adding a fourth class to Batik Seminar at QU!

2010-08-09T11:25:00.000-07:00

If any of you have taken my Batik class at www.quiltuniversity.com, then you will remember that it is only three lessons long.

I have just finished writing lesson four if you would like to come back and take the course again.

The last lesson includes stamping the wax on using vegetables as your tjap. Way fun.

I will show you how to do batiking on paper for brilliant results.

How to use other things than wax to make a resist.

And even more fun stuff to make this medium...well....irrestable. (smile). You game? Class starts August 13th.

Chico Art Center Fiber Art Show

2010-08-02T14:59:00.000-07:00

The two large scale wicking experiments that I blogged about below are now hanging at the Chico Art Center. I was very happy that they both got hung in such a manner that they are not only extremely visible but show off their color and size quite well. As you can see, they are hanging without any wall behind them.

Here is the second piece. I should have taken a picture for you from a distance back but was too preoccupied with other stuff to do that. I will see if someone else took a picture and then post it again.

I thought the show was pleasantly diverse and that the art center did a fine job of putting the pieces together so that they show off the talents represented.

Next show of the California Fiber Artists will be here in my home town of Woodland, CA in November and December.

I'm not finished exploring the world of wicking so will be doing more of that. I think I will be adding a new dimension to the pieces by adding tucks and folds in the finished piece. Stay tuned.

This is a picrture I took on the drive home of the street lights. Cool.

Tomorrow I will finish cleaning the dye studio (really!) as I have a custom run of silks to do for a bride to be in New York and there cannot be ANY stray dye or flecks of random color anywhere to cause damage. Know what I mean? Sigh. Maybe you do.

Thanks for looking!

Yes, I am cleaning the dye studio!

2010-07-27T15:32:00.000-07:00

Amazingly enough, I am cleaning the dye studio. I am sorting yard sale stuff into one huge pile, stuff to be put away into another. I have all the silk bolts back on the shelves. Half of the area is in order. The other half looks like an overturned big rig just took a steep turn a bit too fast. Can't even get into the dye mixing room.

Upcoming events: California Fiber Artists show at the Chico Art Center this Saturday from 7-9 p.m. Pictures to follow.

More loads of bricks moved from Bartlett Avenue to my house.

More digging of the extension to the back yard patio.

Silk dyed for a wedding dress.

More silk dyeing for another anonymous customer on the east coast.

Writing and testing the projects for the new QU class "Dyeing Wool". Original name, eh?

I killed 42 flies this morning in the back yard. Can you believe it?

Okay then. No pictures this week but will show you stuff next week. Until then- who is dyeing and what projects do you have in the mix?

Studio cleaning is a non event

2010-07-20T13:24:00.000-07:00

I am not cleaning the dye studio. I can't face going in there right now. It is so horrible that I can't face even opening the door. There are piles of stuff waiting for a yard sale. There are piles of stuff waiting to be put away. There are winter clothes that need to be boxed up or if I wait long enough, I can wear them again without putting them all the way away.

What I am going to do is the old "dangle pretty fabric in front of their faces" trick which works well to make people forget what they were going to do or say. I can't actually believe that you were looking forward to seeing the dye studio like that anyway. What's the matter with you people? Don't you have enough messes to look at without coming here to see my crazy ways???

Okay- so the fabric above was a project I did about 2 years ago. 4 yards of habotai silk that had been dyed a medium brown. I gathered it by hand and stitched it nui shibori style.

Next step was to apply the medium brown dye with a paint brush as you can see. With habotai silk, you really do not need to apply very much dye as it takes it so easily and spreads like mad.

Done dyeing. Once this was dry, I then painted on a diluted application of gold metallic Jacquard Textile Paint.

One very cool thing about Jacquard Textile Paints is that when they interact with dye that has not been rinsed out, they can produce a lovely halo of color due to wicking and pushing and pulling of all the elements of the paint with dye.

Finished. This is going to be a part of a fiber art project that will be suspended from a bamboo rod. There will be gold braid and gold beads threaded in and out of the piece with a focal point that I do not want to give away quite yet because it is still being formulated in my mind as to how to construct the ding dang thing.

I find that while an art piece is in this phase it is best to keep my mind centered on the intention of the piece before I talk about it too much because I loose myself other wise. It's an odd thing. I've never talked to any other artists about this before- it has to do with my own personal difficulties with allowing people to help me.

Often as a child if I needed help, whatever it was I was working on was taken away and finished by some well meaning adult. That was NOT what I needed or was asking for, if you know what I mean. As a result, I found that asking for help was not a good thing so I learned to finish things myself even if it meant doing a terrible job of it. Many times, however, it came out great and the satisfaction of doing it all myself was fantastic. Anyway- the main point being that even talking about a problem I am having with a fiber art piece can be risky because then it becomes someone else's statement or someone else's intention, if that makes sense. Sometimes that is a wonderful addition and sometimes it cancels out the experience for me. I am trying to get better about this and have had some break throughs with my awesome critique group.

Can anyone relate to this?

Anyway. I can't seem to get myself down to clean so I can work/play. Maybe next week.

Thanks for looking.

SAQA fund raiser-Victory Garden- 12 Voices

2010-07-14T10:26:00.001-07:00

I used fabric paints to embellish this panel for a fundraiser for SAQA (of which I am not a member). Louise Schiele spearheaded the project, sending us the fabric and basic instructions.

Above you see my panel which is called- "Onion". I used Jacquard Textile Paints and added a bit of machine stitching for interest.

Here is the completed work of art. Title: Victory Garden

The artists included in this collaborative effort are from top to bottom, left to right- Marjan Kluepfel, Camille Ahern, Yvonne Porcella, Deb Hosler, Louise Schiele, Carol Larson,Peig Fairbrook, Terry Waldron, Dee Danley Brown, Marjie McWilliams, Sara Kelly, Karen Flamme.

This piece is for sale to benefit SAQA as a part of their show called "Twelve Voices" which will open in August at the Pence Gallery in Davis, CA.

Nice work, Louise!

The two panels pictured lower down on this blog were both accepted into the next California Fiber Artist's show at the Chico Art Center. The opening is July 31st, 7-9 p.m. Pictures of the show will appear later.

Okay- off to clean the dye studio. Yes- pictures will appear on Monday. You asked for it....

Anything you want to see/discuss?

2010-07-08T07:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry that I haven't posted this week. Anything you want to see/know about? I need some suggestions as I think everything I do is so mundane; how could anyone want to see that? Talk to me!

Let's dye some wool!

2010-06-29T07:43:00.000-07:00

I talked to Carol, the dean of Quilt University, and she said she was interested in me pursuing the new class idea of dyeing wool! Wahooooo!

Thank you to those of you who responded with positive energy and words to the effect that yes, you would be interested in taking this class.

It takes quite a bit of time and energy to write, test, and document a class so expect to see it at QU after the first of the year or so- if she likes what she sees.

Above are some test samples of different kinds of wool that students might want to dye. I will probably offer some of the lighter colors on my web site supply page for students to buy if they do not have access to natural yarns.

I think this will be a five week course.

Week one will be dyeing yarn and getting used to acid dyes. Above is a raspberry color I got from combining red and black.

In week two we will dye roving for those who want to spin their own yarn or do some felting. If this isn't something you want to do, we can always dye more yarn using the same recipes and techniques.

Above is a very pale robin's egg blue. I was experimenting with how light I can go after I went as deep as I could go on some wool that was dyed black.

Week three will be dyeing wool fabric. I do not have any pictures yet of that process.

Week four will be natural dyes. Above is a picture of some tea stained wool yarn. This should be fun stuff.

The results we can get can span the value spectrum from very soft pastels to deep, rich color absorption as you can see.

The last lesson will be using left over Procion dyes that are more than 2 weeks old as acid dyes. This is something that I have just learned how to do. Very exciting.

We will also intentionally dye variegated colors which make for exquisitely patterned pieces when knitted or woven into their final form.

I'm very excited about this new adventure and hope you are too. This should add a wonderful new element to your fiber art creations.

Response? Let me know. Anything else you would like to see in this class?

E-Newsletter going out this week-Sheep to Chic!

2010-06-21T13:06:00.000-07:00

I am putting together the e-newsletter this week. If you are not on my mailing list but would like to receive a more in depth look at what is happening in the Dye Studio, email me and let me know.

This quarter's news is about the process I am calling "Sheep to Chic". I wanted to learn what happens during that mysterious gap between sheep sheering to the time I buy the wool to dye. I photographed the process which I think you may be interested in seeing.

The reason for this exploration came when I realized last fall that there are still a few gaps left in my dyeing experience. I am trying to close those gaps now that I am entering my fifth decade as a fiber artist.

Wool dyeing using acid dyes were a weak point in my repertoire but now that I have figured this part out, I have found it to be extremely easy to do! I am so confident in my new skills, that my daughter and I are considering a team teaching workshop to be held this time next year in Oregon to correspond with The Black Sheep Festival in Eugene, Oregon. We have access to a lovely McWilliams owned resort on the McKenzie River where we will offer respite and lodging for the festival; transportation to and from the festival; and evening workshops where students will learn how to dye roving, card the roving, and then spin the dyed roving into yarn for future fiber art projects. Sound like fun? Save the date and time and let's get together and have some fiber fun!

Happy dyeing!

More wicking work

2010-06-15T06:59:00.000-07:00

"So you just slap on the dyes and this is what comes out?"

That comment was made about my work this past week. Essentially they are correct. That's exactly what I do, but the comment kind of took me by surprise because it has taken me 40+ years of dyeing to arrive at this place in time.

