Additional Wall Art

Previously in some August and September posts I shared some screen prints that I was making into wall art.  As shown before, these are some of the prints I started with.

I have now finished the 4th piece in this group.  (I know, slow progress.  I have been working on some other things, but several of the projects I've done this year have been for exhibits and can't be shared.  So while it may seem like I haven't been doing much, I continue to work on these "secret" projects.)

The piece at the bottom right is the one I have just completed.  I really like the look of the "stitch print" fabric as background - it really goes well with the simplicity of the prints.  The fabric is stretched over a 9x12 canvas and stapled to the wood frame.  The prints are layered with batting (no backing) and thread sketched around the image, then the edges are satin stitched.  The size of the print fabric was trimmed so it would fit inside the wood frame of the canvas, in order to be able to hand stitch the print to the background/canvas.  The hand stitching is done with #5 perle cotton and a running stitch.  I have a few more covered canvases ready and waiting for prints to be stitched on, as soon as I do the machine work.

More Wall Art

I've worked on a couple more pieces of screen printed wall art.  I've also got a few "secret" projects in progress so I've been going back and forth between projects.  Here are 2 more of the prints.

What do you think? Worth adding to the Etsy shop?

QC6 Day 21

The days sure go by quickly.  It was cloudy, cool and gray this morning till mid-afternoon.  So the morning was spent indoors on the computer working on business stuff.  But I did get some things done this afternoon and evening.  I had 2 pieces sitting in some left over dye that I washed out; one in yellow & coral, one in blue.  I knew a lot of color would wash out because the dye was pretty well spent, but I like the soft colors of the coral & yellow.  Hopefully not too much will wash out in the final machine wash.  The blue is darker than I expected but probably more will wash out of that too.

Then I did a little screen printing with thickened dye on a couple of pieces that have been sitting around - previously dyed and/or surface designed - waiting for something else. I really like the texture this crackle screen adds.

I decided to dye a couple more pieces in the indigo pot.  One is the silk scarf that I pole wrapped and dyed before, but it came out with very little color so this time I used small glass marbles banded with rubber bands.  And I had a fat quarter that was a pretty solid green, so I accordion pleated it and banded it every few inches.  Here they are after dipping; tomorrow I'll hang them in the sun to dry.

I also put some other pieces in soda ash to soak so they'll be ready for more dyeing tomorrow.

Quilt camp (at least for me) will be coming to an end soon - just a few more days!  So I'm trying to fit in all the things I still want to do!
 

QC6 Day 14

How can 2 weeks have gone by so quickly?  I guess when I look back at all I've done it's not so surprising but it sure doesn't seem like 2 weeks!  Today was definitely a productivity day!  I spent most of the day - all day - printing, trying out a couple of techniques I read about.  The first was a resist process by Jeannie Palmer Moore, printing with white paint on white fabric.  After it dries and is heat set, you apply liquid dye with a brayer.  I got so involved, I forgot to take "before" pictures of the white on white fabric!  But I do have pictures after the dye is applied.  Tomorrow will be the "wash out" to see the final result.  Of course, part of the process was using some newly made screens, so that was exciting too.  Here are a few pieces.

 This is the biggest piece, a half yard.  the screen used here is "crackle".  I used 3 colors of dye - coral, yellow, and parakeet.  The other pieces are all 9 or 10 inch pieces of fabric.

Along with this process, I tried another great idea from Diane Doran.  When finished printing with a screen, a lot of paint gets washed away in the clean up.  Usually I print on extra fabric to use up the paint but an even better way is to print with a slightly damp sponge which not only uses up the excess paint but helps clean the screen at the same time.  I got lots of extra prints from every screen I used.  Luckily I had brought along a Cherrywood scrap bag of 6 x 9 inch pieces which were perfect for using up the extra paint, and great colors to boot.  If you are not familiar with Cherrywood, take a look at their website - great hand dyed cottons with a suede-like appearance.

Above I was using a sponge to print with the excess ink.  Below, all 3 prints were made using the sponge and all are white paint, even though they appear different on the 3 colors.

Above are more of the prints on a drying rack.

Another technique I tried was using a brayer and liquid dye over texture plates.  This fabric could be cut up and used as is or another layer of surface design could be added. 

 

And one more thing, I made an addition to this piece that I started the first week with a sun print. Can you tell what's different?

  

QC6 Day 6

Today was much cooler and quite windy all day.  I got a few things done this morning before heading to Moultonborough for the library used book sale and Center Harbor for a stop at Keepsake Quilting. (Yes, we were just there on Tuesday.) I don't know if you can see the white caps on the lake but they were quite big compared to the calmness just 2 days ago.  I washed some 5" squares and hung them to dry - it was a great day for drying fabric on the line.

 

I found just a few things at the book sale - mostly embroidery design books for inspiration.  Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is a book that was recently recommended, so was glad to find that.  And the prize - Zucchini 75 Ways!

On the way back, we stopped to pick up some lobsters for dinner at Bart's Seafood.  It's just a roadside stop with an eclectic collection of rusty stuff by the entrance.  But a typical New England scene.

