Sunday, June 29, 2008

How long is too long...

...to save prepared dyes? I mixed up these dyes on the third and fourth. I meant to use them all up that week, but other stuff got in the way and I got sidetracked. Gee, there's something new...
I realized last week that i still had dye to use, but had to put everything away to clean house for company. Now, THAT really is something new! (the cleaning part, not having guests...) Cleaning in summer is sporadic at best -- no time -- to much else to do!


I don't know how good the dye will take, but that's okay. I can batik, stamp and over dye.

Did this one hanging in the tub. (not me -- the fabric) Might make a cool sunset if the color keeps.

Then I realized that I was missing all these great splatters...

Not to worry -- had more fabric soaking in soda ash.

Did this one last. Only had Chinese Red and black dye left.


Call the C.S.I. !!

Yikes! Can you say Norman Bates? Luckily, I had lots of Soft Scrub that I got for discharging and it all cleaned up real nice. It really marbled in a cool way though... :)


Also did a gradation of fuchsia and some odds and ends of other leftover colors.

Some more work on the mural.

Now I'm dog-tired...



Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Making Marge

My friend Spencer is playing in a Pride softball tournament tomorrow. Everyone will be dressed as a TV character. Spencer is going as Marge Simpson and asked me to make his costume. No problem I said -- just take a couple of hours. Doh! Six hours later...


Starched a piece of artist canvas till it was good and stiff. (puns were flying everywhere) Then pinned it to his head and sewed a seam.


Rolled up batting to fill the canvas tube. Looks more like a conehead from SNL.


Covered the cone with bright blue fleece.


Put a drawstring on top to make the top rounded.


Added 'snakes' of batting to make it more bumpy.


Cut scallops around the face and added an elastic chin strap. He/she has to run in this get-up!


Made a sleeve at the top of the dress fabric for elastic and sewed in boobies. Less chance of losing them, if they're attached!


Added a couple of tucks in the breasts for shape.


Painted a pair of deck shoes with scarlet red textile paint and sewed a split ring and lobster clasp to some pom-pom rope. All done!


Here he/she is in all her glory....












Monday, June 16, 2008

Joe's patio is done!

Spent the day with Joe, leveling the paver stones. filling in the spaces with sand and getting the new canopy put up.
Patsy and Edwina on the pavers before leveling.
After leveling and adding sand.

The framework for the canopy


All done with flowers added. The girls approve!


How freakin' cute is this?

Brandy's birthday!

Surely I cannot be old enough to have a daughter this age.... Our traditional birthday meal at Brennan's in Grand River.

Brandy happy with her crab legs...
Paulie happy with anything edible...

And Brendan, a little freaked out by this monster of a chili dog... LOL!



Finally - some color in the yard.

I think my Columbines are really the prettiest I've ever seen. I planted the seeds the first year of my garden and they are more beautiful each year.

These are all going with us when we move -- I could never replace them!

These are 5-6 inches across -- stunning.
Even this lowly marigold looks so pretty.


My Edelweiss is going nuts in it's hypertufa pot.

And pansies just melt my heart...





More textures for class

Geranium leaves

Chives

Pine needles



Saturday, June 7, 2008

Textures

Textures seen while painting grapes yesterday.



Dumb things to do when it's 96 degrees outside...

The 806 Wine Bar has a new 2nd patio - smoking and non-smoking. Irish Pete and TJay and some other guys built it and after the concrete was poured, they stamped it with an awesome grapevine pattern. Pete asked me to paint the stamped pattern with some really cool cement stains.
Did I mention that it was 96 degrees yesterday? Way too freakin' hot to lay on the patio, but the detail required up-close-and-personal. For almost 8 hours. I drank almost 2 gallons of water and kept a wet rag around my neck, but it was pretty miserable work. It was worth it though. After I finished, Pete put on a diamond coating and it is stunning!


Later in the day, Pete brought me lounge chair cushions and then an umbrella. It helped a lot. I can't even guess the temperature of the cement, but it burned to touch it.
Of course, every moron that walked by, had to joke about how I had it made, laying down to work. Yuk, yuk, yuk. Yeah, right. come lay down on this HOT cement for a while -- see how you like it. @@


The finished patio.
Where was that shade when I needed it?


The grapevine stamp pattern

Detail after diamond coating

Over-exuberent felting and some discharging

Worked on the mural today, made a felted vessel for Joe and discharged some fabric. Pretty productive day!
I made the vessel over a 10 inch ball. My arms were too sore (from lifting all the the paver stones) to do all the ball bouncing that's required, so I thought I'd just toss the ball in the dryer, on hot, and see if that would work. The ball and wool were wrapped in tulle and 2 pantyhose butts. Well it worked okay, BUT when I took it off of the ball, I wound up with a couple of spots that were really thin. Maybe I didn't use enough wool or maybe the ridges in the dryer caused it to shift a little. Maybe both. I decided to toss it in the washer on really hot (duh!) to shrink it up a bit, hoping to close up those thin spots. Here's what I wound up with:

On the left -- from the class I took with Fran Steinbock...
On the right -- the furry little mess I pulled out of the washing machine...
They were made on the same ball.

I used 4-5 different kinds of wool, silk and angelina. Obviously, everything shrank at a different rate AND the water was WAY too hot. The white bits are the silk, which all but disappeared

After I trimmed it up and gave it a shave -- LOL !

Then in between waiting for paint to dry, I discharged some black cotton. Used some cookie cutters, splattered some and smeared some Some are straight bleach and some are done with soft scrub.

I like the arrows best.


For this piece, I soaked a 16 inch doily in bleach and laid it on the fabric.

Tuesday night

Got the fabric all ironed and folded


Rainbow of cotton


Cheesecloth rainbow -- was surprised that anything was left after all the stray fibers were cut out...

Tuesday dirt

Literally...
Tjay and I spent the day at Joe's.

TJay and Spencer dug a new patio
I laid the pavers. I am so going to hurt tomorrow...

I still have some leveling to do, but thundertorms pur an end to todays work. Also missed the James Taylor concert, since we had lawn tickets for Blossom Music Center. There's $75 down the toilet...