To make myself feel better, I was reminded of just what goes into "slapping" on the dyes. This white board and the large pad of paper beside it currently hold the directions to one way of "slapping it on" that actually takes 2 1/2 hours to accomplish that "slapped together" look.

Like ballet, the trick is to make it seem effortless.

Here is the piece I was working on last week called "Organized Chaos 3". It is the third in a series of I don't know how many, dealing with wicking. The size is 45" x 108". It is dupion silk.

I spent a lot of time manipulating this silk. There are hours of time in between manipulating sessions. I blocked the magenta from going too far and encouraged the gold to travel up the white areas away from the rest of the colors. The blues were encouraged to run into the middle and then eventually south before being allowed to leak completely off the table.

Total dye time- 9 hours. Total time working the dyes- about 30 minutes. Total planning time- about 8 hours. If that is slapping on the dyes, then so be it.

This piece is called "Organized Chaos 2". It is 8 mm habotai silk as I may have told you below when I showed you a section of it. It is about 36" x 50". It is impossible to photograph. The depth of color is amazing. Originally I had thought that I would add some very light stitching into the deep purple caves but have decided that understated is best for this one.

I spent about 1 minute planning this piece. Spent another 2 minutes slapping on the dyes. Did not manipulate the dye at all. Time spent in the dye- overnight for a total of 10 hours.

Other comments through the ages that I have enjoyed are the ones that people make about how "Aunt Mildred used to do tie dye like this". Oh Really? Fantastic! Or regarding my batik work- "I did that in Girl Scouts." Wow. How progressive of your leader! Or the best ones of all in regard to batiked fiber art pieces- "How do you tie the knots so it comes out looking like a painting like that?"

Yes, I suppose I do do tie dyeing. And yes, I'm sure Aunt Mildred was an amazing artist. Don't you miss her gifts at Christmas time? God bless her. Rest in piece.

Thank you for looking at what I did this past week in the dye studio.

Next week- more slapping around of dyes. Maybe you'd like to have me come show your Brownie Troop how to do this professionally? There's a career in this, you know. (wink)

More wicking projects

2010-06-07T12:59:00.000-07:00

I blogged about the first attempt at organizing chaos using batik methods with wicking dyes on silk. That went well with a lot of things learned. Here is how it looks finished. I like the pooling silk on the floor which went well and I like the agitation lines where the wax was intentionally left thin to absorb color.

I did NOT like the fact that the dyed backing could be seen from the front so I opened up the whole thing, inserted two layers of cotton so that it would be less opaque and that worked fine.

I'm still not happy with the way it is hung on the clear plastic rod I had made for another fiber art piece called "Layers", which you may remember me posting awhile back.

I'm still thinking about this piece. Not 100% happy yet.

Had to try it again. This time I applied different dyes to 8 mm habotai silk. This one is very subtle and lovely with only very small hints of red here and there. This piece is very much smaller but is begging for some machine stitching. I will be working on this some more so you will see it again.

And one more time (at least). This time on dupion silk -45" x 108". I did a LOT of manipulating this time using wads of fabric under the plastic and plastic garbage cans as hills to keep dye from traveling too far.

The color on this one is smashing. I will show you a finished photo next week. No backing this time but a rod in sleeve system to hang. So far so good.

For my QU students- I tried using a mini crock pot to melt the soy wax and it worked fine except that it took FOREVER to melt the stuff. I think it should also work just fine with regular waxes. It never smoked. Temp was just right. Live and learn.

I am feeling the pinch as I have several deadlines ahead of me that I am fighting to beat. While I do best under pressure, sometimes I sure wish I was better organized so that I wouldn't get so goofed up and lose my peace. I have a chuppah to dye, several silk custom orders to dye and mail, 2 fiber art projects to finish and currently, 15 things on my "to do" list. What I really want to do is take a nap. The neighbor's dog barked at 5 a.m. and then 6 a.m. I have visions of just opening up their backyard gate and saying, "BE FREE! GO! SEE THE WORLD! START RUNNING NORTH AND YOU'LL SOON FIND DOGGY NIRVANA." But...alas...I do know that what goes 'round, come 'round.....

Sacramento County Fair- More wool!

2010-05-31T09:25:00.001-07:00

Saturday, my daughter and I went to the Sacramento County Fair to see what was going on with the "Sheep to Shawl" competition. Two teams from this area started at the same time and were to take breaks at the same time to see who could finish first and who would create the most beautiful shawl. I do not know who won but the event was great fun. Above you can see see the championship fleece.

There were six spinners on each team. Here is my favorite. She is a shoeless spinner which I like and she had it goin' ON!

The women kept in tight contact with each other to shout out what they were going to be needing next. High production!

Here is a member of the second team making a two ply yarn which was clever as the thicker yarn weaves faster. This woman was fantastic because she could talk to me and work at the same time. I did offer to spy for them to tell them where the other team was at that moment but they seemed to feel pretty confident that that wasn't necessary.

Twisting away to make a much thicker yarn that even has some sprinkles of bling-bling in there to make what they called the "Night Sky Shawl".

The yarn this team used had been hand dyed using some sort of wool dye that I did not recognize. It had "Gay" in the title- that's all I heard as my mind, of course, raced off into other areas than wool dyeing at that point....

We left there and looked at the sheep who had been shaved of all their beauty (and interest) to admire the pigs, goats, chickens, geese, turkeys, cows, rabbits, and more.

One of the things I really love about fairs is watching the young people show their projects. I am such a city girl, that I know little about what it takes to raise an animal like this. I am in awe. Above is a cow I liked because of her perpetual smile. We were able to get really close as you can see to watch this round of judging.

Look at the intensity in the faces! Love it! The cow seen here with the young lady handling her is the Grand Champion. Fabulous cow. Fabulous color. Fabulous young woman.

One last picture...we walked up to this by accident. Here is the judging of the Guinea Pigs. We stayed for the entire contest. Who would know??? Only someone who does 4-H, I suppose. This was fascinating! The judge in the white coat talked the whole time about what she was seeing and feeling and thinking about each animal. I believe the one on her right is the Grand Champion. This was a lot of fun and I would go back just to watch this part next year. The animals would absolutely freeze when she plopped them down and then as she tucked their little legs in and under them they were like stuffed animals- or- a package of Jimmie Dean sausage. I now know more than I care to know about Guinea Pigs. Who knows- maybe this could be a new career for me and I could ride the fair circuit. Better yet- let's shave some and see what happens when we dye their fur.

Thanks for looking.

Wool from the ground up- E-newsletter coming out soon!

2010-05-24T16:29:00.000-07:00

How do we get from this....

...to this?
Be sure you are signed up to receive my Spring E-Newsletter where I document the process from sheep to chic.

Getting there- Organized Chaos

2010-05-17T16:11:00.001-07:00

This week, I dyed the backing for the batiked silk piece entitled, "Organized Chaos". Here it is on my work table with the dyes arranged in such a way that wicking will start and stop in a controlled manner.

Here is the backing after it has been dyed, rinsed and dried. Perfect!

Close up of the wicking color. When using complex colors (more than two primaries) you can learn what to expect only through trial and lots of error.

Here is how the piece looks at the moment. The backing is in place and once I press it for the final time and stitch up the opening, I will do my official photographing so it is ready for the show catalogue and my archives.

Final size is approximately 42" x 126" with about 3/4 yards of silk that will pool up on the floor.

I will be studying this piece for the next three days or so because there are some things that are troubling me about it. I won't tell you right now what they are because I want to ponder some more and probably fix it and THEN talk about it. I need to think it through before talking. Do you do that too?

Next week- hopefully you will see the final photos.

Thanks for looking!

Fiber art project- Organized Chaos-week 2

2010-05-10T10:51:00.001-07:00

My next step in the production of the large scale batik on silk project, was to iron out the wax that was applied to the silk to keep most of the dye from covering the background. To do this, I iron the fabric between sheets of computer paper to absorb as much of the wax as possible.

Here is how some of it looks with only a thin layer of wax and oil left behind from the leftovers. The dyed places are where the wax was intentionally applied in such a way that it did not penetrate all the way through to the other side of the silk. When the dyes were brushed and squirted onto the silk, some leaked over the edge and back stained the reverse side of the fabric to create these lines of color.

Here is a picture of another section that is particularly beautiful.

So why not make the whole thing a solid coverage of wax so that all of the white stays white? Because the title of this piece is "Organized Chaos". I am attempting to communicate how this feels to me.

Anytime chaos pierces through the peace and calm, there is a backlash or vibration set up that cuts through the calm. Chaos is not without static by any means. It vibrates and stings and sets up motion both good and bad. To have this lovely color looping along and then puddling without shards and splinters of intensity is to lose the point of the piece.

Art is entertainment. Art without communication just takes up space. Art without a solid core of meaning and significance is just decoration. Decoration is okay but that's not what I am looking for in my fiber art or in this piece.

Next week, I will show you how the backing is taking shape and how the whole thing looks when completed!

Fiber art project- Organized Chaos

2010-05-03T11:22:00.001-07:00

Last week I started working on an idea that has been bouncing around for awhile in my brain surrounding the topic of how to organize chaos. While this may seem like an oxymoron, it is actually something that I deal with daily.

The picture above, is of crepe backed silk satin cut to 33" x 96" and stretched on my frame, ready for waxing. I have already lightly drawn in guidelines to keep the design in the forefront of my mind.

Next I apply the hot wax to the outside areas because I want to keep most of the color in the center, but not all of it. The wax was applied in a thick and thin manner so that some of the dye will come onto the back side and stay there where the wax is thin, but most will of course be contained in the central panel. You'll see what I mean in a minute.

