Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Feltng class with Sharron Parker

Woo Hoo a new technique has been learned!!
I took an incredible felting class with fabulous Felt artist, Sharron Parker, who has been in Artspace for the last 25 years.
Sharron’s work studio is located on the Neuse River in Wakeforest. There was a small group of us, 4 from Raleigh (Moi, Donna, Lucy, and Elaine) and 3 from Virginia (Deb, Karen, and Rebecca)

To make our geodes, our first task was to choose 7 colors from a large pile of wool roving. (Holy cow that was harder than what it sounds)


We had to layer then perpendicular to each layer (|-|-) then we had to roll them up into a tight ball, then wrap 2 more colors around it as an outer layer.
It all got stuffed into a stock and we then plunged the sock into hot soapy water and “worked” the wool into a ball. This took about 7 minutes depending on the size of the geode we were making.

After we were done working the wool, we took them out of the sock and then cut them in half. All of us were amazed how the pile of roving we put together came out to look like they did.



We then took our geodes and then cut them into ½” slices and arranged them layered wool batts that were arranged in sheeting, again perpendicular

Once we arranged the geode slices we then arranged more wool roving around the geodes to fill in over the white. We also added curly wool locks and pieces of wool yarn.
Once we were done we covered the wool with more sheeting and used large safety pins to secure the geode slices and the other wool. After we completed the edges, we laid the pinned up sheeting in a tub and poured hot soapy water over it and “worked” it by pushing down on the sheeted wool. My thoughts is that a potato masher would work wonderful for this process…we had to do 10 minutes on each side and then check to make sure the wool was “felting”. Once it was firm enough we unpinned our creations.   

When I got home I had to try and make some..below are the results.





Monday, November 7, 2011

Western Wake County Farmers Market and Craft Show Saturday November 5, 2011

What a GREAT adventure!
The wind and the cold had to be experienced.  As you can see by the below pictures we had a steady blast and some wild gusts!

You can see the table cloths and the scarves blowing in the wind 
Luckily I grabbed some rocks I picked up in Lake Superior to put on the coners to keep the table cloths from blowing off.

When we had started our dying thing, we started on cotton fabrics and stiched Shibori panels before we found the scarf niche. We decided to add some of these projects to the offerings. Below are some pictures.




Fat Quarters and squares



As the day wore on the wind got stronger and stronger. It became a challange that the dragonflies took on....


The other vendors had issues as well, lucky for us there are two of us, one on each side. However a nice man named Travis came over and helped us shore of the sides of the tent to keep it more stable so we were at least able to conduct business. Thank you Travis!!!!

It was a nice market and here are a couple of shots of the marketplace.

We made a new friend, his name is Dewey! Dosen't he look adorable in one of our bandana's?


Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Dying with Ice

Saturday the Dragonflies played around with a technique called “Ice Dying”.
The gist of the whole process is using dry dye powder and to sprinkle on ice to get a very interesting color intensity.
You need the following:

  • Scarf or fabric (soaked in Soda Ash water)     
  • Procian dye (I used Turquoise and Fuchsia and Golden Yellow)
  • Plastic spoon             
  • Container to hold iced fabric  
  • Crushed Ice



After soaking your scarf or fabric in soda ash water, lay it out in the container




Sprinkle the ice over the top of the scarf (or fabric) and even it out across the surface









Measure out some dye on the plastic spoon and start to sprinkle on to the ice.

After you get the coverage you want,
fold the ends of the scarf (or fabric) over the ice


add more ice over the surface.
*Note: try to remember to add the ice before you accidently sprinkle the surface with ice.



I also added a dash of Golden Yellow just to break up the blue and red.



After I added all the colors I wanted to add, I took it outside and let the sun accelerate the melting process.  

After an hour and a half I came back to them and found scarf soup.
I was rather afraid that I was going to end up with a mess on my hands, but my fears turned to delight after I rinsed and washed the scarf. Below are the results and for a first time I think they came out well!


 


Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Designer Downtown Market Sunday September 25, 2011

We attended the Downtown Designers Market Sunday September 25. It was supposed to be on Saturday the 24th however the rain just wouldn't stay away!!!
Here are some pictures of our set up. We made out booth fee back so it was a success!!!



Dye Day!!!!!!

I had a dye day a couple of weeks ago...below are some results!!
I over dyed a scarf that had to much white in the finished product...not anymore!


A burn out with blue/green mix
multi color twig burn-out


Over dye with red, orange and blue

Swirley line burn out dark pink
Burnout with dark purple
Over dye using cut out snowflakes
swirley burnout with red and yellow mix
red/yellow/orange shibori


over dye with reds

What a play day!!! Sun Painting


Techno and I had another play day. We learned how to sun paint with Set a Color paints and cotton fabric. We had a great time and here are some of the results.





It's a pretty simple process.
You'll need:
Paint Brushes - bristle or sponge
Set a color paints (I got mine from Dharma)
White cotton fabric (must be wet, not sopping)
small cups to mix water and paint
plastic bags (I used large garbage bags)
craft tissue paper to add more color
leaves or other items of interest

Using the small cups, I diluted paint to a thinner consistancy so it would be easier to spread. I also mixed up some purple and green to add. I laid the garbage bags down on the table and smoothed the wet fabric over it and gently spread out the air bubbles and creases.
I used a sponge brush to lightly go over the fabric, letting it bleed across as it would. I use lighter colors first when I layer so I started with light yellow and finished with red or blue.





Then I applied torn up strips of tissue paper to further add to the crazy colors
When the fabric got nice and covered, we took them outside to "cook" in the sun. Below is the result
  



Know what happens when you take leaves and put them on the wet paint and "cook" outside? You get a really neat looking fabric!
The next batch I painted the fabric same as before however this time I laid different leaves on the top and set it outside.

I thought the results were really cool!!!