2014 Altered Fabric Swap Recap

The Altered Fabric group, of the Surface Design, at Stitchinfingers.ning.com gave me an entire year filled with encouragement and inspirations.

Here are some of the pieces I sent out. 

This was a piece that I wrapped plastic whiffle balls inside, put ice over the piece, and then sprinkled on a special black dye mix I had made. The color in the photo isn't as interesting as the piece was!

This piece was the fabric I refer to below, with Setacolor used on it. My rubber floor mat went over it on the grass and then the sun did it's work. Because it was on grass many spots are more out of focus, which can be very lovely when you want it like that. 

Above you can see the black on white print that I started with. I overdyed several pieces in various colors and I really preferred the darker colors and obviously the reverse side. I ordered this cloth thinking it had a smooth tight weave. When I received the BOLT it turned out to be more loosely woven than what I originally planned to use it for. That made it a good candidate for experiments throughout this year. 

This was an attempt at foiling on an unknown content fabric. I think there may be a finish on it and that can play havoc I with your foil staying on. 

This was another month of over dyeing for me. I included a piece of the original fabric. I enjoy the unique little scenes that my mind finds on pieces like this. 

Here's a typical rust dyed piece. I have done some research on the health hazards of true rust dyeing, and I probably won't do it again. I am now diligently working at achieving a rust color from mixing true hues of procion mx dyes. I will thicken it and paint it into "rusty looking" designs once I have that range of colors I want. I will keep you posted on my progress. 

To the left above is the original cloth. My granddaughter wanted purple and black, and I started to overdye this piece. There was no noticeable change. Then I removed some of the color. It turned out to be a pinkish, yellowish, purpley blob. So, when we chose to do some mono printing I decided this was a likely candidate for printing on. I used many different colors, texture items, and those little flower stamps. They are 1" chair leg pads, cut apart and stuck onto a pill bottle cap! Love the design I got with them. 

Here is a crayon rubbing over texture plates. Some turned out better than others. Typical of what happens in my art room. 

These were a blast to make. I used shave cream and Tsukeniko inks with a stencil I purchased.

This was a marbling with the shave cream and Tsukeniko inks. 

Here is my favorite. First splattered wax drops and some specific designs, that way I would have some white. I then dyed the fabric black, grey, or pewter. Next came more wax application. Bleaching out these colors left me with black and white areas of wax, along with some places where voids happened. I didn't mind them at all. Then it was time to overdye each piece. I scrunched each piece up. Applied three complimentary hues in specific areas. I then let them start to batch. Then I massaged them to distribute the dyes and have them intermingle. I finished them off in a conventional dye wash out method after the rest of the batching time. 

I fell in love with these and almost didn't share them at all. I was going to do more for our "resist" focus, but then I knew the next group would be just as hard to give up and the people that I swap with are so appreciative. So, off they went. 

And the one I like the least. Well, one of them had to be at the bottom of the pile!  

One friend said that it was like the colors were fighting, and I completely agreed. Most of them had significantly more paint on them. 

Look at just the bottom 1/4 of the picture, hmmmm. I could see that  being the wings to something. So, it just goes to show, if I stop looking at things as a whole piece, I may like my experiments better. Who knew? I should also turn things upside down and over!

And with that being said, here is the back side of my first pull through a screen print. I used black, but as we all know black is made up of many different colors,,, I really like this one!

It is subtle yet distinct. 

2014 has been a very interesting year. And I believe 2015 will be even better!

So,

Let's Create Today

Luann