Now the dyes are applied in the combination I want and lightly smeared with gloved hands and encouraged to wick and bleed as they will. I have lifted two portions of the work so that more wicking will happen in those areas.

The dye that is beading up along the sides is exactly what I hoped would happen. Some of it has found its way into the thinly waxed areas and will remain. Most of it will not be absorbed because the wax barrier is there to stop the dyeing action.

The process is timed so that when it has done its thing, it will be rinsed and will dry and be ready for the next part of the process which is the removal of the wax.

More next week! Thanks for stopping by to see what's up in the Dye Studio.

Working in themes

2010-04-27T08:51:00.000-07:00

We all have pet peeves. I have several and have just recently been able to let some of my old ones go but that's another blog theme at another time.

One that irks me no end is fiber artists who just spew forth art with no thought; no intention; no theme; no idea where they are going or what they are trying to say. Now don't misunderstand me- I myself still do the very same thing at times. I just blindly go along with no brain work at all and out something comes that is...well...pretty- or not. Pretty has its place. Pretty sells. Pretty can inflate your bank account so there certainly is merit in creating pretty art.

What I am talking about takes fiber art to the next level of sophistication which is communication. A very famous art educator once said, "Art is entertainment, so entertain the hell out of the viewer!" I've never forgotten that because the vast majority of fiber artists have no regard for the fact that they have an opportunity to actually say something. I often wonder what the point of a piece is that I am making or looking at in a gallery or pondering at critique group or anywhere I happen to wander.

Do you create with intention or purpose? I am trying, as a professional fiber artist to keep this thought paramount in my mind as I plan out a new work or as I revisit an old one that needs to be reexamined.

So maybe you are curious about themes that I visit and revisit? I love the theme of layers and am not finished with it. I have produced about 6 pieces so far exploring this theme and there's more to come. You can see examples of layers all over this blog. The fish still are not finished as I need to do another one using glass as a topper with holes where the Coi mouths stick up and out of the glass.

Another theme has been "Absence of Color". Many artists, myself included, lean so heavily on color that everything else falls by the wayside. I challenged myself to eliminate color by doing five very small pieces that were, as the final stroke, spray painted silver to eliminate all color to see if they could stand on their own as art pieces once color was taken away. It was a powerful exercise. A picture of one of them is at the top of the page.

From there I explored the theme of "Sharp". That lasted for about four pieces.

Another theme has been "Friends". One of my batiks is pictured above before it was finished. This was done for the Prym/Dritz company that manufactures Dylon Dyes. I did major testing for them and they commissioned me to do this batik which uses Dylon Permanent Dyes. The theme progressed into multiple other projects using my pals and our relationships as the theme. I was a bit unsure about what I was going to be trying to say about these three friends and I believe it shows, unfortunately, in the composition.

Other topics that have been themes through the years include: Tormented Emotion, Hiroshima, Depression, Large Scale, Optimism, Fire, Unbridled Joy, God as Life Force, and of course-Inability to Contain Myself.

Theme I am working on now- Wicking and Pooling. You will see my progress on this piece later.

I hope that you will consider what the heck you are doing when you make art. It's time to grow up as artists. It's really not okay to just plow your way through what you are doing hoping that at the end something nice results from your efforts. If you want to grow up and be a mature artist, its time to start thinking it through and getting a focus for your work.

Any discussion?

More wicking and a fiber art project-at last!

2010-04-19T15:02:00.000-07:00

I am still dreaming and pondering and cogitating the science of how wicking occurs on silk. This topic rolls around and around in my brain like a marble in the bathtub.

Finally, my thoughts landed and I had my fiber art project for July's show in Chico, CA. I was driving home from Oakland and my prayer was- "What do I do with all this?" And out it came- "Controlled Chaos".

I now have the title, how to do it, and the colors to use. Took all of 1 minute. It was all I could do to get home and sketch it out.

The piece will be done on Crepe Backed Silk Satin -Charmeuse. This is the best silk for this project because not only does it take the color well but its drape is exquisite. I want this piece to not only glow with color but also hang well as the bottom 5' will puddle up on the floor from where it is hung.

I will be batiking about half of it, heaping on the dye, hanging portions of it to take advantage of gravity, and creating artificial hills for other parts of it to travel up and separate into the colors desired.

The overall effect I want to portray is, as stated in the title,- "Controlled Chaos". As ballet is performed in such a way as to appear effortless, so will this fiber art piece be- quite difficult to make but will appear effortless.

Want to come along for the ride? I hope so. I will take pics so you can come with me as I try to hit a home run on my first time at bat with this one...but then again....to take the analogy further- before a baseball player steps up to bat, they have had lots of practice learning the game. I've prepared extensively for this piece. Lots of dyes and lots of fabric have passed my way before attempting this one so know that; like the ballerina- I am going to try to make this look effortless.

Next posting will be April 26th. See you then. Leave a message if you want to chat. I do show up now and then to see if anyone comments on the blog.

Pam does marbling in the dye studio!

2010-04-12T18:16:00.000-07:00

This week I am finishing up some custom projects and moving on to more business as usual- belly dancing veils and perhaps some scarves and tunics.

Above is a sample of some fabric I made for a customer in Pennsylvania and had another one in New York who ordered a dance veil in the same fabric. It's fun to make. It looks like fire with flecks of gold laced throughout. I have several other custom orders ready to start- one is a large wedding chuppah and the others are finishing up and getting ready to be sent. The beat goes on.

Last week some members of the California Fiber Artists, (http://www.cafiberartists.com/) of which I am a member, came to the dye studio to learn how to use thickened Procion MX dyes. Several of them had played with it before and some had not.

I asked Pam to try her hand at marbling so that my Quilt University students could see how to do a bonus project along with us- first: pour or brush thickened dye onto your work table. I put a sheet of plastic down first.

You can use left over dye paint (not more than 2 hours old) or make fresh stuff if you would rather do it that way.

Lay on top of the paint a piece of dry, preshrunk cotton.

Press into the paints, squishing them around with the flat of your hands. If you dig into the fabric with a paint brush you can make lines or squiggles! Wear gloves. Duh. This is funny if you were there....

Lift the fabric carefully and slowly from the table and there you have it! Allow to sit for a minimum of 1 hour. It can dry completely before rinsing but doesn't have to if you don't have the time or patience to wait around for it all day. Allowing the fabric to sit for longer than 1 hour before rinsing will not cause it to be any deeper color.

Rinse well and quickly in warm water and dry.

Nice, eh?

If this process intrigues you, consider taking my class at http://www.quiltuniversity.com/ called "Thick and Thin". It will start up again August 20th and runs for 5 lessons.

What are you working on these days?

E-Newsletter for spring 2010

2010-04-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

The Dye Studio spring E-News will be coming out in a week or so. If you would like to be included on my mailing list, let me know! I didn't publish a winter E-News so know that you didn't miss anything if you are following that line of communication.

In this issue, I will be covering the process of making wool yarn from start (still on the sheep) to finish (worn on my head).

Above is a picture of the seemingly daunting machinery used at the Yolo Wool Mill (http://www.yolowoolmill.com/) where our daughter works. Fascinating stuff. Brings to mind sweat shops of the 1800s with small children standing on boxes moving the fibers through the gears for five cents a day. OOps! There goes a finger. Ack! There goes an arm. I must say that having been there on many occasions, this is a much happier place than that!

I'm considering writing a workbook on dyeing wool if anyone is interested. I did talk to Carol at Quilt University about a one or two lesson class but she said they were phasing out those smaller courses for more detailed lessons. Let me know if there is interest in such a thing and I'll add that to my "to do" list.

This week, I am finishing up some silk dyeing orders consisting of the usual belly dancing veils, an 8 yard run of fire silk for use by dancers using tambourines in worship choirs, and cleaning the dye studio for the California Fiber Artists (http://www.cafiberartists.com/) critique group meeting here tomorrow. Yikes. I haven't cleaned since the last meeting we had here which was around this time in 2009. About time.

Happy dyeing everyone!

Protein and cellulose fibers-Shearing Time at the Wool Mill

2010-03-29T09:35:00.001-07:00

The question was asked of me by a Quilt University student about Procion MX dyes becoming suitable acid dyes if left unused for more than 2 weeks. This was interesting to me as I had never heard of this theory, but another student confirmed this thought after reading in a book called "Dyeing Wool and Other Protein Fibers" by Susan Rex:
"It was once thought that the storage life of fiber reactive dye solution was their biggest downfall. On cellulose fibers (plant material such as cotton), dye stock must be used within 2 weeks for repeatable results. However, dye to the nature of these dyes, dye stock may be stored for 6 months and still produce reliable results with protein (silk, wool) fibers."-Italics mine.

Above you can see results using acid dyes (green) on wool and the results on cotton underneath. BIG difference. The top raspberry colored wool was dyed using Procion MX dyes that had sat out without chemicals for about 4 weeks. The wool was dyed with the same technique as acid dyes with fine results.

The samples under that one are also Procion MX dyes that were aged. I got good results and the cotton came out more on the blue side but better than the cotton dyed in acid dyes. Interesting?

All of the wool used came from the Yolo Wool Mill.

Yesterday, I went to the Yolo Wool Mill where our daughter works to see how wool is removed from the sheep to start the process of becoming batting and/or yarn. This is the only part of the process I had not yet seen.

This particular animal had the system figured out and gave the sheering guy a run for his money.

Most sheep when turned on their backs become immobile and stiff. This gal had been through the routine so many times that she knew that if she went limp, it makes it a LOT harder to do. She was like a wet noodle and once she slipped down far enough she could kick and wiggle and try to get away. As a result it took 5 times longer to get the job done.

