A Big GEE Whiz!

The above greeted me at my place at lunch yesterday. Mike had been to the post office to buy stamps, and apparently saw these, and got them for ME!! What a guy. He bought himself some boring flags to actually USE. So I get to keep mine just to look at, if I want. Wasn't that nice of him?

I may use half of them - there are ten different images in all - so I could keep 10 and send 10. But I think I'll just keep them awhile. I do that sometimes. Somewhere around here I have a big sheet of Oregon Trail stamps, from back when they were lick & stick. I bought them around the time we moved to this house, I think - so they're about 20 years old. I can't even remember the denomination, but it's absolutely nothing relevant to today's postage rates. However, I'm searching for them, so I can use part of the image in a quilt I will be working on this fall. No, I'm not going to copy the image, but I do need access to a clear, small map of the Oregon Trail. Just goes to show - you never know when those packrat tendancies will come in handy!

And in other news...... I am becoming very discouraged about my schedule. I was hoping after yesterday's court that I'd start having a little more free time. But NOOOO.... I'll have less, since the judge and the department are pushing these parents to have more time w/their kids, but none of it unsupervised. And since I'm the supervisor, it means I'll be spending nearly 40/week with them, plus my other case, plus my other job. So when do I think I'll be able to create?? Egads! When do I think I'll even be able to SHOWER????

Rust is the Rage

ALL the rage, in the textile world. Or at least in the one I am mostly in. Marion rusts, Kimberly rusts, Sue rusts, Alice rusts ...... others rust. And now *I* rust. Or at least my fabric did. I did a minor experiment with rust-dyed fabric this weekend, and while I can't say that my results are spectacular, they're OK for a first-attempt, with mostly found materials (translate: $0 cost!).

Here are my pictures of the resulting fabrics. I used a rusty rooster ornament from a couple years back's flower garden, and an "antique" (so he says) door roller that Mike found somewhere. And I created:



The last little piece looks like it was wrapped around a rake. There's a very good reason for that: I found a rusty old rake head out near the garden shed and wrapped cloth around it, too. The other 3 pictures are using the above mentioned rooster and roller. Apologies for the mangled appearance of the photos. Blogger and I don't always see eye-to-eye on things.

The fabric I used on these pieces was just an old cotton bedsheet I purchased at Goodwill. Cost all of 50 cents, probably. They sell the all-cotton ones for less than the $1 poly-blend sheets, cuz they figure you'll have to iron cotton. HA! silly them. But my primary observation about rust dyed fabrics? They stink. REALLY stink. And now my hands do, too, even after washing them twice. I can still smell rust on them. I hope the fabrics get better after I wash them, or my rust-dyeing career is going to be the shortest in history.

We went to the State Fair this weekend, and of course moseyed thru the quilt display. The winner of Pride of Nebraska utilized rust-dyed fabric as a background for silhouettes of windmill blades done in pastel colors (roses, purples, mostly) The background appeared to be overdyed with a golden color - not a pure procion, but a mix of something. It was a simple, but very effective quilt. Then I picked up an issue of Belle Armoire at B&N - I stopped subscribing a year or two back, and now only buy it if I see something in it I want to read. This time there was an article on rust-dyeing. HUH??? It really IS all over the place. There also was a feature photo in the readers gallery in the back of some rust-dyed scarves. SEE??? I just keep running into this stuff. And THEN.... to top it all off, when I came home and started to do laundry, right there in my own washing machine was a rust-dyed t-shirt that Mike had done!!! Well, no, not on purpose, but still.......

Happy Holiday!!

And it IS a happy one for me! I actually have 4 (FOUR!!) days in a row off. Well 3.5 days, actually. And so this morning, I pulled a little piece off the design wall that has been languishing for a couple of years. I sanwiched and quilted it. It's working title was "Land Turtles", and I think I can just leave it as that.

