PLAYING WITH LIQUITEX FLOW MEDIUM

I"ve discovered something new and fun. It's LIQUITEX FLOW MEDIUM.  I was just playing around on You Tube one day and  videos came up showing this medium being used with acrylic paints, on artist canvas.

Of course, my first thought was "what would happen if I used the medium with paint and fiber.

The piece pictured about was constructed using acrylic paints, inks, a hand felted piece that has a ceramic bead trapped in it and, the flow medium.

I first "painted" the six inch square canvas by mixing some paint with some flow medium and pouring it onto the canvas. 

Note that the canvas must be level in all directions.

In this photo, the paints are just starting to flow across the canvas and drip onto the parchment paper that is under the canvas.  I have the canvas elevated on stoneware bead dishes that will be easy to clean up.

Once the medium and paint had covered the canvas and started to slow and thicken, I laid a hand felted piece onto it and let it all dry for about two days.

I then poured more medium over the whole piece.  As the  medium started to thicken and set up I had to carefully pick at part of the felted piece to make sure it did not go all flat.  Then it had to dry for about another two days before I added one more layer of medium. I also added in a few drops of acrylic gold ink.

Each layer of medium needs to cover the whole piece and drip down the sides, if you want the surface to be very smooth.

This technique gives a very three dimensional or underwater look that is really fascinating, at least to me.

There is no real control of how the paint will flow, and I like that. 

Here is a second piece that I did, also using a small felted piece to add dimension.  I added gold ink and green metallic paint after putting on the third layer of medium.  This piece is 5" square.

Next I am experimenting with mono-printing fabric and covering it with flow medium.
Be sure to watch for the posts.

Having fun in the studio in Nonesuch,

Karen

ECO-PRINTING 3: UnWrapped and Beautiful!

Well, I finally got the scarves unwrapped, well over a week ago.  I let them dry, rolled up on the pipe, until the surface was very dry and it was clear that some of the dye had migrated to the surface. 

Here's what they looked like:

I finally decided that I"d better just go ahead and unroll these three, because I didn't think they would ever dry all the way through. In the process of unrolling, I realized that I might have tied the string just a bit too tight.  There were white marks everywhere the string had been in contact with the fabric.   This photo shows how the the outside of the scarf is much darker than the inside. It also shows some of the botanical pieces that I used.

Here are the three scarves, ironed and hung up for display.   You can see, in the upper corners, where some dark color had migrated to the outside of the scarf and where the string prevented the color from penetrating.  I rather like the look, especially when I'm wearing a scarf. 
You can also see that the effect of the leaves is very subtle. 

Here are some close-ups of the printing that I achieved.

This one was done with Passion Flower Vine leaves. They showed up better than any other leaves or flowers that I used. 

I did use some rusted iron in the pot, so, I think the dark colors are from the iron pieces.  I can't really tell what else I used on this piece, but I do like the subtle design that resulted. I"m really loving those white lines that are a result of the string being so tightly wound around the fabric.

On this one, I used Marigold leaves from old fashioned, giant marigolds. I also used the blossoms but I did not get any results from them.

I did not use any mordants other than to put the items in an aluminum pot and to add several pieces of rusted iron. It will be interesting to talk to others and show them these pieces, when I attend a workshop in a couple of weeks.

This has been a fun process and I really want to try it again. One other thought, these pieces can all be overdyed, stamped or painted, if a more defined design is wanted. 

Hmmm, A bit of gold stamping might be really nice.


Create Always,

Karen

ECO-PRINTING 2

Well, the ECO-Printing experiment is still going on.

I took the pot out to the driveway this morning. Here's what the brew looked like before I pulled out the four bunches.  The brew was much darker than last night.

I put on some rubber gloves and began pulling the bunches out of the pot.  I laid three of them on a rack to dry in the sun. 

I unwrapped the fourth one and hung it on the line. Here is what it looked like.

It was pretty pale and dried even paler. 

I just checked the bunches and they are still pretty wet. What I did discover is that the darker parts of the plant dye are migrating to the tops of the folds.

I hope they dry completely tomorrow.  I am very excited about what might be happening.

There's no chance that this pressure cooker will ever be used again for food.  I put the gloves, pieces of iron and extra twine in the pot, placed it in the shop and left it ready for another session.

Looking forward to tomorrow and the big unwrapping!

Create Always,

Karen

ECO-PRINTING ON SILK

I have signed up to take a workshop on Eco-Printing, with my local Fiber Arts Guild. The class is scheduled for October 8.  As I was walking about the farm yesterday, I got to thinking that if we have a hard frost before then, I might not be able to experiment with several of the plant leaves and flowers that are still available all around here.