Here's the wool ready to be picked. Lots of weeds, poop, mud, and who knows what else was in there. Next step is to wash the wool. I'll show you the rest of the process next week.

Do they look like they know something is up? Not particularly. Not yet anyway.

So this week at the Dye Studio, I need to finish up dyeing some silk veils for Japan, work on my next fiber art piece that will be a part of a show this July in Chico, California, get ready for my critique group which is coming to the Dye Studio in 2 weeks to do some dye painting, and try and figure out if I should do a teaching gig at the university this summer or not. It's a class called Introduction to Textile Design Structures. It's been a long time since I taught in a real live classroom with real live students and having to cart real live materials into real time. I don't know. Right now I just want to read my book in the sun and drink iced tea. Yeah. Or take a nap.

Thanks for looking at my blog.

Let's see if I can fix this blog for you-

2010-03-23T18:31:00.000-07:00

Somehow I really messed this blog up so that it now is all squished up and small rather than wide open the way it was before this so...sorry. I seem to be able to see my pictures now so that's good.
Here's a pic of Susan and Beatrice. Adorable. 1 week old. We love them which is, I know, kind of odd. I know there will come a day in the not so distant future where they will find a way into the Dye Studio and then the fun begins.
Stay tuned.
Okay...now let me see if I can fix this blog.

In the beginning, things don't always appear to be as good as they will be at the end-

2010-03-22T17:36:00.000-07:00

Pictured above are some items that look less than what their potential will be once time has passed. Silk dyeing in a ball and chicks. Both have to start somewhere and both have the potential to be a beatiful thing. (Yes, the chicks are standing on my keyboard).

Tomorrow, after I work the kinks out of this sorry blog, I will show you the silk finished. The chicks won't be living up to their potential for a few months but I'll show you pictures of them later as well.

In the meantime, I've done something dumb to this blog and don't have the time to fix it yet. I will try and make all this larger tomorrow.

For now- think about this concept----that most things do not appear to be as good as they will be at the end.

More tomorrow.

Coming up at Quilt University-

2010-03-15T10:25:00.000-07:00

If you've never thought of taking an online class, perhaps now is the time! Above, you can see two paintings by my online students, Bente and Carolyn. In Fabric Painting, we start by playing with abstractins and by the time we are finished, you will have the confidence to make something more realistic to enhance your fiber art projects. Join us March 26th at www.quiltuniversity.com!

OK,OK,OK....so I missed a Monday!

2010-03-12T08:30:00.000-08:00

Here's something to look at while I run around like a crazy woman. I do apologize to my loyal blog lookers.

What you see above are the beautiful belly dancing veils that are consuming SOME of my time. Not ALL of my time but as you know by now, dyeing silk is my sanity. To make these for A'Kai Silks in Hawaii and it's owner Jes, who is my friend and business partner is a pleasure. Isn't the photography spectacular? I could look at these pictures all day long. And sometimes I do. :-)

So what is consuming my time so that I didn't blog on Monday as promised? Here's the list:

1) I have four Quilt University classes going at the same time. I sometimes have five but four keeps me busy. Sometimes I forget what class I'm in and say something stupid but fortunately we teachers can go into a file and fix our stupid or brainless comments.

2) I am starting another small business that is not fabric related. Imagine that! It is a transportation company for disabled people. There is a desperate need in the city where I live to get dialysis patients to their treatments. This is time consuming but fun work. My husband is going to be the driver and we will be starting to hit the streets this summer. Very time consuming but also fun. We have to get all our bases covered before we start.

3) We are getting chickens! My daughter and I have researched what kinds work best in a backyard city environment and will be picking up two of the newly hatched chicks next Wednesday! We can hardly wait. In about 3 weeks we will get the other two chicks as they are a special order kind coming from some 'special' place. Pictures will follow, I'm sure. We're going for egg layers who are quiet, personable, and friendly. Did you know such a thing was possible? It is! We also want their poo for the compost, doncha know?

4) Spring is springing here in northern California. That means it is time to turn out the compost and get the vegetables in NOW! I have been working in the garden between rains and have planted beets, carrots, broccoli, squash seeds that came from the organic farm my daughter worked on in France, and pumpkins. I will buy zucchini plants and one tomato plant. More of the back lawn is giving way to the vegetables. It never looked all that great anyway so why not dig it up and use it for food production.

5) Interclub tennis has started. Played my first team doubles match Monday night and all three sets went down to the opponents. The third set was rained out and we were down 3-5. Maybe that was a good thing. My team moved up a division this season. Much better tennis now but we lost. I think it will be a good move. I certainly had to concentrate on what I was doing because if I let my mind wander, I was fried.

If I keep my camera out I will be better, maybe, about taking pics for you to see what is happening in the dye studio. I do need to show you some of the production on these veils. I have the next round to do today and early next week- 18 rectangular veils in turquoise and cobalt and 25 of the mottled veils you see above in various pastel colors.

So.... did I do okay today? I WILL post something Monday. It's on my calendar now.

Thanks for looking.

What's up? More wicking and fiber art-

2010-03-01T14:38:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, I partner with A'Kai Silks to hand dye silk veils for belly dancers. Each veil gets trimmed before sending, leaving me with a basket full of ends that are glorious. What to do with them is the question. Throw them away? Doubtful. My mind has been racing thinking up my next fiber art project. I will be making this piece using the left over scraps for the California Fiber Artist's next show in Chico, CA. I want something representative of the work I do, that moves in the breeze, is colorful, is happy and affordable. Watch my blog as this piece unfolds.

I am still thinking through the "problem" of color wicking along with at last mastering a cold water fiber reactive recipe to make a good black on silk. When I come to the end of a bolt of silk, I save the end for one of these practice runs. Here is my latest recipe. Yes. Looks very black but....so did the one below:

Fabulous piece of silk but so very brown. That happens. It truly is a beautiful recipe and one I will be using because the color DOES wick out but it wicks INTO black which is wild! Most of the time the colors wick OUT of black and into other wonderful things such as the first example that you saw last week...here it is again:

I love this one. The depth of color is exquisite. I will use this recipe as well.

So what's the problem? The problem is that with just a few grains of dye powder, the color can flip into brown or eggplant or olive green. The balance is so minuscule that it blows my mind!

I do have a good black recipe but it cannot be doubled. I said before that it is most stable when in liquid form and what I have learned in the last few weeks is that when applied to heavier silks such as crepe backed silk satin it performs the best. Decrease the silk weight and it gets wobbly again. So....add one more variable to the heap and away we go. Stay tuned. More to come on this for sure.

P.S. I realized that it is almost spring and I never sent out a winter e-newsletter. Imagine that. I forgot something. Pffffft! I'm thinking I'm doing well for blogging once a week.

Anything you want to see or have me tell you about? Talk to me.

Acid dyes on wool and cotton, searching for black, an enema for an elephant-

2010-02-22T17:10:00.000-08:00

A very interesting question came up in one of my QU class discussions about using acid dyes on cotton fibers. It's not very often that I get completely stumped like this so the best way to find out was to try it for myself to see if it can be done. I was dyeing some silk and wool roving anyway so why not pop in a cotton sample while at it? Here are the results. Yes, quite pale in comparison to the wool but it did accept some color.

Looks like cooked spinach, doesn't it? The sample on the far left is mohair and the next is silk and wool. The cotton is the pale rectangle and then there is another wool/silk combo which is the largest hunk of stuff.

The other thing I am working on is my elusive search for the key that unlocks the mystery of black Procion fiber reactive dyes on silk. I have been trying to find the answer for a number of decades (yes, it's true- DECADES) and while I am not working on it day in and day out the opportunity to work on this project does come up now and then.

Today I tried another combination and purposely allowed the dyes to wick out into the white area. I am not only searching for black but also testing numerous colors for the speed in which they break away from the pack on silk.

In this sample you can see that the final base color is a deep, chocolate brown that morphs into a deep forest green that again morphs into what I call a Bahama Blue. It is spectacularly beautiful. It will be sold by A'kai Silks as a belly dancing veil. The white is in the center of the veil and the colors wick out from there.

While it's not black, it is fantastic and gives me a lot of clues as to where to go next.

My black recipe that I have perfected for small runs of silk is great BUT its fatal flaw is that the recipe cannot be doubled and it is most stable when in liquid form.

I'm getting there. One of these days. One of these days.

Here is a picture of my dear friend Jerra. I have about $25,000.00 worth of Starbucks cards that I obviously never use so we were going to cash in and catch up on each other's lives.

Jerra is a compounding pharmacist. You can see that she is talking on a cell phone and driving at the same time. (A-hem.) But the reason I am posting this picture is not because she is breaking the law but because what she is talking about is so interesting! Before she picked me up, she was working on making an antibiotic enema for a sick elephant. Here she is talking to a vet about how to put it into...shall we say...into action. I was laughing my head off and trying not to make her act in an unprofessional manner. All in a day's work. Rarely a dull moment.

Thanks for looking. Next week I will have pictures of the curtain. It looks great by the way.

Frozen blueberries on silk and cotton

2010-02-15T12:03:00.001-08:00

This week I needed to fine tune some of my recipes using blueberries on silk. My Quilt University class, Dyeing with Tea and Spices is coming up and I wasn't exactly sure about the baking soda proportions in the final rinse. Suffice it to say that the results were sumptuous. Fabulous. Mouth watering. The kind of colors you love to pet and hold close.
Above are the results of the cotton fabric that went through a vinegar rinse on the left and a baking soda rinse on the right. Smashing success.

.