The piece is a very simple one - the turtles were printed using a styrofoam plate which I cut to shape and then incised with the lines that form the design of the shells and appendages. I sponged on setacolor, printed, sponged on some direct painting, then scrounged the bin for hand-dyed and commercial cottons, and zapped it together lickety-split. Two years ago. And now it's finally quilted and bound and OFF THE DESIGN WALL. It's cute. It's fun. I like it. And most importantly.... IT'S OFF THE DESIGN WALL!!! Not visible in the picture are FMQ spiral turtles in the big mottled rectangles. I suppose I could take a detail shot.... but I'm not gonna. You can just guess what they look like. Spiral turtles. Not hard to imagine at all!

Now, on to more serious (or not) work or ideas. I started a little quilt not long ago that will be an abstraction of yucca against a coppery sunset. It will be consturcted from one of the Games in Diane Hire's book. (see earlier blog posts). And then, if I like it as much as I think I will, I'm going to turn around and do another one, maybe a little bigger, maybe a little more sophisticated, as an actual art quilt, rather than just as a technique-tester.

This past week has been spent (between my work schedules) finishing up my entry for Doing Small Things. After the online exhibit is posted, I'll do a blog entry w/ a picture and talk a bit about it. The challenge was interesting to work on - very thought-provoking - and I'm anxious to see all the entries.

So - the turtles are done. Mike has been working on the front porch with some repairs he contends WERE necessary. They weren't so necessary before he got the fancy new air nailer and compressor. I guess I have to trust he knows what he's talking about (and doing). There have been some mighty horrific and suspicious noises coming from that direction. He's scared the cat into hiding, and who knows when we'll see her again. I'd say there is only room for improvement... but at least before he started this "project", the porch WAS attached to the house at all appropriate points. Well, hopefully it still will be.

An Extremely Pressing Matter

OK, I have something that I think could really add up to a good thing. It's that

THIS












PLUS THIS











EQUALS THIS












Now you may ask: "what the bleep is she talking about??" But it's that I VERY recently acquired a dry mount press. And that said dry mount press not only laminates and/or presses documents or transfers on t-shirts.... if you leave the heat off and insert a lino cut and some cloth it makes fairly good block prints, too!! Up to 1200 lbs of pressure is something this tired old body could never dream of achieving on its own with a baren or brayer.

The green print is my virign piece - a hastily cut lino (wonder-cut material) on plain cotton with setacolor emerald. Now, THAT really is a virgin. I don't like emerald, and I'm not crazy about the wondercut or my design, or my lack of registration, either, so here's hoping my next foray will be exponentially better. Can't be much worse, right? In the next few days, I'll run prints of a couple of collagraphs I have already made up, but have never had decent muscle power to print effectively. It will be so interesting to see how they turn out with a "real" press.

But as for my machine - It's a wonder to behold. The platen is 15X18", so a 12X18" lino plate can be inserted and used as a two-across image repeat to print a whole fat quarter. I also will be able to print 12" plates onto cloth (I like square formats better than rectangular). And if I ever feel the need to transfer my own t-shirt design, I'm all set up. I could also use the press for sublimnation (disperse-dye) prints if I want, and I have a hunch I could even fuse with it, as it gets up to about 350F. So that's my newest cool tool - for $40 at a rummage sale, it's not too shabby!

Clocking Along

Yes, I'm still nipping away at getting my life into some kind of sane (or saner) order. The past few weeks have been busy with work - distressed families eat up a lot of time for workers like me.

BUT.... I'm still trying to get other things accomplished, as well. I was able to get a design wall constructed in my studio this week, and as I get time I'll take a picture of it. Right now it's covered with WIP's and so I'll snap a pic of it "loaded" and then perhaps of it again as I "unload" project by project. Expect that update in a couple of days.

I ordered some Yupo today - synthetic paper. I just wish I could remember why I wanted it. But I'm sure it will come back to me. Pretty sure. A little sure. OK... I have NO IDEA if I'll ever remember again why I wanted it, but if ever I *DO*... I'll have it!!!
Th-th-th-th-that's all folks!!

If I can just make it thru this next little while......

