New Quilt

The mother of one of the teachers at our school has been battling pancreatic cancer for some time now.  A few of us decided to get together to maker her a lap quilt.  My job this weekend was to sew together the blocks for the top made by a couple other staff members and myself, cut the backing and get it ready for a layering party at lunch Tuesday.

It's from a pattern called Take Five by Deirdre K. Brown.  Not my usual kind of quilt but am pleased with how it turned out and hope it will comfort her.

Arte de Tiza in Paso Robles

This week was all about getting students geared up to participate in the annual Arte de Tiza chalk art festival in Paso Robles, which is a part of the Taste of Paso Robles.  Twenty of my students showed up.  I was very proud of the work they created.

 Above are some of the winners from yesterday receiving their awards and prizes!

Below are some other pictures of ones I really liked.

More Shibori and Discharged Fabrics

Here are a couple more fabrics I made recently.The one below was an ice-dyed piece that I arashi shibori dyed.  Below is a closeup of one area.

This was an ice dyed piece as well which I then stamped using a bleach gel.  I think the gel was little old and not very strong.  Might need to do more of that to this one when I have a chance.

Itajime Shibori Over-dyed and Batik with Discharge

Below is an overdyed itajime piece.  Here is the original fabric.  I liked it but felt it needed more complexity.

So I accordion foldeded it, used two round coasters clamped together and squirted yellow, orange, red and black carefully and strategically around the coasters. 

Closeup below

Below is a piece that was batiked and became very dark.  Sorry, I couldn't find a picture of the original.  I shibori discharged it using bleach/water in a 50/50 mix.

New Shibori Fabrics

Over Labor Day weekend I had time to do some over-dyeing and discharging of fabrics that already had patterns previously created upon them.  I actually did more, but will need to post those later when I have a chance.

Below is the closeup.

This fabric had been previously low immersion dyed and stamped.  I accordion folded it and rolled it up, placing it in a small plastic container so it stayed in a roll.  Next I squeezed red and black dye on the crests of the folds on both ends.

Below is the closeup

This was an itajime fabric made previously and I wrapped it around PVC and did 

arashi shibori using black.

This fabric was itajime dyed, then discharged, re-tied and dyed and then arashi shibori dyed yesterday.  I think it's done.  Love the layers of pattern in all of these.

Shibori with Paint and Photoshop

Last week I was looking again at my Citrsolv experiments, which resulted in some pretty cool textural prints,  but needed more of a focal point to create interest.

 

Many artists use these Citrasolv papers as background for collages. If you don't know about this process a good video to find about about it is one by Cathy Taylor of Cheap Joes's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FskgfDxI__M  The Citrsolv website is also a great place to check out what artists are doing with this technique,  http://citrasolv.com/  Once there, go to Artist Support.  Basically, you use a natural, citrus based cleaning product called Citrasolv, which you can buy online or at health food stores.  You apply it to pages in a National Geographic magazine, shut the magazine, let it sit for 2 to 24 hours, then open it up to see the interesting results obtained through the ink being dissolved by the cleaner. 

This last week I layered a photo of a shibori piece over a couple of my Citrasolv pieces, increasing the transparency of the top piece.  This is what resulted.

Here is a photo of the  Shibori piece. I did this with paint, rather than dye, something else I've been wanting to try.  I rather like it, and it was much easier than using dye.  The fabric is not quite as soft however.

Above are photos of the layered images.

Van Gogh to Kandinsky Show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

My husband and I got in a quick trip to to L.A. last week before school starts up.  We went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to see the "Van Gogh to Kandinsky Show" which was marvelous.  It's one of my favorite periods of art.  There are wonderful examples of Post Impressionism,  Fauvism, Cubism, woodcuts, etc.   Here are some of my favorites from the show.

Ernst Kirchner, Dance Hall Bellevue 1909

Heinrich Campendonk, Harlequin and Columbine, 1913

Robert Delaunay, Saint-Severin, 1909

Franz Marc, Stables, 1913

Van Gogh, Wheat Field with Reaper, 1889

If you get a chance, check it out.  There's many more wonderful pieces, too many to show here. And of course seeing them here is nothing like seeing the real painting.