Monday, July 29, 2013

Painted Ferns




I spent yesterday afternoon 
puttering in my dye studio.
I was dyeing backing fabric 
for several more pieces,
so while mixing and stirring dye pots,
I also played with one of my 'teacher' pieces.
Elin Noble introduced me to the term 'teacher'.
In my case, it is a piece of fabric upon which
I try out various techniques
before I work on the 'real thing'
(and hopefully NOT screw it up!).
I'm having fun with the above piece -
layers and layers of dye and wax 
(I think four altogether...maybe five?)
and now I've added some Pro Chem textile paints
to jazz up the fern.
The golden yellow is a transparent paint,
and I was surprised at how well it stood its own.

I keep a large sketchbook on my dye studio worktable,
so I can document trials.
I screened the pine needles below:


the large orange one is with Pro Chem's 
Golden Yellow Procion MX dye, thickened,
while the smaller one is with their
 Golden Yellow textile paint.

Here is another section of my 'teacher' piece:


more textile paints,
Shiva Paint Sticks,
and a bit of cheesecloth
applied with Matte Medium and thickened dye.

I also spent a bit of time collaging 
snippets from a diary I had kept when I was ten.
I copied the entries that I really liked;
cut them up;
collaged them on paper;
printed them out;
colored the paper with 
FW acrylic inks, thickened dyes, and textile paints;
and cut them into leaf shapes:


then I laminated them to my little 'teacher'
with matte medium.


It's a very busy piece of silk,
but I've got a good bit of dialogue going on here!

thanks for dropping by

peace to you!






4 comments:

Connie said...

Hi Judy, I love how the ferns turned out. You are a master at dyeing. Your imagination and the many techniques you use just come together in remarkable fabric pieces. You blow my mind :)

Jeannie said...

Ditto what Connie said! Interesting difference between the two Golden Yellows. I am guessing that the dye is more transparent? I cannot believe you have your 10 year old diary!!! I do like the leaves and pine. Makes me think of fall and cooler temps! Have a fun filled week!

Maggi said...

Lovely depth of colour in the fern. Your teacher piece is fascinating with so much variety. I particularly like the pice of dyed cheesecloth, so organic.

Carol said...

I love your teacher piece! In fact every one of your photos here is a work of art. The fern is really gorgeous.