Archive for March, 2011

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Colorful Fabric Dyeing Results

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

This post will mainly show some of the fun, colorful fabrics that I dyed in the past week. I usually use paint because we have a well that is not very reliable in the warmer months. Right now, there is still snow on the ground, and with the melting going on, all the springs are running full tilt so I am playing while I can.

Windbreak Trees March 24, 2011

This is what had me in great need of some “Color Therapy”. This was what it looked like heading up the driveway last Thursday after another snowstorm on Wednesday. I started ripping fabric, scrunching it into containers, and squirting on colors while the snow fell. Thursday was the first wash-out day.

4 Yards in Dye Pan

The above photo shows one of the first batches soaking in soda ash.

Multi Color Yard 1

Here is one of the pieces from the first tub…. As you saw in the earlier photo, I just randomly squirted concentrated dyes onto the scrunched fabrics.  This is only one of 4 pieces from the first sweater sized tub. The next few pieces that I did were sample fat quarters to see what the colors I had would look like.

Cerulean Blue and Fuchsia

Fire Red and Cobalt Blue

Mixed Blues Quarter

The above piece is a mix of 3 different blues. Some of the blues ended up nearly the shade of the sky in the first photo.

Spring Green

1 Yard Brights 1

This and the next large pieces were done in the same tub. I used less colors and kept them clearer by not overlapping them much. For the green, I mixed yellow with a couple of the blues, then added it. The above photo was randomly scrunched, while the lower one was sort of fan-fold scrunched on the diagonal, then packed into the tub.

1 Yard Brights 2

Mediums Yard

The piece above was scrunched similarly to the previous one, but I diluted the dyes before adding them so the colors would be less intense.

2 yd Plus Mediums

This piece above is over 2 yards that was scrunched into the bottom of the sweater size tub. I used diluted dyes for this one, too so the colors are similar to the one before it. I was trying to get a lot of different “garden-like” areas to play with. I had to lay this on my bed to take the photo, so it is hard to see all the details.

2 yd Brights

This piece above is another bright one that I expected to come  out  much different… I guess that is one thing about fabric dyeing, you don’t know for sure what you will end up with until the fabric is completely rinsed and dried.

Fuchsia

Here is a piece done with Fuchsia, the way I scrunched it into a small square container allowed it to be deeper in some areas and much lighter in others.

Fire Red Quarters

Here are two pieces done with Fire Red. The lighter piece was scrunched and placed on top of the first piece so it got less dye on it.

Yard Spring Green

This piece is a color that I am hoping to see outdoors someday soon…. Some bright springy green would be a nice change from the white snow and brown mud…. At least I have been able to play with lots of pretty colors indoors while waiting for the gardens to bloom again.

Once I finish another big day of ironing, I will have more pretties to show. I have even dyed up some sad looking towels to give them new life as well as some white shirts and tops… A great way to update the wardrobe.

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Playing with Inktense Blocks Part 3

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

It’s been a while since my last post about my Inktnese play…. Today I finally finished a batch of ATC’s made from my test pieces. Before I show the finished cards, I will show how things went when I tried the blocks on a cotton sateen fabric.

Cotton Sateen Sample 1

Right from the start, I did not get the results that I had expected. Since the sateen has a smoother surface with a bit of a shimmer, I thought it would have less bleeding trouble…. Just the opposite as the photo above shows. As soon as I got a little water on the pencil or block marks, I ended up with color bleeding badly. The intensity of the color was also not as good as it was with the cotton muslin. Before I did too much more, I decided to try coating the fabric with thinned acrylic medium in the hopes that the coating would reduce the bleeding.

Cotton Sateen Sample 2

Amazingly, the coat of medium thinned with water to the consistency of cream, did not cause more of the color to bleed on the florets I had first colored. Once the first flowers dried, the color seemed to stay in place nicely. Once the fabric was dry again with the medium on it, I ironed it. Now when I added the Inktense pencil and Block colors, they both went on much more smoothly. When I then used the blender pen to wet the color, I had no bleeding and the colors were more intense than on the untreated fabric. Lesson learned….. The left and top two smaller florets in the above photo were done before I added the medium coating. The florets middle and right are the ones I did after the fabric was coated.

