CED Day 5--Much Better!

...Some recent painted canvas pieces. I'll use these for book covers, bookmarks, jewelry, and maybe even a purse.

Oh, what a difference a day makes! My son was sick last night, but today--all better! I don't think it was a full stomach flu, just some little bug. So, thankfully, we are all currently healthy in this house.

Plus, I had a more creative day today. The two boys ( age 4 and 6 months) and I "played" outside this afternoon. It was a beautiful day, about 68 degrees, just perfect weather! I got out some dyed scarves that needed a little something more, and was able to stamp metallic copper leaves on about 7 of them. My 4 year old played in the mud, made mud pies for me, and instructed me in playing a Goblin Trick or Treat game, which I could do while I was painting! I hung up the scarves to dry on our awning, so that the baby could watch them float in the breeze. My scarves do have a few little mud splatters on them, when my son got a little to enthusiastic with the mud, but I think they will wash out, if not, I'll keep them for myself!

And, I will catch up a little here, posting some projects that I've been working on this past month.


Fabric Earrings for the "My Favorite Things" swap on Adornmentz.


Dangles that I made for a swap on Art Charms--I used polymer clay beads that I have made.

Create Every Day (CED) Day 1

Not able to take pictures just now (sleeping baby in my lap), but I did want to report on Day 1 of the Create Every Day Challenge.

I was able to squeeze in a little bit of painting on canvas today. I work on pieces about 15 x 20 inches or so, just painting "art cloth", not a picture of anything. If I leave the piece on my kitchen table, I can add layers to it throughout the day. Usually I do 3-5 layers. Using acrylic paint, it dries very quickly in between layers. Each layer takes no more than 15 minutes, so it is the perfect way to sneak in some art time in between chores, or when I only have a few minutes.

If I can get the baby to stay asleep, I can sneak in another 1/2 hour of art time before my bed time!

BTW, I have a link section off to the right of other artists who are participating in the challenge. Go check them out! And if you would like for me to add your link, leave me a comment here.

Rust Dyed Fabric

I love the look of rust dyed fabric, the earth tones, deep rusty color, and the visual texture of the fabric.

I had done a little rust dyeing about 2 years ago with some friends, and wanted to do more this summer, so I borrowed a big box of rusty things from my friend Donna, since I don't have the stuff laying around the house. I have done several batches on cotton dyer's cloth, and a few silk scarves (forgot to take pictures of those). I need to get back to making quilts, instead of just making the fabric, so I thought this would make an exciting quilt or two!

Here are some of my favorite pieces of fabric. Now, I will let them sit and "talk" to me for awhile, and see what I can come up with for a quilt design.

Albuquerque Folk Art Festival

I almost forgot to post about this--did forget my camera, so had to have a friend send pics. Two weekends ago, my dye group--Dye Fusion--and I were invited to display our work in the Fine Arts building at the Albuquerque Folk Art Festival. The five of us were able to hang about 20 quilts and our 3-yard pieces of batik and dyed silk. I think the room looked great if I do say so myself!

We got to meet a lot of nice people, and talk to them about our work. I also met a very nice local business owner who is interested in having me teach dyeing classes at her shop, so when I work out the details I will let you know in case you are local and want to come play! Here is my friend Lynn, a member of the dye group, setting up our pieces, and a picture of a few of our quilts.

More Painted Canvas

Here are a few more pieces of painted canvas that I have been working on. I am hoping to cut into them tonight to get going on my book covers, purses, and maybe some collaged mini books that I need to make for an upcoming swap.

Painted Canvas

Inspired by the work of Alisa Burke, I have been playing around with painting on canvas. This appeals to me for several reasons:




--It is something that I can do while watching the baby. I can put a quick layer of paint on the canvas, and then I wait for it to dry for a couple of hours. Each layer takes maybe 5-15 minutes, so if he wakes up from his nap, I can stop what I'm doing and go get him right away--not like when I am immersed in dye!

--I can use up some of my old acrylic paint, some with a label on it from 1991--yikes! I have some old "dusty colors" that don't appeal to me anymore, but I am finding that if I mix it with another color, or use it in a layer in conjunction with other colors, it works just fine. I am trying to use up this old stuff to make way for some newer, vibrant colors.

--I can get my "art fix" without a big commitment of time or materials--both of which are running short.

--I enjoy working with the fabric after it has been painted. I am in the process of making some little art journals and notebook covers with this stash of canvas.

--It gives me an opportunity to play around with different color combinations, tools, and some of the stamps that I have made myself.

What do you think?

More Bleach Discharge

These are some pieces that I made about a month ago, but have been so behind in blogging....
These were done a little differently than my process before. I used circles and leaves as "masks" and sprayed bleach on the fabric to get a resist effect.


These were folded and then the edges were dipped in bleach. Lots of different shapes you can get with folding.


This one was a shibori wrap that discharged a little too quickly! It is mostly brown, rather than its original black. Subtle, but a neat pattern.


Now I've just got to DO SOMETHING with it!

200th Blog Post

Apparently, this is my 200th blog post! Wow, who knew I had so much to say and share!

I am just popping in to post a couple of little canvas projects that I recently made, inspired by Alisa Burke's cool free-wheeling style. I simply painted plain duck canvas with acrylic paints, drizzled more acrylic, and added a little glitter (who can resist?) and a little faux graffiti writing with black sharpie. I turned them into a reusable notepad and pen mini portfoli and two simple bags with a zipper closure--about 6 x 10 inches or so. They are turning out to be great travel bags for little bead/ wire work projects or for sewing notions.

Painted Fabric

Here are some samples of the fabric that I have made using Rayna Gillman's "Create Your Own Hand Printed Cloth" book doing the workshop on the Artist's of the Round Table group. The past two weeks, we have done silk screening and gelatin printing.

I had a little trouble with paint seepage under the stencils on the silk screen, but I am planning on adding some more layers to hide those little mistakes!


The gelatin printing was fun. I did some on fabric, and some on paper that I am going to use later for some of my little art journals.

What I Made With the Art Cloth

This is the piece that I made using some of the Art Cloth that I created a couple of posts ago. The blue piece of fabric under the circles is what I just made, and I also used a couple of other pieces of painted/ stamped fabric, including the brown fabric with black stamped design on the top left(from a black bleach discharged fabric), and the red triangle fabric (batik), and the rust/ navy dyed fabric on the bottom left.

I used the polymer clay buttons that I have recently made as embellishments. Its fun not only to make the art cloth and buttons, but to actually use them in a project!

Art Cloth

I have been doing more surface design on my fabric lately. Taking hand dyed fabrics a step further, and adding more dimension and visual texture to them with paint--stamping, squirting, stenciling, etc. I am currently hosting a painted fabric swap on Collage UnLeashed--where we are swapping 8.5 x 11 inch pieces of fabric using one or more of Traci Bautista's techniques that she lists in her book. Plus, I am working through Rayna Gilman's book, Make Your Own Hand Painted Cloth on A.R.T., so the stars are in line with fabric painting these days!

Here are two pieces of fabric that I have recently done. I used a combination of stamps, stencils and found objects.

Bleach Discharge Line Drawings

Here are some more bleach discharge experiments. I wanted to see if I could get some finer control over where the bleach went. This time, I used Electrasol liquid dish washer detergent with bleach, and put it into an empty glue bottle. It was a little bit too thick to get through the nozzle, so I had a little bit of a hard time squeezing it through, but not bad for a first try. The piece that is in the upper left, I did by squeezing a large amount onto the countertop, and swirling it around with my rubber faux finishing tool, and then laying the fabric on top. Got my counter nice and shiny too!