The very small samples at the top are the three fabrics I tested- left to right- cotton, habotai silk, and crepe backed silk satin. The colors in the small swatches are how they looked after staining and after the first rinse in clear water. Very stable. I'm excited at this point of the process because all three of my favorite fabs are equal in elegance and each hold a beauty of their own even without mordanting.

Next row- cotton, habotai silk, cbss silk in vinegar mordant. Pinky purple sunset color. Hold your applause please.

Middle row, same fabric order but the mordant was alum. Ohhhhh ahhhhhhh. Steely blue grays and deep purple.

Last row- same fabric order but in baking soda rinse. This was the color I wanted to test and it came out a luscious green that is so organic and fabulous that I have to come up with a new name for the color...it is outside of the bounds of my sphere of reference. Abalone Iridescence? I am in love. I have to have something to wear in this color so will be planning a larger run soon.

It's hard not to scream and yell and run around the room when I look at these colors. This is where my madness kicks in big time and is what can clear out a room in about 10 seconds...this kind of thing makes me crazy happy and the sad thing is that there aren't that many people who share the madness so....here it is. I know you know and know that I know and we both know. Right?

A deep debt of gratitude goes out to the last two classes of exceptional students who helped develop these recipes and pushed to develop the process into one that everyone could get into and work with and use for their own fiber art methods.

Also deep gratitude to my Full Moon Dyers who helped sort through the 10 years worth of information to give us, and each other, and future QU students an excellent place to start to learn this wonderful and constantly changing art/science.

What I did this week

2010-02-08T14:48:00.001-08:00

I hesitate to show you this because it is so revealing...I know you are going to try and zoom in on my mess....I have been dyeing silk this week. Next week I will have more glorious pictures than these so you'll have to wait. The reality of my life is that I am a huge slob. I can't stay neat and tidy if my life depended on it. I throw dye around and slap things together with alarming speed.
This is a picture of my dye prepping tables. I have to have a small room dedicated solely to mixing the dyes because otherwise everything would get splots on it so all fabric remains at the other end of the studio. Yes, I have to walk a lot but it has to be that way. I always tell visitors to be careful when they enter this room. Now you can see why.

I finished the curtains for the stage at church. I will hang them tomorrow and spray them with flame retardant. Pictures next week. These things weigh a lot. I'll have Pastor Darnisha take a pic of me with my gas mask on. That may be my new Facebook profile picture.

I've been kind of down lately. Don't know exactly why. Just am. I'm just going with it for now. Ebb and flow; ebb and flow. Think I need some sunshine.

Thanks for looking. Stay warm.

What I did this week-gradations, silk, soy wax, start the curtain

2010-02-01T17:00:00.000-08:00

So this last week was good. I had a nice order for several sets of gradations which were just sent out to Italy.

Here is a picture of a run of silk chiffon which went out to a customer on the east coast.

Here are some fabs I made for my best friend's birthday to supplement her stash of batiked fabs for a new quilting project. I need to do the next round of waxing but ran out of wax and money. QU classes have started up again so soon I will finish this project and send it on to its new home.

Started washing and then cutting the fabric for the 10' x 30' curtain. Here's what it looked like before it went into the wash. Large piles of fabric make me happy. See the yardstick?

Washed, cut and folded. Tomorrow the sewing begins.

This is a picture of my wooden frame that is my current favorite for dyeing, painting, batiking projects. They came with the slots in them as seen above and a screw and wing nut system that was only good for specific sized projects. I dumped the wing nuts in favor of some middle sized "C" clamps. WAY easier. Now I can slide them around and make the frames any size I want.
Close up. Hope this helps.

Several students wanted to see specifically how I was doing this in my dye studio.

Happy dyeing everyone. Tell me what you are working on these days!

Anything specific you want to see me do? Any products you want reviewed?

Another week, another enormous project

2010-01-25T09:23:00.000-08:00

Monday. Blog day. Three weeks in a row. I think I can do this.

Today I expect to be starting an order for my church. It will involve making a curtain that is 10' long by 30' wide. Easy. Want to come along and watch me do this? No dyeing involved. Just thinking and sewing and assembling.

Here is one of the largest hand dyed chuppah orders I ever made. You can see it on my web site finished.

I get so excited when I can work on large scale pieces. What is it that makes me so giddy? First of all the engineering challenge is cool. I love plotting out how I will physically attack the problem. Large amounts of fabric weigh a lot and is so cumbersome that I have to plot out ways to push it all around the studio to get what I want done.

If dyeing or designing is involved, I enjoy working out a way to get all that fabric laid out, the design transferred onto it, batiked or painted, dyed, rinsed, hung out, sewn into its final shape, ironed, shipped.

There is always a point with large scale work where I start to doubt myself and think, "I sure hope this works out". Because it is so large, most of the time I feel like I am looking at it through a key hole so doubt has a lot of chances to creep into my psyche. I can see parts of it, but not all of it so sometimes I will stop what I am doing and move all the furniture out of my kitchen (which is large) and lay the thing out and take a look. Am I in the right ball park? Anything need fixing now before it's too late? Usually my doubts are put to rest and I can finish well.

Bottom line for me is that when it is finally finished there is a rush of adrenalin that makes it all worth while.

When I send the work away I feel sad. Sad because the event is over and now clean up is in order but there is one more FABULOUS rush to come...when the pictures come in of the piece in place, ready for the wedding or the church service or the home furnishings to be put back and that is the best part of all. Many artists never get to see where their art goes but when we do it is the best feeling EVER. That final look at where it is meant to be is what makes me come back for more.

Tell me about your biggest art piece.

Little bit of work and a field trip

2010-01-18T17:35:00.001-08:00

Monday is Blog Day. Two weeks in a row. I'm giving myself a high five.
I did two things this week that were noteworthy. One is that I finished a large scale tablecloth that you can see above. It is made using dyes painted onto cotton using sodium alginate thickener with Procion MX dyes. It came out just the way I wanted it to and looks great on my breakfast table.
You can take my new QU class "Thick and Thin" starting February 5, but it may close soon as it is quickly reaching capacity.

Here is a stamp I did using a cabbage cut in half that was painted with blue thickener. Not being a great fan of this vegetable, it was not something that people in this household objected to greatly when it was dedicated to art making.

So what do you see in this print? If you said a baby rooster then you're in trouble. That's what I see.

The other fun thing was that I took my daughter on a field trip to Sausalito California to hear/see a knitting and crochet demonstration by Laurie Goldman. It was excellent but the best thing was the view from the home of San Francisco bay.

Here is the view from the hostess's studio. I totally have "view envy". Know what I can see from my studio "windows"? Nothing because they haven't been washed in 30 years. Really. Actually I did try to wash them once but there is a fine layer of paint on the glass from having the house painted awhile back. If that were removed I would be able to see the underside of some plants and the back of the garbage cans. I would have to back WAY up to see this "view" as the two dinky windows are at about the 7' height and look out to ground level. Alas.

What kind of a view do you have from your studio? I'd love to know! Go ahead. Make my day.

Back at it! New Year's greetings-

2010-01-11T09:58:00.000-08:00

The holidays are over and everything is put back in the basement. When you participate in this ritual, do you ever think about the next time you will be pulling out the decorations? What will have changed? Will I be okay? Will anyone NOT be with us? Will things change? When I open this box, will I open it with joy and delight or will there be some world changing event that cause me to be reflective and somber?

I think about those things every year. It's a bit scary starting a new year especially when the one you just closed was difficult. What else can happen? Well....lots. The question is, will I approach life timid and shrinking away or will I leap off the end of the pier with my eyes wide open?

This year I had a very distinct vision of how I was living my life- I felt as if I was hanging off the end of a wooden, splintery, pier- blindfolded. I was swinging my legs around desperate to find where the water was but not finding it. I asked my husband if that was how he felt and he agreed.

The next vision was how I wanted to be living my life-I want to be about 100' from the edge of that same splintery pier-no blindfold- ready to run and just take a flying leap off the end. No cares about where I land, how I land, if I land.

That is my intention for 2010. Just run. Just leap. Take the chance. Try it. No worries. Trust that the God of the universe is there and that He cares for me and that what He wants is a Leaper. Yes. So far so good.

I have the best of intentions to blog at least once a week. Mondays. If I can do it more often I will.

Here's to 2010. Anyone want to join hands with me and jump?

Dates for QU classes

2009-12-05T10:17:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

I am on vacation from my computer but wanted to post the dates for my upcoming classes at Quilt University, including the brand new class called Thick and Thin which will show you how to use sodium alginate to thicken procion MX dyes into paints.

January 15- Basic Cotton Dyeing
January 29- Dyeing Silk
February 5- Thick and Thin
February 19-Dyeing with Tea and Spices
March 26- Fabric Painting with Jacquard Fabric Paints
April 9- Quilter's Palette (Intermediate Cotton Dyeing) for Portrait and Landscape Fabrics
April 23- Gutta Resist on Silk
April 30- Basic Cotton Dyeing
May 14- Shibori Dyeing on Silk and Cotton
May 21- Batik

Email me for the supply lists for any of these courses.
Registration opens five weeks before the class date posted.
www.quiltuniversity.com

Two new things today with acid dyes on wool yarn

2009-11-16T22:10:00.000-08:00

Today I overdyed the raspberry I did yesterday to see how acid dyes do when absorbing more dye on top of what is already there. Not a problem. Now I have the color I originally wanted. So far, I have not found any drawbacks in the system I am using or with the dyes. I even tried to shock the bit of yarn on the left by rinsing in cold water right out of the hot dye bath. Nothing.
Which brings me to my very own wool joke- "How do you shock wool? Sneak up behind it and yell 'WOLF'!"
It's all good.

