What was I thinking...?

Truly, what was I thinking? I’m part way through this Flaming Heart piece and only now do I question WHY AM I WORKING ON WHITE CLOTH?

Lynda and I got together for another art day yesterday and had a couple of dyebaths on the stove whilst we worked away at other things. I am so pleased with the outcome [ always am :) ] Here are the results of the Onion Skin bath; mostly cotton and linen… and mostly vintage or found textiles! Love that old linen teatowel and the spots and rings that became visible after dyeing!

Onion Skin Dyed Fabrics

This is the simple Dylon Jeans Blue bath results. We tied the pieces with rubberbands as we wanted variegated colour not solid colour. Great results; great future sky pieces…. So again, remind me why I’m working on white? I think I’ll have to either paint or appliqué a background onto my Flaming Heart piece!!!!

Dylon Dyebath results

We played around with the gouache and indian ink wash off technique that I’ve tried before. The results weren’t totally successful and I’m blaming it on poor quality materials! I used an inferior brand of gouache which didn’t wash off the paper as should have happened. Consequently my whites are bright white not the soft sepia they should have been. Also, I rubbed a little hard trying to remove the gouache and have torn the paper….. Mmmmm should have known better!!!

Gouache and Indian Ink wash off technique

Tree of Life

Detail

Oh, and a last minute piece of discharged linen! Yuuuummmmm, look at those gorgeous organic shapes! Can't wait to stitch back into this!!

Studio Day.........March Progress

I spent a day in the studio with an artist friend yesterday; we did some monoprinting and discharge dyeing – We probably didn’t’ achieve half as much as we’d hoped but had a fun day! Thanks Lynda! She’s very talented! You can find her new blog here….

Simple Monoprinting on book pages and over the top of an old lino print.

Some discharge dyeing on black cotton.

We used foam and wood blocks to stamp on the bleach.

Progress on my Flaming Heart piece. I've used variegated DMC stranded cotton to outline the tiger lily flames! (From an upcycled vintage doiley)