A few days - a few weeks - a couple of months..... it seems that I always have something that keeps me from reaching a horizon. Or at least keeps me from getting to my studio. Right now, it's the last of the garden planting. AND a big-deal Bike Ride www.bran-inc.org that is cruising thru my town for an overnight on Monday. AND a big change-over on my software at the office. All in the next two weeks. So my creative pursuits right now are limited to soil and plants. And a couple little things for the Bike event. [Why did I say we'd do that bike thing? Sheesh..... You'd think I'd learn sooner or later. We're a little village of about 330 people hosting 800+ for 3 meals an an overnight. Too much work for too few workers. And it's my fault cuz I'm the one who said we'd do it - a clear case of too much power combined with too little will.]

We're running about 4 separate meal sites for the bikers, which hopefully will provide enough variety and enough seating to get them thru in good time. So tonight, I'm going to bake several foccaccias for a spaghetti feed, plus 10 dozen cupcakes for a BBQ. Then tomorrow I'll put together a lasagne casserole and a scalloped potato/smokies casserole for the potluck supper, and then I'll make these dumb Burma-shave type signs to put up along the bike route. And Monday morning I'll get up @ 5:30 to go put them out for the riders to see on their way in, and come back home to do cookies for after the cowboy poetry program. Oh yeah - tomorrow I also have to work 8 hours at my second job.

And so that's why I don't get to go to my studio much these days. I'm keeping it cooled, tho, just in case I get a chance to pounce up there for a bit. Today we went to the garden centers (40 mi North) and picked up more ornamentals (geraniums, sedum, salvia, herbs, etc) and I took along a book - The Fabric Design Book by Karin Jerstorp and Eva Kohlmark. I'd read it a long time ago, but kinda forgot I had it on the shelf, so it was nice to skim thru it again today. There are a lot of really interesting exercises in it - some done on cloth, but others as tissue collage, drawings, etc. Just a really good little push-you-into-it design book. Here's the cover:

I think when I have time I'll carve some potato stamps and get out my tempera paint and some newsprint and have at it. Just do some goofing and see what develops. But first... cupcakes.

Low Fiber Diet

That's what has been happening here - could maybe even classify it as NO fiber diet. And that's what it feels like. I've not been to my sewing/painting studio for a couple of weeks now, other than to use it as an alternate TV room. When I don't like what Mike is watching (Nascar), I go up there and turn on my own tv and watch, and tell myself I'm going to do something while a program is on, but then I don't. And afternoons when I'm home, I tend to be outdoors digging somewhere and/or planting something. Yesterday it was transplants: columbine, zinnias and snapdragons. I think this afternoon I'll seed in more zinnias, cosmos, perhaps some hollyhocks. But the hollyhock package says "shady area for the first year" and the spot they'd be going is full sun. I'd also like to plant my gourd seeds - birdhouse gourds - somewhere that they'll be out of our way but still can be watered once a week. So I guess the fence row out back is not under consideration, tho it would be perfect. I wouldn't relish carrying 5 gal buckets of water uphill all summer, and I doubt I could snooker Mike into doing it.

I ordered and received a nice little assortment of "stuff" the last week or so - two big silkscreens, some various-sized textile squeegies, a 10-bottle set of Golden Fluid Acrylics, three different types of acrylic medium. The screens are for the purpose of attempting the polychromatic/deconstructed/breakdown methods of screening dye onto cloth. I have the instructions for the first two, but not the breakdown, tho I suspect it's similar. Truth be known, I'll likely use the EVANS technique - which will be a combination of all information I can garner. I think I have some of the little fill-up dye pens around here somewhere, and wondered how those might work for transferring the dye to the screen - I'll need to find them, and get some dye mixed up. Now to just Do It.

Last weekend we went to our niece's high school graduation - 4.5 hours away (one way) so I had 9 hours of riding time (well, 6, cuz I drove for a while too) to read, and the book I spent the most time with was Off the Shelf by Sue Beevers. I'd not read the words in the book before - only the pictures and captions. It was interesting to read thru her techniques and musings. And I think I'll try some of them (after all, I did get those Golden LA's) - soon. Very Soon.
But first there are the tomatoes and the peppers and the marigolds and the green beans and the sunflowers and the squash and the melons and the rudbeckia and the petunias and the eggplant and the OTHER petunias........