I did some more studio work when we got back.  One thing I did was try out a product called Color Magnet.   It is a dye attractant that you apply to fabric before dyeing  and those places should be darker than the rest, making a tone on tone fabric.  I used thermofax screens to print all-over designs.  In these pictures it is wet from the application.  We'll see how it turns out tomorrow.

A quirky thing about New Hampshire is the things you see along the road.  Here's one example.  There's a barn we pass that has always had a giraffe head in one of the windows.  A few years ago, there was a new addition - a baby giraffe! 

This year, we're back to just the momma giraffe. But in the window to the left there is a new addition.  I believe she's wearing a military helmet.

QC6 Day 5

Hope you enjoyed your 4th of July.  The 4th at Lake Winnipesaukee was a washout this year - literally.  It rained off and on all day - I've never seen such a quiet 4th on the lake.  Although fire works can be heard now, so I'm sure there are more to come.   The day was spent mainly in the house, not much work in the "studio" today. 

This morning was a good time for computer work.  I added 4 of our new screens to the PGFiber2Art Etsy shop - check them out!

I printed fern #2 (above) on the fabric from yesterday that has gelli printing and 1 layer of text screen printing.  I really like the way it turned out.  I also threw a few previously dyed pieces into the soda ash solution to get them ready for over-dyeing to spruce them up.

And then this afternoon I made a strawberry pie - at least we could have a patriotic desert with our hamburgers & hot dogs!

I attempted to do a little bit of sewing but didn't get very far.  That was my day.  How was yours?

PG Fiber2Art Spring Classes

Announcing our spring 2014 classes at Artistic Artifacts in Alexandria. Please consider joining us for a class. If you have taken a class from us before you may use the class as an "open studio" using our paints, screens and supplies.

Thermofax Screen Printing is on March 15 from 10-3:30.  Read more about it here.

Turn Your Photos into Thermofax Screens is April 5 from 10-1.  Read more about it here.

Fall Special - PG Fiber2Art on Etsy!

Are you ready to do some printing?  Maybe work on some fall projects or something for the upcoming holidays? Now's the time to Fall into Printing with PG Fiber2Art!  Starting today, Oct. 1, for the month of October, I am running a special in the Etsy shop.  Buy any 2 screens, and you will get a 3rd small screen FREE!  In order to use the special, you will need to select your 3 screens and add them to your cart.  Use the coupon code OCTOBER at check out, and the $4.00 cost of the free small screen will be deducted from your total.  There are 12 small screens in the shop to choose from.  The other 2 screens can be any size screen of your choice, including custom screens.  As noted in Friday's post, 5 new screens were added to the shop last week.

And here's our new shop banner - isn't it cool?  Those are screen printed hand-dyed scarves in the background.

If you are in the Washington, DC/ Northern VA/ Maryland area and want to learn more about thermofax screen printing, Elizabeth & I will be teaching our Printing with Thermofax Screens class at Artistic Artifacts on Oct. 19, from 10 AM to 3:30 PM.  Join us to get some hands-on practice with printing under the guidance of experienced teachers.   You also will have plenty of time to print your own fabric - create small pieces or print yardage, or both!  The choice is yours.  We have lots of screens for you to use, more than are available in the Etsy shop.  Additionally, in November we will be teaching Turn Your Photos into Thermofax Screens, which teaches you to use Photoshop to turn your own original photos into black and white images that can be made into screens.  Make your quilts and art truly your own by using your own images.  Hope to see you soon!  Below are some pics from our class last spring.  Oh, and don't forget to like our page on Facebook!

New Screens in PG Fiber2Art Etsy shop

Five new thermofax screens were recently added to the Etsy shop; 2 are flower sets which give you the same flower in 3 different sizes, the other 3 are graphic designs.  Here's one of the flower sets, and what it looks like printed:

 

This is called Autumn Mum, converted to a screen image from a photograph; the flowers are 3", 4" and 6".  Cool, huh?

One of the graphic designs is "ricing" elongated shapes that resemble grains of rice.  This design was hand drawn and then digitized.  Here it was used on a scarf in 3 different colors of paint and discharge product.

Head on over to the shop and check out these and the other designs.  If you haven't tried screen printing, Elizabeth & I will be teaching a thermofax printing class Oct. 19 at Artistic Artifacts in Alexandria. You can read all about it and register here.

Leaving Quilt Camp 5

Time to head home tomorrow - wrapping up quilt camp for another year.  Here's a selection of photos - more specific posts will follow after I get home!
 

 

My supplies are packed and work table is mostly cleared off;  above is a shot of 3 weeks worth of dyed & printed fabric, shirts and scarves.  Yummy colors!

 

We made lots of scarves, mostly dyed and printed with thermofax screens.  Above are some examples.

 I tried batik again, armed with the knowledge gained from an April class in Indonesian batik.  Very pleased with the piece on the left.  The right photo is a print from a thermofax screen that I drew.  Happy with that too.

 

We watched lots of Quilting Arts DVDs, one was Fusible Art Quilts with Frieda Anderson and  Laura Wasilowski - this is my attempt at a fusible art quilt a la Frieda Anderson.  Press on!

Finally, a shot of one of Barbara's day lilies, and a pretty sunset - not our last night since it was a rainy day, but one of the best of camp.