So, I googled Eco-printing. I found a huge variety of ways and opinions on what to do and what may be successful.

I gathered plant material from several different plants around here.  I used Marigolds, Castor Bean leaves, Iron Weed, Passion Flower leaves, wild asters,  Oat grass leaves and seed pods, Shiso Leaves and flower stalks, Goldenrod blooms and leaves and some others that I can't remember now.

Here all the plant material is spread out in my studio: It sure does look pretty!

Then I gathered some twine, in this case, it's haybale twine from big round bales of hay, that my husband has put in the shop ( twine not hay), some 3/4" Pvc pipe cut in ten inch pieces, and silk scarf blanks.

I thought that I would whip up a couple of bundles and experiment them.  I started by laying a variety of plant materials out on one side of a scarf.

I then folded the empty side of the scarf over the plant material and added another layer of plant material. In this case, I used Marigold petals and leaves. Then I started rolling it all up into a bundle.

It all  made up into a lovely bundle ready to be heated for a few hours.  Here is the first bundle, very tightly tied up. Nothing is going to come out of this bundle.  It took me two hours to make up four bundles.

Once I had all of the bundles ready to heat, I carried everything into the house.

One of the articles said to process the bundles in an aluminum pot. The theory is that it would act as a mordant.  I have more pressure cookers than any two people would ever need, so, I decided to dedicate one of them to the Eco-printing process.

Here are all of the bundles in the pot, along with the leftover plant material.  This photo was taken after the pot had been on the stove for about 2 hours.  The scent was interesting. I had used Shiso, a very fragrant herb, and it really perfumed the kitchen. Very minty! I also made sure that I poked the bundles down using an old paint stick rather than spoons from the kitchen. The Castor Bean plant is poisonous.                                                                                                                                                                                       

Another blog said to let the bundles crock in the pot for 48 hours.  So, I let the pot cool and sit overnight.  I was not noticing much in the way of a color change on the silk.  I talked with a friend this morning and she asked me if I had added rusty iron.  I said no but that I was sure I could find some in the shop.  I found these old rusty bolts and a piece of rebar.

 Into the pot they went and I put it back on the heat. 

Here it is after another hour of heat: The color is much darker and I see that a caterpillar was in there. Hmm, something to watch out for when collecting materials.

I will leave the bundles in the pot for another 12 hours.
I read that the bundles can be unwrapped as soon as they cool, or they need to be left to dry as a bundle.  I'm going to put them, on a rack, out in the sun tomorrow and see what happens.

I'm excited about being part of the workshop on October 8 and talking to others who have already been working with this process.

Will post photos, of the finished scarves as soon as they are dry and ironed.

Create Always,

Karen

A LITERARY QUILTER: SAVING WONDER

This is the story of a quilt that came about as a result of my being commissioned by Mary Knight, of Lexington, KY, to make a quilt based on the art work on the book jacket of her recently published book, SAVING WONDER, Scholastic Press, NY, 2016.

I was thrilled and excited and honored to be asked to create a quilt for her. After getting the permission from the jacket artist, Jim Tierney of Brooklyn, NY, we set about discussing what each of us thought the quilt should be.  By the way, Jim Tierney said his work has been turned into cakes, coloring books and t-shirts, but never a quilt.  I am curious about his reaction when he finally sees a photo of the quilt.

The first thing I had to do was find the right fabric for the background and the border.  I was sure I was going to have to dye it, but, upon checking my bin of hand dyed fabrics, there was the perfect green piece of green silk damask. It was just the right size and color.  Since that worked out so good, I figured why not see if there was a piece of gold. There was and it was also just the right size piece.

After getting the background and borders measured and placed on the design wall, I did a rough drawing.

Here is the rough drawing. As you can see, it is very rough.  I knew what I was seeing in my vision for the quilt and I had to convey that to Mary.  I sent the rough drawing to Mary, and after some discussion, we agreed on going  ahead with the project. 

I felt that my biggest challenge was to get the Elk and the mountains just right. I would be painting both of them.

I painted the elk first. I painted it as a free standing piece.Here is the elk shape cut out and ready to be painted with a variety of acrylic fabric paints. I used Golden GAC 900 fabric medium and Folk Art fabric medium to blend the paints and give them better consistency.

Here is the rough painted Elk, ready to be applied to the background.

