Shibori dyeing in Two Parts

Our activity for April and May was combined by the members whose turn it was to lead.  In April, Cynda shared with us some techniques for creating shibori.   Then in May Susan had us all come over to her house for the dyeing process. 

Part I

At the April meeting, we did have some show and tell!

 Lori finished the piece she started at the landscape workshop she led, using a piece of fabric she had dyed as a focal point.  

 Lori used some new techniques for the leaves on the tree in this, to be donated at the bigfoot conference later in April. 

 Mary also finished her landscape, using a beautiful piece of lace for the trees in this moonlight piece!

Mary also finished making her face, using fussy cuts.  She is doing some very modern stitching in the background!

Cynda brought plenty of examples of shibori she has done so we could choose the techniques we wanted to try.

Martha's pieces- scrunched, folded and stitched.

Kathi did some interesting stitching.

Chris is trying out circles

everything in one piece!

Part II



On a beautiful sunny day that decided to rain during our meeting, we met to do the dyeing- using the "pig barn" instead. 

Pieces held in the dye for 5 minutes at a time

 

Oxidizing between dips in the dye

 And a few of the results!

Cynda's scrunched piece

Cynda's fabulous mandala

 Lori got very nice color on her pieces, even after rinsing.  (others weren't so lucky)























 These are Chris' before she rinsed them. 

Hopefully everyone will bring their pieces to the next meeting for show and tell. 

Creating Landscapes

 Before we got started on our landscapes, a couple of members had finished their face from the February meeting.

Susan

Elaine

 Elaine had also done a thread painted portrait of her granddaughter.  The photo was cut off at the top of the head, so she hasn't decided how to finish it. 

Lori led us in a workshop on creating landscapes.  Most of us used a photo as inspiration.

Kathi's was a photo of her own back yard. (there's no place like home)























Chris found inspiration in this pond scene.

Mary Ellen is using her artistic liscense to remove the telephone lines from her chosen scene.

Mary Lee was moon gazing.


















 Cynda's waterfall scene looks challenging, don't you think?

Susan and Elaine worked from scratch.

 I loved the newspaper trees!


Susan thinks this looks terrible, but I know the finished piece will be stunning!

 Elaine had a perfect fabric for both the sun and the tree. This one will also be stunning. 


 Martha's is based on a picture taken somewhere in the "wild" west.














Lori didn't get much time to work , but it looks like she's got something special started here!

We all enjoyed this project and look forward to finishing them, and seeing them all finished.  

Making Faces

At our February meeting, Mary led us in trying a technique from the book, "Making Faces in Fabric", by Melissa Averinos.  (I want to do the cat faces in her workshops section!!)

First we drew a picture of a face, using her instruction, to get the proportions correct. 

Susan and Lori worked from images they had prepared in advance.

Then it was time to try and replicate, or interpret, our drawings on fabric. 

Martha

Lori

Susan

Mary Ellen's looks angry, doesn't it? 

 

Chris

Kathi

 Elaine and Mary Lee decided to work without their drawings and create very different faces. 

Elaine

 

Mary

It should be interesting -and fun!!- to see the finished works!

We're still doing the telephone game*, and it's killing all of  us not to be able to show them, or to bounce ideas off each other.

* Like the game we used to play as kids, but with quilts.  Each of us made a small quilt, which was passed on to the next person.  That person makes a small quilt inspired by the piece they receive, seals the inspiration piece up in an envelope- not to be opened until the big reveal- and passes on her new piece to the next person.  There will be 9 quilts in each group, but each of us only sees what the person in front of us made.

Making our own fabric "paper"

 The ArtCGirlz decided to revive the practice of each month a member shares a technique with the rest of the group.  For the January meeting, it was Kathi's turn.  She shared a sort of fabric decoupage technique, which she called fabric paper.

Kathi shows all how to use plain muslin, white glue and the assorted bits of paper, threads, glitter and other fabrics members were instructed to bring.

 A layer of glue painted on the fabric holds the "bits" in place.

Some of the fun "bits" people brought to play with.

 Early in the process, it's hard to know what you're doing.

 Kathi loves this process and kept playing with different supplies and bits.   

 

 Lori wasn't sure what she was doing, but ended up with a piece she liked. 





















 

 Chris' piece was inspired by the wrinkled bit of tissue paper she started with!

We also exchanged our envelopes for the swap project we're doing this year.  None of us will see them until the swap is complete, so we can't she you.  We're all dying of curiosity!

In February, Mary will be leading a different kind of collage technique.