Comparison

I really liked the way  the Inktense Blocks and pencils reacted on the medium  coated fabric. This photo shows the first piece I did on the right, and the one on the sateen on the left. This was just before I wet down the background colors of the new piece. I wanted to do the two pieces nearly the same way to compare. As you can see, I ended up with the colors a bit different on each piece, but I learned a lot working with them.  On fabric, when using the Inktense blocks or pencils, coating the fabric with acrylic medium first lessened the tendency for color bleeding. On the sateen, the colors were also more intense on the pretreated fabric.

Delphiniums Stitched

Both of the sample pieces were destined to become Art Cards for an upcoming exchange. I fused the fabrics onto Peltex interfacing, then added some free motion stitching with a deep blue rayon thread. I also added a bit of texture and interest with white pearlescent paint and a touch of black in the centers of each floret that faces forward.

First Piece Cut

This photo shows the first piece cut into 6 art cards. I ended up adding the butterflies with the Inktense blocks with pearlescent paint over them to fill in the empty looking areas.

Sateen Piece Cut

Here is the second piece cut apart into 6 more cards. More butterflies added here, too.

Delphinium ATC's Group A

There is what the cards look like after I couched a blue variegated yarn on the edges using the deep blue thread. Group A above, Group B below…

Delphinium ATC's Group B

Now that I have these done, I will be doing some more playing with the Inktense blocks. I am seeing what I can do with just the blocks in my sketch book…. I am trying to use just the blocks with my blender pen. The corners of the blocks do well for fine lines, and then I can fill in with the ends. If I can get used to only 12 colors and how to blend the colors I want, it will be great to just keep my tin of blocks, blender pen and sketchbook by the couch for evening sketching or to travel with.

I will be moving on to playing with dye on fabric for a while… With our latest snow storm and more white on white or mud when the snow melts, I need some serious color around….

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Playing with Inktense Blocks Part 2

Thursday, March 17th, 2011

As promised, here is part 2 of my experimenting with Derwent Pencils New Inktense Blocks.  In the previous post, I showed a Delphinium flower stem colored with the blocks.

Delphinium Flower Dry

This is the Delphinium on white cotton fabric after it finished drying. The color lightened a tiny bit, but is still nice and bright.

Inktense on Paper

Before I played with the blocks on fabric, I did a little on a sketchbook page. The photo above shows a few Delphinium florets that I began with. The upper right and middle fully open florets were done completely with the Inktense Pencils. The other florets were outlined with the pencil, then the blocks were used to fill in the petals with the color. I used the same Deep Indigo and Sea Blue with tiny touches of Fuchsia. I added all the colors dry, then dampened with my blender pen. There is not much difference, but the florets done only in pencil show more “sketchy lines”.  You can see the direction I drew on with the blocks and used the blender pen, but there aren’t the distinctive pencil lines. (A more experienced pencil artist could probably get a less “sketchy” look with the pencils, but the blocks made things very easy for a relative beginner like  me.) You might be able to just see the faint, still dry Fuchsia color I added to the background by using a long side of the block with very little pressure. I was doing an experiment before doing the background on the fabric piece.

Water Over Dry Inktense

The next experiment I did was over part of the drawing on the fabric. I wanted to do a wash of color for the background, so I added some plain water with a brush over a small section to see what would happen. With fabric, colors will run very easily. There was very little bleeding of the blue into the white background, and all I did with the pencil and blocks was to wet it with the blender pen. (Just ignore that funky green below the flower, the fabric  was a “printing failure”… the paper backed fabric jammed in my printer, leaving just a strip of the image and a few black streaks here and there along the sides.  Mistakes on fabric are just opportunities to do something else with it.)

Dry Cotton

While the test area dried on the first fabric piece, I decided to play with another piece of fabric… Here is the white cotton I began with.

Wet Cotton

The fabric sprayed with water and smoothed onto an acrylic sheet to begin like I would when painting my fabrics with acrylic paint.

Adding Sea Blue

The Sea Blue block rubbed over the wet fabric…. I had a sky of sorts in mind….