Wow! It's on the background and the quilting is looking great! I've also added in a few more painted highlights, especially on the eyes.  I'm really loving it at this point and very excited about seeing what the rest of the quilting will do for the Elk.

Here's some detail of the eye and the quilting.

This photo shows the finished Elk body with clouds and mountains behind it.  As soon as I put the body and clouds into place, I realized that I would have to finish the inside border edge before applying the antlers. I used a combination of two gold yarns, applied with gold metallic thread to create a tiny inner border that set off the the green background from the gold border. This same combination would be used with the black binding.

The clouds were cut from Evolon and painted with a white, pearlized paint.  The mountains were painted onto the quilt using Shiva paint sticks. Yes, it was a daring process since I knew, I couldn't correct a mistake! 

The boy is a freezer paper pattern at this point.

The antlers were cut from the perfect piece of black printed fabric. I free motion appliqued them down using black metallic thread.  I then added in more detail, on the body of the antlers,  with the same black metallic thread.

Before I added any leaves or the children, I quilted the whole piece and put on the binding. The binding is also quilted with the black metallic thread and edged with the gold threads.

I echoed quilted around the tree limbs at the top of the quilt.  A river then flows from the right side of the quilt, across the bottom and up part of the left side.  It has gold circles that simulate foam on the water. Some of the characters, in the story, are Cherokee so the river and circles are also a representation of two sacred symbols of the Cherokee Nation.

Another challenge was the many small leaves that needed to be added to the antlers/trees.  I needed something that would stand out on the green and the gold fabrics.  I found a hand dyed piece of cotton that I then fused a piece of light green organza onto it.  The leaves have a lovely sheen and show up on the gold background. I sewed them into place using gold metallic thread and free motion stitching.

Next, the children were placed and, sewn down with free motion stitching. . They were also cut from Evolon and painted with the same pearlized white paint that I used on the clouds.

At this point, we had to decide to whether or not lettering would be good on the quilt. Mary finally said that she would like the book title and I agreed that it would be good to have it on the quilt, even though the quilt looks good without it.  She will be taking the quilt with her to book signings and other events related to the book.  I was able to work out an easy way to hang it, at these events, using her easel.

Here is the finished quilt.  This was a great experience working with Mary to create what we both saw in our minds.

Here we are on the September 9, 2016 when I presented the quilt to her.

Having fun!

Once again, I have to say that working on this quilt and working with Mary has been a fantastic experience and a very rewarding experience.  In addition, I love the book. It's a great story no matter what age you happen to be.  I am looking forward to reading Mary's next book, whenever it is published.

Creating Always,
Karen

JOY from Watercolor Pencils and Fabric Paint

I recently finished a quilt that was started as a snow-dyed piece of fabric. I transformed it with quilting, watercolor pencils and fabric paint into a piece that I call "JOY". 

Here is what the center fabric looked like when I started.  It is a piece of cotton/silk blend that I snow-dyed two years ago during some big storms that left many feet of snow on the ground.  There is a shiny side and a dull side to this fabric. I chose to use the dull side.

The border is also snow-dyed. The fabric is cotton sateen.

I quilted the center and then started enhancing it with Watercolor Pencils. I used Inktense Watercolor Pencils, and Prismacolor Color Pencils. 

It's obvious here where the watercolor painting has taken place. The colors are held in place with Golden, Gac900 Fabric medium.

The whole center is painted and looking a bit dark and flat.  I am also auditioning a butterfly here that is not working for me.

 I've added in some painted highlights and also used some glittery ink. Crystal Beads are also adding in some sparkle, in the center, of what has become a Sunflower.

Details have been applied to the quilted butterflies. I inked in some more lines and added highlights with metallic paint. There are also some glass beads acting as eyes.

VOILA! Here is the finished quilt.  I added the word JOY and moved the angelina butterfly to a better place.  The border was  quilted with gold thread but not painted in any way. 

After finishing the edges with a gold thread satin stitch binding, I added on the lower beaded trim using glass pearls,  crystals and crackle glass beads.  This quilt measures about 32"wide by 31" long.

In addition to a label on the back of the quilt, I signed the front of the quilt with my studio mark and the date. 

 

This quilt is on display at the Berea Arts Council in Berea, KY as part of the "QUILTS WITH A KICK SHOW".  Our theme this year is "EMOTIONS".  

The show will be open until August 6th.  It will be part of the Quilt Extravaganza that will start on Friday, July 29 and end on Saturday, July 30.

I am now scheduling private and or small classes in the techniques that I have described here. All classes will be taught at my studio in Nonesuch, KY.

Creating with JOY,

Karen