Mail Art Project Week Eighty Six

Hand painted fabric, block printed and outline stitched.

This week's quote:

"They say marriages are made in heaven.

But so are thunder and lightening."

-Clint Eastwood-

Foot Square #19

Hand dyed cotton, Thermofax screen printed.  I have a lot of different tree screens!

Demolition Auditions

Here are three different navy printed strips auditioned with the white and green printed fabrics. 

 Which one?

Demolition on Blue

 

I am thinking I need a significant value contrast and I like this navy blue hand dyed piece, so I decide to print it with various colors and in different sizes (I've made three different Thermofax screens).  As soon as the paint is dry, I will audition these with the other fabrics.

Demolition Series Begins

 I have enjoyed showing my deconstructed screen prints.  I have always found these prints to be so powerful that I have not been able to use them in finished pieces.  I am determined to find a comfort level with taking them to the next level and creating quilted wall art from them.

I decided to begin with this piece.  The pattern of the printing reminds me of the shards of rotten plywood we have been removing from the balcony decking at one of our commercial buildings, so I am going to be using "demolition" in the title for this series (I have some other prints in shades of red that I want to work with, also).

 

I decided to isolate one of the more interesting areas of the print and convert the pattern to a Thermofax screen for printing.  Below is the cleaned up black and white print I used to make a Thermofax screen.  

 I enlarged the imagery somewhat to create visual interest and then I printed this green hand dyed fabric to compliment the deconstructed screen print.  I feel like this is a good start.  I will continue auditioning my ideas and working through it.

A Final Deconstructed Screen Print Panel

 Last, but not least!  Here are two panels I printed with the same screen.  The one below was printed first - you can tell because there is more white in it.  That is because there was more dried dye on the screen.  The dye broke down more with each print until I was getting a rather large triangular blob with each print that I didn't like very well.  I think these are both nice whole cloth pieces

 And you can get a better sense of them in these two detail images.  The one above is closer - maybe a 7" area, while the one below is more like 12".

I did all my printing on 60" wide cotton broadcloth that had been presoaked in soda ash solution and line dried.  It was chilly the days we did this, so we batched the fabric by rolling it up in plastic and putting it into a cooler containing gallon jugs of hot water.  We left this overnight before washing out.  I did a first rinse in cold water before washing out with hot water and Synthropol.  Thanks for coming along on this tour of my deconstructed / breakdown prints.

Now what to do with them all?  . . . And maybe an even bigger question . . . How do I stop?  Warmer weather is coming and I will probably set up and do some more of this deconstructed or breakdown printing during the summer!

More Breakdown Prints

 This is another group of prints from the very first screen I showed you three weeks ago.  The back of the screen was covered with thickened dark teal dye and I drew spirals and loops into it using the handle of a spoon.  The first prints were blue.  Then, I did a group of prints with red dye and for this batch, I changed to yellow dye.  I like this piece a lot.  I am fond of yellow green.

 And I am really pleased with the way the bits of dark teal print out.  Also love the color variations within the prints.

Mail Art Project Eighty Five

This group of postcards is created with the selvages of commercial fabrics.  

This week's quote:

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were.  But without it we go nowhere."

-Carl Sagan-

Foot Square #18

 Whenever I have extra paints left over from any project, I use them up on a smaller piece of fabric.

I hate pouring these down the drain and into our septic system.

I also hate wasting these costly supplies.  So, this week's "Foot Square" started out as a scrap fabric that I painted up with leftover paints from several projects.

Next, I used up some leftover block printing inks from another project (below).  Looks like I will have a nice 12" square from the top portion of this!

Here it is, all quilted and bound.  I really like this one.
Below is the printing block I used.

My Favorite Deconstructed Screen Print

 This screen was made by allowing thickened dye to drip down as it was tilted on edge to dry.  The dye was somewhat runny and made these really cool drips with the black dye.  There was also dried dye leftover from previous printings.  I think these two are just amazing and I lost that real dynamic appearance by the third print.

 Below is the full piece.  The first and best print is on the far right top.  The second print is the next one to the left.  The third print is below the first one.  After that, I lost the black (which was still wet when I started printing - that's why it got used up so fast). 

More Deconstructed Prints

 

 Here is the full panel of 18 prints.  All the same screen with varying colors of dye used - mostly golden yellow.   The details above are of an area about 8 x 5". 

This screen is one that I had done a lot of printing with.  It is quite broken down and there is really not a lot left of the dye on the screen.  Even so, it is one of my favorites.  I love these areas I have shown in detail shots.

Deconstructed Screen Prints

  I think this panel is interesting.  I started at the top left using clear alginate, so the color is coming from the dried dye/alginate on the back of the screen.  On the third panel, I added some yellow dye.  On the fourth panel, I added some red.  Then, I printed with the same dye on the first left on the bottom row.  After that, I added a little bit of golden yellow for the last three.

 I really like the black edges on all the white areas.

This screen was created by allowing the thickened dye to drip across the surface as it dried.  There is a lot of leftover dye from a previous screen, also.  After a while, I decided I was getting much more interesting prints when I did not wash out my screens.  Once the screen was sort of maxed out, I just added more thickened dye to the back somehow and propped it up to dry.  The drips just happened and I liked them so much that I have continued using drips for all subsequent screens.  Stay tuned!

Breakdown Printed Fabric

Are you getting tired of looking at my "breakdown" printed fabric yet?  I'm not!

Camping last August - Travel Log Tuesday

August 2011 my sister and her kids visited  from Connecticut long enough to go camping, so we took our grandson, Airus who is about the same age as her two youngest and we went up the Upper Rock Creek Road / Glacier Lake road a short distance and sent up camp in the Forest Service land.  The youngest three kids were 4, 5 and 7 so backpacking was not an option.  We were able to pitch our tents on a high ledge that was close to the road but felt very private.  We built a latrine and hauled up a couple of tables and chairs.  These two pictures are taken in the early morning before the sun reached our campsite.  By this time, the mosquitoes were pretty much gone, and we only had one rain shower (of course it was right when we were trying to set up camp!)  It was a special time and a really great camping spot.

Mail Art Project - Week Eighty Four

Sunflower

Block Printed

The centers are hand painted with thin brown Setacolor paint after the block print is dry.

Machine quilting with black thread.

This week's quote:
"There is a muscular energy in sunlight corresponding to the spiritual energy of the wind."
-Annie Dillard-

Foot Square # 17 - Black Tree

 I have finished block printing the background fabric.  Now, I think it needs a focal point, and I audition these screen printed trees.  This image is a ponderosa pine near my home that was killed by a wildfire a few years ago.  I think the remaining tree skeleton is especially dramatic.

 Two trees or one?  I think one.

 OK, so now - how much orange fabric does it need?  Narrow (above) or wide (below)?

I

The piece is machine quilted and bound by zig zagging a black cotton yarn around the outside edge.

Here is the finished piece. 

Working on Foot Square # 17

 This piece begins with a randomly pieced grouping of leftover fabrics in shades of red.

 Next, I print it with black ink, which changes it completely!

Continued tomorrow.