More Colors Added

I then did some passes with the Fuchsia block and more of the Sea Blue, hoping to end up with some lavenders when the colors mixed. I added the greens available in the 12 block tin to see if I could get some mountains….. None of the greens are near what I usually use, so some over-mixing will be needed. This is a “guinea pig” anyway, so a perfect place to play….

Water Brushed Over Colors

Above is what the piece looked like after I used a very wet half inch brush over the Inktense colors. There is also a nice brown in the set that I used in some of the lower edge areas. By mixing the Apple Green and Leaf Green in different ways, I got colors more to my liking. I think I also added Apple Green over some of the Teal Green that in the beginning really looked out of place.

Colors Blended More

Here is what I ended up with after a bit more blending and adding a tiny bit of the Sun Yellow to the horizon. I did a bit too much blending in some areas and started making “mud”, but like with the paints I usually use, I never know what the dry end result will be…..
This morning, this is what the dried fabric looks like. The areas that were too bright dulled down a bit, and I like the look better. I am not sure if this will become a finished piece in it’s entirety, but if not, it will work nicely for part of a book cover or something else. I LOVE how easy it was to do this…. I didn’t need to pull out my paints and brushes that I haven’t had out in a while. All I needed was the fabric, acrylic  sheet, Inktense Blocks, a spray bottle, little cup and  a brush. Very little clean-up needed. This will be super for coloring up small pieces of fabric needed for various projects.

Background 1 Added

Back to the Delphinium piece…. The test area dried with next to no bleeding, so the next step was to add a light bit of the Fuchsia block used on it’s side. I only wanted a wash of color,so kept the pressure on the block very light. You can see a couple of streaks at odd angles due to some extra “stuff” under the fabric that was on my work table…. A clear table is hard to keep in my studio.

Water on Part

This photo above, shows the top half of the piece after I brushed over it with a sloppy wet brush. I had to take the paper backing off the fabric because the paper was curling badly…. another lesson learned…. The pink color was very light, except where a corner of the block rubbed harder, or whatever was underneath caused a deeper streak. The water was brushed over everything, even the previously colored flowers.

Fuchsia Used with Water for More Color

I wanted a little more color, so I used my brush on the block of Fuchsia to pull color into my little cup with a little water to make some liquid color to add here and there.

More Colors Added over Wet

Here is the piece with a little bit of Sea Blue and Teal Green added to give more interest to the background. This photo was taken before I did more wet brushing over the new colors.

Fabric Dry Adding More Flowers

This photo above shows the fabric dry again, you can see how there is just a bit of mottled color for the background. I decided to add another flower stem next to the first one.  This one is going to be lighter, using mostly Bright Blue. I began as with the first one with the pencil for the outlines.

Adding Leaves and Stem

I drew in the leaves using my Ionian Green Inktense Pencil for the outlines, and filled in with the Apple Green and Leaf Green blocks mixed to get the shade I wanted. The photo above shows the leaves still dry.

One Leaf Wet

This photo above shows how the colors change with the addition of water. The right leaf has been partially gone over with the blender pen. With a bit of “scrubbing” with the pen, I was able to blend the two shades of green blocks.

New Flower Done Damp

This photo shows the new flower stem after the petals were filled in with color and dampened. I mixed a little of the Deep Indigo with the Sea Blue and tiny touches of Fuchsia on the petals while the pencil was dry.

Done Dry

Ta-Daaa! Here is the piece fully dry this morning. This is destined to be chopped up into ATC’s for my exchange group. I was amazed how little color bleeding I got from the deep blue flowers when I brushed the water over them to do the background. I did blot a couple of spots, and found a few areas that some of the color transferred to my paper towel, but most of the previously dampened and dried color stayed in place. I will probably play with covering the fabric with different acrylic mediums to see what happens. I love to play with the pearlescent, and wonder what a little gloss over the top will do…. More play time needed :)

Hopefully I will have another update tomorrow or the day after…. An errand running afternoon is ahead, so I have no idea what the body is going  to do when I get back home.

