Rain Forest Festival Project #1

Today I spent half the morning upstairs at the sink rinsing rinsing rinsing dye from yesterday's batch of scarves.  (They turned out great - photos tomorrow).  Once that odious task was done I got started on a project I have had in mind for almost a year for Petersburg's Rain Forest Festival art exhibit in September. 

We had a terrific lichen dye workshop at Rain Forest Festival last year.  Here is some of my product from that, which I am going to make into a series of small sculptural figures (ok, dolls).

I decided to make a prototype first from some lovely heavy duty muslin I had laying around.

Here she is, all sewn together.  I am going to bury her out in the forest until the week before the exhibit (if I can stand to wait that long) when I will exhume her and give her a face and we'll see what else.  I am hoping the time under ground will mark the fabric in some interesting ways.

Dyeing Scarves with Beach Stones

The day began with a walk for Flossy after I got out of my early morning water aerobics class (fondly known as the Morning Mermaids).  Patchy morning fog gave way to watery sunshine as we crossed the muskeg above town.

Once I reached the studio I quickly mixed up a new batch of dye concentrates and got out the stones Cherie and I collected several weeks ago out at the end of the road on the Rainbow Rocks beach.

I wrapped a batch of my silk scarf blanks around the stones with artificial sinew.

I also wrapped a nice stick with a scarf.  I was intending to push the scarf down on itself as in shibori but the stick was having none of it.  Fine.

After I had a half a dozen wet scarves wrapped and tied and in containers, I used the dye concentrates with citric acid left over from the Jellies project to color the scarves. 

I was trying for the wonderful celadon greens and purples I saw on the morning walk.

I was using Brilliant blue and Golden yellow, with fuscia red in various combinations.

I can't wait for tomorrow when the rinsing/washing/drying will reveal whatever magic the dye has up its sleeve!

Very Green Afternoons

We are in the season of screaming green accentuated by cloudy, misty weather.  From the Monday and Tuesday after work walks:

devils club and skunk cabbage, primarily

at the edge of the muskeg

blueberry leaves

random leaves and grasses plus some kind of berries we don't eat

Jellies, Part II

Today I ironed out the silk organza panels dyed for the jelly fish samples.  I was pleased with the rich blues and greens the Procion dyes gave me.  The panels range in size from approximately 40"x40" to 18"x18".

 Under-side of the green jellyfish before sewing the yarn 'tentacles' in place between the layers of organza.

After the organza was ironed, I decided which panels to combine into sets of three layers.  I painted a 10" and a 12" embroidery hoop with acrylic paint and cut my hand dyed yarns to 84" lengths while I waited for the paint to dry.  The yarn was then placed between the silk layers and secured with fusable web to stabilize during sewing which I didn't quite get around to before getting called away from the studio for the rest of the day.

New School of Jellies

I have had interest in my jellyfish series by an art consultant in California, and have been asked to send down a sample.  Construction began yesterday.  I painted on silk organza I had first scoured and hemmed with machine blanket stitching.  I added citric acid to my Procion dye concentrates as fixer, as suggested by Ann Johnston, my ultimate source of guidance and wisdom in the Dye World.  Citric acid does not exhaust the dye molecules rapidly as does soda ash, which allows me time to paint in a more relaxed tempo.  It is also gentler on the silk.

Silk organza stretched on plastic atop my work table, painting in progress.

Green - mix of turquoise and lemon yellow - added to the dots.

This piece is covered with another sheet of plastic to retain moisture necessary for the curing process.  I will be washing out the dye and completing the construction of the jelly fish today (if I stay on task)!

Birds of a Feather Exhibit at the Clausen Museum

Yesterday painter Carmel Anderson and I hung our exhibit of approximately 60 paintings and sculptures at the Clausen Museum in Petersburg, Alaska.  The opening was well attended and viewers' response was so enthusiastic. 

The museum is small and something of a challenge to arrange work in, but the staff is so helpful that things always end working out beautifully.

Carmel's women paintings were a good match for my procion dye paintings - our colors were as well matched as if we had created them working side by side.

The wall at the back of the exhibit, my painting 'Congregation' on the left.

The painting on the left, 'Flock' was quite popular but was not for sale, as it sold to a gallery in the midwest during my ACRE exhibit.  I will be shipping it in September.

I showed 11 of my small sketches, these four hanging and the others displayed on small table easels.  

The painting on the left, 'Rooted in Water', sold to a close friend from my book group.  Thanks, Barb!

Monoprints, the first pull on the right, the second pull on the left, which has additional color applied with Prismacolor pencils.

These also garnered much attention and provoked discussion.  Center is one of the two remaining paintings from my Burning Bush series.

'Fall', approximately 24"x36" framed size

The painting is called 'Flutter' - the happy soul is me!

Wild Edibles

Salmon berry season is here!  These down on the beach fringe where Flossy and I sometimes walk after work.  They taste best right off the bush, not much good for jam or other cooking.