Next test was to see how light I can make the dye color. Everything up to now has had maximum absorption of the dye color.

To this dye bath I only added 1/64 teaspoon of sky blue dye. I got a little worried about 2 minutes into it and added another 1/64 teaspoon to make 1/32. The color is beautiful.

What I learned from this experience is that as the water heats, so does the color. It probably would have been okay left at the original amount but I do like this value and will use this measurement again on other pastel colors.

Since this is yarn my daughter will be using, I intend on overdyeing this a deeper blue tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Acid Dyes Day 2

2009-11-14T08:21:00.001-08:00

Here are the wool yarns that will be dyed in the next few days.
I am going to start with the one on the left which is Merino wool that came from a donor named "Mama". I had about 4.5 ounces of it which is about 4 times the amount that I started with yesterday. I will have to adjust my dyes accordingly.

I opened the skein and loosely tied off the hank in four places to try and keep it from getting all knotted up in the dye bath.

Into the warm water it goes to pre-soak.

Once it got up to between 185 and 200 degrees F, I added the dye. The first color I wanted to try was a mix of the three primaries to see how my own mix of brown looks.

When it first went in, it looked like a rusty brown but those first 10 minutes can be deceiving.

The second yarn I chose to dye is simply labeled "wool". I will ask for more specifics. It is the same weight as the "Mama" wool.

For this color I want to try combining red and black for a maroon color.

Here are my end results. The brown is a dark chocolate color. Fantastic! Just what I wanted.

The maroon actually came out a deep raspberry which everyone around here loves but I am disappointed. I certainly will keep the color recipe but I wanted more of a blood red.

If I had this one to do over again, I would add a bit of yellow and less black to the mix. What this result tells me is there's a lot of blue in the black. I did not notice that when I dyed the small samples. So noted.

The other really fascinating thing about the maroon dyeing was that when I took the yarn out of the dye bath, there was hardly ANY color left in the water. I had used 1 1/2 teaspoons of dye powder with the brown and a bit more than 1/4 teaspoon with the maroon and used the same amount of wool. The left over dye in the bath was just a blush of pink! Conclusion wool absorbs WAY more dye than cotton and you can actually SEE what has been used when everything is said and done.

Rinsing wool is a dream compared to cotton. While we certainly do have to watch for the temperature difference when rinsing wool, within 1 minute we are done.

With both of these wool experiments, I used vinegar rather than the citric acid and must say that there is no stinky smell. Perhaps when I start using more dye and more vinegar, it will smell bad.

Next session will be about overdyeing and TRYING to shock the yarn so that it felts.

ACID DYES ON WOOL YARN

2009-11-12T15:16:00.000-08:00

Well yippy skippy, it's been a very good day!! I got my dyes late yesterday...I know!!!...and started experimenting with the wool gathered from the Yolo Wool Mill.
First thing to do was weigh the stuff. I had to get a ball park number for how much each color was going to weigh. Most of the pieces I have are about a half ounce in weight. All of the recipes I have start with the assumption that you are dying a pound of matter. Gotta do some calculating before I begin.

Into the pan of warm water the first bit went to soak.

When the yarn was ready, I added the dye powder and with my thermometer in the brew I slowly brought the temperature up to hover somewhere between 180 and 190 degrees F. At that point I added citric acid and let it simmer for 30 minutes. I wanted to try the alternative to vinegar. Later I will try it with the stinky stuff to see how bad it is in reality and how long it takes to get the smell to dissipate.

Finished. The wool on the left is single ply. The dyed red yarn is double. I will see if there is a difference when I dye the single stuff next.

Lovely deep red color. I only used 1/8+1/16 dye powder in 8 cups of water. It absorbs well. Rinses like a dream. Done is about 45 minutes total. Not bad.

Next, I dyed orange to see how mixing the colors worked. It's great! Very easy. There is about a 5 value difference between the yarn when the dye is first added to what the final intensity of color will be. When dry, the color is the same as when it comes out of the dye bath. No fading.

So let's see how it does on the beige and brown wools. I am going to dye them black.

This bit of yarn is extremely soft and comes apart easily.

When presoaking it absorbed the water quickly and easily.

End results- brilliant color with very little effort and very little chemicals and dye powder. The rinsing is minimal. Wow. Fabulous experience!

Tomorrow I will try using left over dyes and also I want to see what happens when I purposely shock the wool going from 180 degrees to cold water rinse. Pictures will follow.

DYEING WOOL WITH ACID DYES AND MX DYES

2009-11-10T09:16:00.001-08:00

Hi all.

This week I am going to start experimenting with ways to dye wool using acid dyes and Procion MX dyes to compare the processes and the colors.

I will be using wool batting as well as spun yarn. I have access to a number of different kinds of wool and several other fabulous blends that I will document for you.

I will actually TRY to make the process fail as well as of course trying to make it work. It's all a part of testing the process to find if this is something that is as easy as it seems and perhaps that can be used in future projects and as marketable product.

Here is a picture of some carded wool that my husband made a few weeks ago at the Yolo Wool Mill "mill in". Nice job, Steve! Soft as a cloud.

I just ordered my dyes and a few other supplies so let the games begin!

Chasing My Passion for Hand Dyed Silk

2009-11-05T12:14:00.000-08:00

I made a big mistake yesterday. I was starting to dye the veils for A'Kai Silks and this run was to be a combo of orange with purple. In my excitement I dropped an entire bottle of purple dye in the center of this silk piece and the dark color splotted all over the orange portion. I said a VERY bad word and hopped around the dye studio punching the air with my fists. Then... I composed myself and started to work with it. Move the dye around. Add more orange.
As I have said in my QU classes, it is impossible to make an ugly piece of hand dyed silk. It's just flat out NOT something that a human can do. You can't. Zero possibilities. Even if you spill purple dye on top of orange dye.

Here is another picture of my mistake. It reminds me of a desert sunset. Jes, if you are looking at this- you may want me to make more of this because it is exquisite. This is why I keep coming back for more.

I could dye silk until my last breath escapes me. There isn't anything I would rather do.

Here are the veils I have finished. I have more curing in the dye studio right now. More pictures tomorrow. I am a happy dyer. A very, very happy dye baby.

Veil production begins

2009-11-04T08:53:00.000-08:00

Today I start dyeing what you see above for A'kai Silks. 7 veils will be dyed today and then I'll work on the box of stuff sent as odds and ends. I'll show you what comes out of what I hope will be a productive week of dyeing.

Show me what $2,000.00 of hand dyed fabric looks like-

2009-10-29T11:05:00.000-07:00

There is an event this Saturday that involves fiber and it's production from field to loom to the dye vats. This opportunity came about suddenly so I have to move fast.

I have been systematically digging out all the hand dyed fabs and silk scarves that have been taking up space and washing them, ironing them, folding them and putting them in a big box.

When someone does something nice for me, I let them chose a scarf. When I go somewhere, I take a hostess gift which is a silk scarf. When it is someones birthday- they chose a scarf. When someone who does fiber art isn't looking, I deposit fat quarters on their doorstep, ring the bell and run away. How fun is that? Very fun.

So this week, I have been pulling out fabs that were duds, experimental, ends of runs, and just stuff I have had around the Dye Studio for eons. I have washed it, overdyed it, cut it up and am ready to sell it. I had NO idea how much stuff I had in boxes and stuffed under tables and on the shelves. Here is almost all of it. It's hard to see the immensity of the pile. I am going to be selling it all, even the scarves for half price. Hopefully, it will go fast and I'll be done.

It feels so good to have some breathing room but best of all, it feels great to be selling it all off to good homes. Hopefully, this fabric will be turned into fiber art which in turn will make more people happy and productive.

I'll let you know how it goes.

More Sodium alginate stuff

2009-10-21T08:29:00.000-07:00

The last lesson in the new Quilt University class called "Thick and Thin" includes how to paint on the thickened dyes to make color gradations and then stamp or stencil patterns on top of the gradations.

This one is an experimental piece I tried using red as the base and then yellow as the stamping color for subtle results. The possibilities are endless.

These wooden stamps were purchased from Lilian Vernon years ago. Very cool.

I'm excited about the last lesson in the class because I teach you how to actually work with the flaws in the system. So the first four lessons are how to use the thickeners properly and the last lesson is how to mess with them and not play by the rules for more fabulous results. For instance, if not mixed properly the dyes streak which is not necessarily a bad thing! If you do not rinse out the dyes well they also streak. Not a bad thing either. It's not often that you can actually break all the rules and have terrific results. I think this medium may actually be klutz proof.

I absolutely love this piece of fabric. I can't wait for you to take this class and show me what you can do.

Finishing up-Batik II

2009-10-16T11:26:00.000-07:00

Here is the final outcome of the waxing, dyeing, removal of wax, and repeating the procedure for the final lesson of the class I teach called "Batik Seminar" which is finishing up at Quilt University this week.

You can see the progression below...this is how batik is done- Old School! Lots of work but worth the effort. I call this pattern, "Party At My House".

Fall Dye Studio E-News sent out today!

2009-10-15T15:45:00.000-07:00

I just sent out the fall issue of The Dye Studio E-Newsletter. If you did not receive it or would like to be put on my list, email me and let me know.

In this season's issue I discuss the new QU class I am putting the finishing touches on called "Thick and Thin".

Sodium alginate is an awesome medium to use with Procion MX dyes to make a substance that is far superior to fabric paints in that once the dyes are set, the alginate washes away leaving the brilliant color and design behind with absolutely NO hand or stiffness the way paints do even when thinned down with water.