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Posted in Dyed or Painted Fabric, New Projects | 8 Comments »

Playing with Inktense Blocks Part 1

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

I was amazed a while ago when I left a comment on the Facebook page of Derwent Pencils for a chance to win a tin of their brand new Inktense Blocks, and WON!! I was one of five winners, and my new tin of fun arrived over the weekend.

Inktense Blocks Tin

I spent the weekend with a nasty fibro flare, so I didn’t do anything with them until yesterday. I got a design drawn out on some cotton fabric backed with Wonder Under with the paper backing, making it easier to draw  on…. Today, Tuesday, I finally cracked open the plastic seal on the Inktense Blocks.

Inktense Blocks Opened

This month’s theme for the “Arts in the Cards” ATC group is Indigo… anything goes that uses any shade of blue. My first thought was Delphiniums, of course…. I love them and they come in so many great shades of blue. I first drew (actually traced an enlarged drawing) a Delphinium stem lightly in pencil, then outlined the flowers with my Deep Indigo Inktense Pencil. After outlining, I went over the Inktense with something I have had lurking in my supply drawer for well over a year….

Blender Pen with Inktense

In the above photo to the right of the colored pencil is what I found works super for wetting the Inktense pencil, causes minimal bleeding on the fabric, and is so much easier for me to use than a tiny paintbrush with water. I bought a set of blender pens at a Stampin’ Up! party for Scrapbooking. I first intended to use the pens with my water soluble wax pastels (I also bought colors of those I didn’t have yet that were demonstrated that night). Due to the creative block problem, I had not even opened up the box of  3 pens I bought until now.

Blender Pen with Inktense Pencil

As you can see in this photo above, the blender pen has a nice sharp tip and is easy to control. You can see how the color of the Inktense pencil intensifies when water is added to it. My first attempt at using my pencils with the Chickadees was a real learning experience. It took a lot of time to reload the brush with water and(or) medium. The blender pen fed a constant supply of water to the tip…. It was just like tracing over the pencil with a felt tip pen.

Blender Pen Over Inktense Pencil Outlines

This photo shows what a section of the Delphinium florets looked like after they were outlined with the Inktense pencil and then dampened with the blender pen. I finished all of the outlines, then allowed the fabric to dry. The Inktense pigments are permanent after they have been totally dissolved with water, then dried.

Inktense Blocks Sample Marks

Once the outlines were dry, the fun began with the Inktense Blocks! The new blocks are the solid pigment, without the outer wood of the pencils. They look like, and can be used like pastels to add color to a project. I made a few sample marks to get a feel for how the blocks would work. I began with a swipe with the full end of a block, then drew a line using a corner of the block. The block used in the above photo was the Deep Indigo, the first wide one was pressed harder than the second wide one. It looks nearly black when dry, and the first marks I made left a few crumbles as the edge was smoothed up. I brushed off those loose bits into a little cup.  I will show what I did with the “crumbles” later….

Inktense Blocks Added On Fabric

I used the end of the block to fill in the petals with color. I didn’t add too much to start, so I could test the waters, so to speak.

Adding Water to Inktense

You can see what a difference the water makes with the Inktense pigments. The first lines that I colored and dried stayed in place nicely, and it did not take too long to really brighten up the flowers. The blocks are great for coloring larger areas without getting the “scribble” lines I always end up with using the pencils. Using the blocks on cotton fabric is a little more challenging than smooth paper. The weave of the fabric grabs the pigment from the blocks, causing some streaks and more color to be laid down where the backing paper had wrinkles, too. “Scrubbing” a bit with the blender pen helped to move the color to where I wanted it.

Blender Pen on Inktense Block

Another way to use the Inktense Blocks is to treat them as you would a solid watercolor paint. I wanted to add a bit of purple to the flowers, so I used the other tip of the blender pen (each pen has 2 tips) like a paint brush to pick up some of the pigment to accent the flower petals.

Adding Fuchsia with Pen

The above photo shows the Fuchsia Inktense added to a floret. I had already added a bit of Sea Blue over the Deep Indigo to vary the color in the petals more like they are in nature. The first streak or two of the Fuchsia were a bit intense, but with a bit of work I was able to blend them in a bit.

