Exploring surface design

Another couple of days of our two-week fabric-dyeing intensive was spent exploring and sampling the huge world of surface design.  We took our layered hand-dyed fat quarters and played with adding even MORE layers!

We played with stamps, stencils, silkscreens, resists, discharges, dyes, paints and more.  Iron, indigo, bleach, and more. Here are a few examples!  Click to enlarge any image.

The applications are endless, but I see myself making some gorgeous scarves – (photos of a few of those to come soon in a separate post).  Is an etsy.com shop in my future?  Hmmmm…

Wild hand-dyed silk samplers

 

This was one of the fun things Ken and I did during our two-week fabric-dyeing intensive with Gail Denton at the Natural Dye Studio in Boulder in June!  

We spent a couple of days exploring the interplay of the dyes with layering, double and triple-dipping, folding, fanning, tying, clamping and otherwise torturing the silks.

These samplers are fat-quarter-yard size (18 x 22 inches).  Click on any image to enlarge.

The idea here is that these techniques can be used to make silk scarves and/or to cut up and make into quilts, and/or to create a base for layers of surface design – painting, stamping, screen printing, stenciling, surface dyeing using a thickening agent, etc.  Some photos of THAT step to come tomorrow.

In the meantime, vote for your favorites!

Also watch for a blogpost later this week devoted to just our silk scarves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Color Study of our hand-dyed silks

Here is the line-up of naturally hand-dyed 100% organic silks for our headed for our color reference binder.  Aren’t they GORGEOUS!?  (Click to enlarge.)

The two rows on the far left are Fuji broadcloth.  The next two rows to the right are heavy silk noile.  We did the same color study on each of the fabrics to see how the dye behaves differently on different fabrics

Quote of the Week – July 12, 2010

"Sell your cleverness. Buy curiosity, wonder and bewilderment."

- Rumi

The monsoons begin!

A little late, but this weekend marks the official arrival of our dramatic and exhilarating summer monsoon season!

As with the other four seasons, this “fifth season” is one of the many reasons I LOVE calling the flowering desert my home.  The air smells and feels sensuously intoxicating.  I feel deeply nourished by the daily rhythms and sounds of this place.

Wave-a-licious + Curve-a-licious

More curve play!

Yummy fabric palette for my next commissioned quilt – all organic hand-dyeds

Here, my dears, is THE most luscious collection of “my” own brandy-new naturally hand-dyed organic fabrics – in a specially selected palette of happy colors for my next quilt commission!  I’m getting started on it by doing some fun warm-ups with improvisational curved piecing.  Whee!

Warming up with curves

An interesting technique called top-stitched curve piecing…  running through some exercises the last 2 days to see if I can find a better way to piece deeper curves.  So far, this one, pictured above, is my fave.  The above “block” is approximately 18” x 20”.

Now, more practice!

Quote of the Week – July 5, 2010

"The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same."

-Carlos Castenada

My new natural-hand-dyed fabric stash!

All gorgeous 100% organic: cotton muslin, sueded muslin, cotton sateen, Fuji broadcloth (silk), raw silk, dupioni silk, heavy noile (silk), silk charmeuse, and more. YUM!!!