Here is a picture of one of the projects I finished for my small writing table in the kitchen-I love those table runners! I used one of the wooden stamps I bought several years ago from Lillian Vernon, of all places! I must say that is the first and only time I have ever placed and order with them. I bought them because I thought they were beautiful- not that I would ever use them! I thought the same thing about the brass batiking tjap I bought from Dharma. That thing is not only a work of art, it is a fabulously balanced and makes perfect wax stamps every time. Not once in awhile- EVERY time. Wish I had 60 more.

Watch for this 5 lesson online class soon at QU. We do not have a starting date yet but will later in the year. I expect standing room only so register as soon as you see it on the roster. I will let you know well enough ahead of time so that you can get your supplies.

If you would like a supply list now, email me.

Happy dyeing, stamping, mess making everyone!

Batik Seminar-The Plaid

2009-10-14T13:10:00.000-07:00

A little over 3 years ago, I wrote the sequel class to the Quilt University class called Batik It! Carol or Roger creatively called the sequel-The Batik Seminar. Ha. In the last lesson of the sequel I did a very lame attempt at the final project and vowed that I would come back soon-very soon- and do it again so that every time I see the pictures I would NOT cringe and yell at myself. Three years go by pretty fast. Never fixed it.

This semester I have several students who have done fabulous stuff which I will be posting in the student gallery for next term. In the meantime, I redid the lesson and am glad to report better results! These pictures will replace the old funky ones:

First step- wax out the areas to remain white.

Painted on the colors in this order- red, yellow, blue.

Wax over the areas to remain red, yellow and blue.

Apply a second intensity version of red, yellow and blue but shift the order to blue, yellow, red. Red now becomes purple, blue now becomes green, yellow becomes orange. Remove all the wax.

Apply wax on diagonal exposing areas of white, red, yellow, and blue. Leave dots open and close some dots.

Paint on orange dye.

Wax a squiggly line in orange panels and close some dots to save the color beneath.

Overdye a second intensity brown.

That's as far as I have gone for now. Tomorrow I will iron off this waxing and soak in paint thinner and show you the final piece.

Better,eh? Yes. Lots better.

2009-10-12T07:29:00.000-07:00

Princess 1996-2009

2009-10-04T16:01:00.000-07:00

Okay. One last picture of The PrinCESS. Her story is a rags to riches tale. She had humble beginnings but the last 5 years with us were glorious.

She was not long on the brains but she knew who she loved.

When she came to us after her first owner's death, she got to go to the beach and the snow and on vacations and got to ride in the car like a big dog. She went from Podunk to Disneyland and truly became a royal-the fulfillment of her first owner's deepest dreams.

All dogs go to heaven.

Moving on now....

The Princess ends her reign. Fare Thee Well.

2009-10-02T17:28:00.000-07:00

An hour ago I had to take The Princess (left) to the vet to make the journey to the other side. It is a heartbreaking day. I will miss her. She loved me like no other dog ever loved me. Parting is such sweet sorrow.

So it has been three weeks since I blogged!

2009-09-17T20:46:00.000-07:00

Okay...so I am the worst blogger in the universe. I still stand tall and do not feel shame. It's not as if I didn't THINK about it once or twice. Okay. Maybe once. Then I see that there are people who follow this blog and hopefully you aren't disappointed when you come here and see that it's still the same old thing. Take heart. I now have something to show you...
This is how it will look when you do lesson two in the new QU class I am writing even as we speak. I hope it won't be too daunting a task...maybe you can tell me if you think it is over the top. We mix 12 colors....and from those 12 we make a sampler like this....

And as your reward, you can let loose on an extra piece of fabric with the left overs and make a mess like this...

What else have I been doing? Dyeing fabric. Lots of fabric. Some went to Australia. Some went to Tokyo. Some went to Ohio. Where else? New Mexico.

In between dyeing sessions I work on the new class which now has a title: Thick and Thin. Carol named it. Maybe Roger.

Using thickened dyes is going to make you so excited! I'm excited to show you how it's done. Hopefully it will be done and ready for editing this fall and then we will publish at Quilt University maybe around March or so.

Tomorrow I will show you some more preliminary pictures of the lesson projects.

Thanks for looking. You are so faithful!

Tea and spice dyeing starts this weekend!

2009-08-27T09:25:00.000-07:00

If you would like to learn how to stain cotton and silk fabrics using tea, coffee, spices such as turmeric, mustard powder, onion skins, cranberry juice, blueberry juice, and on and on then join us at http://www.quiltuniversity.com/ for my three lesson course. Class starts Friday!

Student work above covers the gamut from Easter Eggs to a tea stained table runner to silk ribbons.

While I do not endorse it but we do discuss it in class, students use Koolaid and Crystal Light for some eye popping, nauseating colors if you're into that!

See you there?

Summer Newsletter sent out today!

2009-08-26T14:34:00.000-07:00

If you are not on my e-newsletter mailing list and would like to receive The Dye Studio news, please email me and I will send you the latest copy that went out today. My email is marjie@fabricdesigns.com.

I write something about fiber art four times a year- winter, spring, summer and fall.

In this season's e-news I talk about silk- the history of it and why it is so amazing and the end of the world for some of us who dye, sew, wear it, and love it.

E-news is about things I don't post on the blog or talk about in my QU classes. It's only meant for your amusement and brain expanding. If you want it, come and get it.

Dye on, and dye hard.

The most beautiful tie dyed silk

2009-08-20T13:04:00.000-07:00

I heard back from the committee that selected 6 artists to participate in an artist in residency program and I was not one of those selected. I must say that I'm not too surprised.

For some bizarre reason I keep all my letters of rejection. I have several from institutes of higher education. I have many from juried art shows. One from a national textile arts group.

In this business of making art the rejections FAR outweigh the acceptances. That's just how it is. I am either too far out or not far out enough. I am either overly qualified or not qualified enough. I am either not understood or not at the right place at the right time.

What I am getting better at doing is remembering the countless superb evaluations that come after each and every class I teach at Quilt University. I am also remembering that every sale and satisfied customer and student represents success.

Today, while I am disappointed that I will not have the opportunity to pursue my project with the New Vision for California people, I AM excited that even in the midst of a recession and my husband's own unemployment drama, I am still alive and well and able to continue working at a job I love.

That said, want to see something beautiful? Here is a portion of a five yard run I made for a fashion designer in Australia. It is crepe backed silk satin charmeuse. Sigh. I love dyeing silk. If I keep running after what I love, the rest will come. So what is "the rest"? I suppose it is simply satisfaction in a job well done. Good bottom liner, don't you think?

Toe, dye pots, fiber art, fabs

2009-08-18T15:53:00.000-07:00

I decided not to show you the before and after pictures of my toe. It's been the topic of conversation and focus for me and the fam for a week now. Here it is post surgery. I still haven't taken the purple polish off yet.

I started a fiber art project for the California Fiber Artists' next gig which will be a show in Visalia October 7-31. The theme is "Layers". Here are my dye pots each containing a color and 1 yard of silk organza.

Couldn't fit them all in the shot so here are the others. How many runs can you dye at one time and not get mixed up? My maximum is 17 only because that's as many tubs as I have.

Each layer is 36" wide. When a breeze blows or you walk by, it ripples a bit. Guess what it's called?

Last thing to show you- 17 yards of silk. Habotai, gauze and crepe backed silk satin off to Japan. Next order is 20 yards of crepe backed silk satin to Australia.

Still need to do my final testing on the black silk dye. I am very optimistic that I have finally nailed the formula. If all goes well I will be ready to ask my loyal students who have been dyeing silk for awhile to test my formula and then begin marketing it. Fingers crossed...and toes.

Toe surgery and other awful things-

2009-08-13T11:56:00.000-07:00

Well I've been out of the loop for quite awhile.

I had an ugly ingrown toenail that went from bad to worse so I had it "fixed" yesterday.

Before that I had some wild and wacky orders came in to make me hit the dye studio hard. It's all good.

I have pictures of The Toe. My daughter says it looks like a "cartoon toe". True. No one has a toe in real life that looks like this. Don't look at it if you are eating lunch. Or dinner.

I have some pictures of hand dyed silk organza to show you later. When I can stand up and not scream.

Chuppah and tjap work

2009-07-24T09:54:00.001-07:00

Every now and then "stuff happens" but if you are on top of your game, you can fix it! This is a moderately large run on a custom color. I am confident that this mix of dye colors will be close to what she wants.
Into the dye bath it goes. It was a 6 hour recipe and came out very close to what we want but a bit too much on the blue side. I will over dye it with a touch more red so that it is more on the eggplant side. Have to set it aside to try the next project. I will over dye the yardage this morning and only allow it to cure for about 1 hour more. Stay tuned for the results.

My batik students at Quilt University have tried their hands at using the Indonesian printing tools called "Tjaps". I have one and have never used it because I thought it would be too hard; get messed up and never again look as clean and beautiful as it does now; and that it would be too hard. Did I mention that already?

Here is a picture of it, face down, heating in the hot pan of wax.

The first stamp was SO EASY! Look at how beautifully it stamped! The wax is still hot and shiny as you can see. Next- let's see how it registers...

Woah. So easy. I'm having fun with this! It registers well and with only a few shakes over the wax pot, it holds the heat superbly and hardly drips at all.

On about the sixth print, I got a crummy stamp from not pressing well enough.

Easy to fix with some brush work.

Here's how it looked when dyed!

I tried the technique some of my current students are using for the final wax removal that involves simply pouring the boiling water over the ironed out piece to melt the remaining wax. Cool. You guys amaze me. I will be including this technique in the lessons to come as an option.

Dye on and dye hard.