Two Florets Colored

This photo above shows two of the florets fully dampened with all 3 colors used. The rest of the florets have just been colored in with the dry blues, ready for water.

Inktense Crumbs in Cup

Ahhhh…. back to the crumbs…..  I brushed the crumbles into a bottle cap and dropped a bit of water onto them. This is another way the Inktense Blocks can be used…. They can be grated and mixed with water to make a liquid watercolor paint. To play with my flowers, I just added a drop or two at a time and used the blender pen as my brush.

Delphiniums Colored

The final photo for this post…. I used the crumbs mixed with water to add more color to the petals. There were crumbs of both shades of blue, so that helped to even out some of the streaking I ended up with. The upper florets were still damp when I took the photo and looked a bit deeper than they ended up. The lower ones that are quite light hadn’t been painted over with the liquid color yet. I will let this dry over night and see what I decide to play with for the background… I am not sure what color I will try yet….. To color in the large background area, the blocks can be used along the long edges to quickly lay down a lot of color. I am toying with the idea of using a very light touch of the Fuchsia for a pale pink background that will add a cast of pink over the flowers, too if I just go over the whole thing with the color… I plan to add a bit of pearlescent paint to the floret centers, so losing the white there will not be a problem…. Tomorrow I will try to have another update….

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Posted in Dyed or Painted Fabric, New Projects | 6 Comments »

From Spring and Summer to White?

Monday, March 7th, 2011

This is definitely proving to be a winter like some we used to have quite regularly…. The worst storm of the winter decided to pop up quite unexpectedly yesterday while we were exploring the beauty of Spring and Summer in Philadelphia.

Delphiniums 1

Yesterday was the first full day of the Philadelphia Show. We ended up going there as a last minute decision, and were expecting to meet Marla and a granddaughter or two. We didn’t get to see the granddaughters, but spent some nice time with Marla.  The weather forecast was calling for heavy rain all day, and we left home in rain, some quite heavy on the way to Philly.

Fallen Roses

The Philadelphia Flower Show is a Huge, Beautiful show full of displays of flowers and gardens of all types. This year’s theme was based on Paris, so there were many Parisian inspired displays. One of the first big ones we saw was this display of roses that had toppled due to someone (or more) touching the outer ring of roses. It looked like a horribly challenging thing to fix with crowds of people watching.

Pink Table

Here is part of a display of very opulent tables perfect for a wedding… I loved all the pink…  I will post a bunch of photos and not too many words here:
Oops!  If I would get the captions with the photos I wouldn’t have to write so much…. This is a beautiful Yellow Lady Slipper Orchid.

Wild Display

There were even weeds in this display… It was a natural looking woodland walk.

Can Can Dancer

There were 4 displays done like this… The dancer image is made from various items including cut up cans to create the shadow.

Bed of Roses

Not sure how comfy this would be, but it was beautiful!

Funky Lilies

I just HAVE to find out what variety of Lily this is… I am pretty sure is is a Lily that seems to grow like and Oriental or Asiatic by the looks of the foliage.

Pitcher Plant Flowers Maybe

Here is another one for researching… The plants these flowers were coming from looked to be Pitcher Plants… I have never seen flowers like these. There were yellow ones in some other planters, too.

Rock Garden

The plants in this planter were placed between thin slices of rocks placed on their edges… a really neat idea! I love the tiny Alpines growing here.

Pink Hellebore

There were lots of Hellebore plants in many of the displays… this is there usual blooming season. Another “I want”.

Floral Fashion 1

There were 4 parts to this display… Each had a floral arrangement that depicted gowns on mannequins.

Botanical Prints

A very large display of watercolor and colored pencil botanical art pieces really got me thinking that I need to start sketching and trying this myself…. I love these and would love to be able to do some of my own….

Tulip Vases

Very Elegant, simple vases full of Tulips… So pretty with the narrow metal bands curved throughout.

Rose Ring Fixed

On our way out of the show, I was able to get a photo of the Rose display that had toppled over earlier in the day.  The photos shown here are only a few of the 270+ I took… There are many “flops” due to my camera and the very low light at many of the displays. It was a very crowded day, but it was great to be able to wander through the flowers and plants in the displays since things have been pretty white here at home.

Philly in the Rain

When we finally left the city, the rain was pouring down…. Made for a few interesting photos, but it was not raining all the way home. After calling home to see how cold it got, we found that it had been snowing much of the day here….

Ice Covered Tree Half Way Home

It was spooky enough riding in a car on busy highways in the pouring rain, but things changed…. The photo from downtown Philly was taken about 6PM…. at about 8:20, the wet road turned into a slushy road, and the rain turned into sleet. We stopped for gas where this tree was covered in icy slush.

March 6 Snow Storm1

Fortunately, Ken is a much better driver than I am as a passenger… I spent most of the ride home gripping a door handle…. We passed a lot of big trucks that were not able to climb some of the steeper roads, but we were able to slowly keep going. Each town we got to meant we were that much closer to home. We had heard that our county was under a state of emergency, but we had no place to go but home…. The main roads actually were better once the slush and ice had turned to snow and frozen roadways.  Most of the main roads were plowed, but when  we got off them, we were following tracks made by others. The road we live on was the spookiest…. drifts over it, not plowed, wind whipping, but Ken was able to get the mini van all the way to our driveway!

Bird Houses When Home

Ken got the van off the road, just into the end of the driveway and we ended up  walking down it. We were not prepared for a 1/4 mile trudge through drifts of all sizes and gusty winds…. When we left home it was warm and raining. I had my duckie shoes for the mud when we left, but they stayed in the van…. My sneakers were warmer than they are and easier to walk in. I was lucky to have taken my gloves and always keep a quilt or 2 in the van. With no hat, I wrapped in the quilt. Ken had no gloves or hat, and carried our bunch of curly willow purchased a the show in the hopes we can get some to root. I don’t see well in the dark, and we had no flashlight, so I followed Ken’s tracks. Some areas were blown clear of snow, but there were some drifts nearly butt deep, not fun, but we were not sure how close we would get to home, so only walking the driveway was better than some options.  The first snow photo above shows our tracks to the front step. The other is one I tried to take of the bird feeders, but the snow was falling so hard the flash caught the flakes the most. Pretty interesting shots.

March Blizzard 1

With all the snowing and blowing, we had no idea what things would look like this AM…. Well, here it is…. No tracks can be seen where we walked in, and the large planters that line the walkway are totally buried in snow. To the right you can just see the front corner of Ken’s big van…. A pretty big drift beside that.

Deck Steps

The deck has quite a bit of snow on it even with the roof, and this is what the steps look like…. I remember the guys purposefully packing snow on them to make a sled ramp when they were at home. It is a ready-made ramp now…. The pool rock pile is nearly fully buried,too.

Outside Greenhouse Door

Here is the view out the greenhouse door, with my short handled broom to give an idea of the snow depth. The drift between the door and the Lilac bush is 3-4 feet… just guessing….

Tractor and Van

See that tractor nearly buried in the snow?? Poor Ken has to dig it out so he can use it to dig out a path to get the van out of the way of the pickup, who’s plow is not on right now…. It was only to be a rain storm with maybe a couple of inches of snow at the end….

Pickup and Alberta Spruce

The Dwarf Alberta Spruce out my studio window has a really neat pattern of snow on it, and you can see why the tractor will be needed to get the truck out…. The tractor will have to be used to dig a path before the truck will be able to get to where the plow is buried and then to get it out of the driveway.

Cardinal at Feeder

I guess with the tons of snow, the Cardinal wasn’t as spooky as he has been… It was a bit tricky catching a photo with the feeder twisting in the wind with the bird clinging to it. It will be a while before I get a path to the feeders, so for now I just tossed some seed out onto the snow…. The birds approve. I had to knock snow out of the deck feeder before I could fill that one.

Blackbird

I don’t think the Red Winged Blackbirds expected this… He was very happy to have the tossed seed.

I thought I would be posting photos of slightly greening grass with the rain taking away most of the snow that was on the ground…. I guess not yet….

I am so glad I got to see Spring and Summer flowers yesterday…. Back to reality today….

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Posted in Flowers and Gardens, inspirations, Landscapes and Skies | 4 Comments »

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