Pictures of the silk shower curtain

2009-07-17T15:25:00.000-07:00

Here are two pictures of the habotai silk shower curtain completed and hanging in its home across town. The rod is curved as you can see. The colors are perfect- sea foam green and a very pastel blue combination.

This bathroom is so small that this is the best shot I could get of it with the bamboo flooring.

Looks great. Success!

Sodium Alginate

2009-07-14T10:59:00.000-07:00

I painted the body of the dress yesterday.

Today I will flip it over and paint the other side trying my best to keep the lower section as free from slops as possible.

I also did some testing as to the longevity of the dye with thickener once soda ash has been added to the mix.

You're going to love using this stuff.

More testing of Sodium Alginate

2009-07-08T15:30:00.000-07:00

I worked on lessons three and four for the new QU class today. I cut some rough stencils and did some free hand painting on a dress blank. Pictured above are three stencils.

This is a rayon dress that I am testing by first applying a border to the lower edge. Tomorrow I will flip it over and do the other side. Friday I will apply the dye color to the rest of the dress and rinse. Stay tuned.

Last project for today was to test the simple stencils on a denim jacket. Louise- you may want this jacket back when I'm done. If you do just let me know. ;-)

So far, so good. This is going to be a really fun class. I had forgotten how versatile this stuff is and how fun it is to work with so thank you everyone who mentioned it over the last 11 years at QU.

More testing of Sodium Alginate

2009-07-07T17:03:00.000-07:00

I have made great progress testing the new lessons for the next Quilt University class on how to use dye thickeners.

Lesson Three will involve stamping and stenciling projects. Above is the fabric I printed today using wooden stamps. Love it, love it, love it. Easy to do once you get in the groove.

Here is a detail of the printed fabric. Hope you are getting as excited about it as I am to write it up and get it going!

Turned the fabric into a tote bag. Easy! Used the printed fabric for the binding and as an accent and hand dyed the other fabric using the left over dye from the printing process.

So- three lessons down; one more to go. Then the writing begins. It's not going to be hard but there are some fine tuning experiments yet to be done to ward off the "what if" demons that like to sneak up on me via the fertile minds of my QU students. If I don't try all the loop holes, someone else will and I want to be ready for any and everything that comes my way.

Happy dyeing everyone!

DYEING SILK CLASS- July 18th

2009-07-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

I skipped a class on the list to the right. Dyeing Silk is coming up July 18th. In this course we learn to dye silk using many wonderful techniques including painting with silk sizing to keep the dyes in place and how to use home made flour and water resists in the Japanese fashion which you will love. Join us at www.quiltuniversity.com. See you there?

Critique Group, shower curtain, and dye thickeners

2009-07-01T22:46:00.000-07:00

Busy day.

Met with The Critique Group; ate 1.5 donuts; finished the shower curtain and will deliver it next week and take a picture; and messed with the Sodium Alginate. Lesson One is finished. Moving on!

Have a fun July 4th.

See you on Monday.

Work started on new QU class-Painting with Dyes

2009-06-26T16:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I started work on the next Quilt University class that involves using Sodium Alginate as a thickening agent.

Thank you to everyone who responded in classes and on this blog. There has been a resounding "yes!" throughout the land so let the good times roll. This class should be ready early in 2010. Yes, it takes a long time to write and edit and then test and retest the information.

Mixing Procion MX dyes with the standard chemicals and the sea weed extract, we can turn the often fickle and stubborn dyes into paints. The colors remain brilliant and bold and best of all- they do not bleed or run (much).

If you have ever taken any of my classes you know that often we start out by making a sampler. For these classes, we will make two so that we can see what happens when we add more dye to a stable base and then more base to the stable amount of dye powder.

Look at all those yumm-o colors. Three primaries and black are all we will use.

These samplers have not been rinsed yet and are still damp but the cool thing about painting with thickeners is that when rinsed the color is very close to what it looks like wet. None of this "three shades lighter" stuff.

Here is a tablecloth I am making with the left over dye paints. I just made up a random design and painted the stuff as I made up the colors....way fun to do.

Close up. This piece is 43"x 47".

By the way, the shower curtain is heaped in the corner and pouting. Maybe Monday. Maybe. Don't you just hate it when something that should be so simple becomes this monster that runs after you with teeth barred?

Arrrrrgggggg...the shower curtain....

2009-06-26T08:55:00.001-07:00

I promised I would show you the dastardly shower curtain. I had to walk away from it three times yesterday. First of all the silk kept jamming in the bobbin shuttle which would make me scream and break needles and then I found a gigantic ball of fuzz that was fudging up the works so I pulled that out...it was purple velvet left over from that sound barrier project. Once that was out of there, it went a lot more smoothly but I would loose my concentration and let the tiny seams slip and in they would go again. I mean, Michael Jackson died yesterday so the radio news kept taking me back in time to less stellar days and my mind was not on the project. FOCUS!

So the silk got chewed up a few times but the seams are finished and today- the button holes for the curtain rings. Glad this is a gift of love and not a contract deal.

I might have a picture to post today. For sure I will have some of the test lessons I am doing for the Alginate class.

I say "for sure" never knowing what the day will bring.

Using Sodium Alginate-new class??

2009-06-24T09:26:00.001-07:00

I'm taking a survey since there is a momentary lull in the fabric dyeing business-is anyone interested in me writing a new QU class on how to use Sodium Alginate as a thickener with Procion MX dyes? They can be used as paints; to do stencil work, and other fun things. Let me know if there is interest before I start testing and photographing and writing.

Tomorrow, I promise...

2009-06-23T15:58:00.000-07:00

Life got in the way today. Tomorrow I will finish the shower curtain and show you how it looks. I may not get a final picture in the actual bathroom until later in the week. No other pending projects on the horizon so sorry to be so boring at the moment.

Shower Curtain- getting it done

2009-06-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

Started the silk shower curtain today. The final size will be 70x70. I made it out of two 45" wide panels that were cut down to 36" each and then sewn together in the center using a French seam.

Rather than special ordering extra wide habotai silk, I am taking the liberty of using the 2 panels which will be fine for this project.

What you see here is the silk being dyed after it was sewn together. I want the spray of dye colors to not be broken up with a tacky seam so sewing first was in order.

Monday I will finish the side hems, bottom and top hem and make the button holes for the curtain rings.

I'll take a picture when I hang it in the customer's bathroom. It's a tiny space but I think I can get creative and get a shot for you to see.

I'll also show you next week my results from the full immersion soy wax experiments I did recently.

Hope you had a good week.

The Mundane- Vacuuming fun

2009-06-18T16:55:00.001-07:00

After a brief discussion about whether or not to show my "other life" on this blog, I decided that it might actually be interesting after all. Most people, I think, do not wait this long to do house cleaning. Am I wrong about this?

Above you can see how hairy the carpet is when I don't vacuum for 3 weeks. 3 dogs, 3 weeks, 3 times the allergy symptoms. Cough. Wheeze.

Now this is an interesting picture. When I bought my vacuum cleaner, I did a bit of research that simply involved trying the one my friend Karen owns that gets HER dog hair up REALLY well.... Plus...Martha Stewart owns one. When I bought it, the guy at the store who always has a toothpick clenched between his teeth said, "Be sure to keep the brush part clean. I had a woman come in saying her machine didn't work so I turned it over and the rod was absolutely jammed with thread and yarn! Can you imagine that??!!" Har. Well actually, yes, I could and here it is. I've never let it get this bad but the last time I used the vacuum was before the Critique Group came over (June 3rd) and I had to make the Dye Studio presentable. (See photos below).

It took me a good 15 minutes to cut off all the crap that had wrapped itself around the brush. Check it out! Gad ZOOKS! Some stuff I recognized but most of it looked like it came from outer space. Space Crap. Ozone Ooze.

So here's what the rug looks like after being vacuumed. I turned on the AC/Heat fan and ran it for a good 2 hours while I cleaned and wonder of wonders- my nose is clear and I can breathe and the coughing has stopped.

I moved Dog #3's bed from our bedroom into our son's room which is at the other end of the house. I mean if my sinus problem is dog related, as I strongly suspect, why keep her in the room I sleep in? Seems obvious, right? My sinuses are the worst at night.

I must say I am glad I didn't go to the doc or the allergy guy ("Boogie Doc") because this was a lot cheaper although it did take me the better part of the day to clean this mess.

Moral of the story-gotta get back into a house cleaning routine. But then again, I could have been down in the Dye Studio....tomorrow I will make the silk shower curtain. Wanna come down with me and watch? Okay. Way better than house cleaning.

I am amazed that I can breathe like a normal person. Tomorrow I will convince someone else that doggie baths are in order.

I hang my head in shame at this self disclosure.

You know the movie, "Finding Nemo" and the little shrimp Jacques gets caught cleaning the side of the tank and he says, "I am ashamed". That's one of my favorite lines and it cracks me up every time I see it. Unfortunately, it's the opposite situation but the shame is the same.

Back at it

2009-06-16T10:47:00.000-07:00

I took a vacation from blogging. Did you notice? I had high and lofty intentions of posting my mundane life for awhile but it was boring even to me so I skipped it. You don't want to see me vacuuming the house and doing laundry. Do you?

I have a scattering of projects that are coming my way that you may be interested in watching. The first one is a silk shower curtain. Some people live the luxury life, eh? I will start that today.

The other projects involve two chuppot (wedding coverings) that will be made and also photographed in my back yard before being offered on Etsy for sale. The fabric for both involve large cotton runs that went bad for various embarrassing reasons I will discuss later. Even after 40 years of dyeing "stuff happens".

One more large silk sale is pending which is wonderful but will be monotonous to do. I'll tell you about that when and if it happens. Too much pre-talk about a project is anxiety producing.