I made print paste mix yesterday to get ready for screen printing, as it’s best for the mix to sit 24 hours before use; it’s just sodium alginate, water and some urea. I’ve read several recipes that call for 8 Tablespoons of sodium alginate per gallon of water (a whole gallon is made because it stores well in the fridge); however, this is what the paste looks like with those proportions:

Yep. Very runny for a paste that you’re supposed to actually drag across a silk screen. So I added sodium alginate, increasing my total number of Tablespoons to 11:

And while it thickened some more after this effort….it was still too thin. I’m going to add 14 Tablespoons next time and see if I actually get a paste.

I then cut out some stencils of human shadows; I had this idea of creating fabric of the silhouettes of a man, woman and child to represent the different people hurt and killed at the shooting:

I settled on the shapes of a girl and a man; although it’s not my intention, I think this creates a more sinister feeling, and ultimately this may be very good for the piece, given the subject matter.

Here are the freezer paper cut-outs ironed on to the back of a silk screen:

Here’s my “outdoor studio”: plywood on top of sawhorses makes for my work space, and the patio table is my work area. Check out the wildflowers in the background!

Here’s one run:

Unfortunately, the freezer paper stencils didn’t stay ironed-on to the silk screen; they remained in place for the first run, then started remaining stuck on the fabric midway through the second run due to the wet conditions and the thin print paste mix. I just carefully unpeeled the stencils and stuck them back on the fabric. Here’s what the fabric looked like, wet, after 4 runs. I seem to remember from past practice that the fabric really can only absorb the dye from 2 runs, possibly 3 but not much.

I should make it clear that I have poor screen printing technique, and that I do all kinds of short-cuts and chaotic things while I print:

Here’s the finished fabric; it’s pale (I used very old dye to see if it still worked, I used Procion MX cold water dyes I’d mixed 4 months ago and left in the fridge, just to see how they’d perform:

I think the shadow idea worked well; the shapes are distinct. I like the colors, too, but I think I’ll mix fresher dye next time:

Today I took the day off from work, and my mom and I hiked along a trail west of Tucson, the King Trail, which starts directly across from the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum and goes to the top of Wasson Peak; we didn’t go all the way to the top, just did a 5 mile loop. Here’s a great shot of my mom:

There are giant pockets of poppies and lupines all along the trail:

I couldn’t believe how bright red-orange this Globemallow plant was; usually, the Globemallow I see in the city is a dull orange: this is crazy bright, with purple lupines in the background:

More poppies, looking down from the trail as we head back towards the car; you can see the trail we hiked in on here if you look to the top of the photo:

Here I am taking a short break and simply enjoying all the flowers:

This is either a wild onion or wild garlic; I’ve never seen this in the desert before, just cultivated:

This is another flower from the mallow family; it was the first one we saw on the trall–a small planet with a single flower– but a few hundred feet up we saw small bushes with the same flowers:

I’m sorry to say I forget the name of this flower. I think I’ve photographed this before and possibly it’s in a prior blog entry, my mom’s hand is there for scale:

All in all, just a fantastic trip; one thing great about Tucson is how easy it is to get out and in nature super fast. The trail is just half an hour from my house.

In my quest to develop proficiency in making a good danish dough, I went to Sonoita today where my mom graciously shared her danish making skills with me. She made a sweet dough earlier that morning; a sweet dough is simply a simple bread dough with butter and eggs that is NOT kneaded. This is a 3# sweet dough recipe that will make 28 cheese danish, or 28 croissant:

5 Cups flour, 1 cup scalded milk (cooled), 1/2 cup warm water, 1/2 cup melted butter (cooled), 1/2 cupt sugar or honey, 3 ggs, 1 teaspoon salt (I think 2 teaspoons of salt is better, but, this is my mom’s recipe).

Place melted butter and cooled milk in a large bowl. Add 1 cup of the flour, 2 Tablespoons fresh yeast and 1/2 cup warm water; let rest for 20 minutes in a warm place. Then add sugar, eggs, salt and stir till smooth. Add all the flour and work into a smooth dough. Do not knead. Refrigerate overnight, though just for a few hours will be OK in a pinch.

Take half the dough and roll out into a 2 foot wide, 1 foot high rectangle (the shape below is not a very good rectangle, it’s an oval, but you get the idea); then take ONE stick butter and a cheese knife and slice the butter over one half of the rolled out dough:

Fold the dough in half over the butter to make a smaller rectangle, then fold the new smaller rectangle in three:

Roll out this new small rectangle into another 1 foot by 2 foot rectangle…

…then fold it the same way and roll out again:

Then cut the dough so that you have 4 rows five inches wide, then cut 5 inch squares from these rows.

In a separate bowl mix cheese filling: 1# cream cheese, half a cup flour, 1 Tablespoon vanilla. Place 2 Tablespoons of filling in the center of each danish square. Brush all four corners of danish square with egg wash, then bring 2 opposite corners to the center and FIRMLY press down to seal. Do the same with the 2 remaining opposite corners to create a danish:

I made scrappy little croissants out of the leftover pieces of dough:

Set danish on a parchment lined cookie sheet and let raise, covered, in a warm place about 40 minutes:

After raising they should look bigger, and if you look closely you might see the dough bubbling a bit:

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Here are our danish!

Yum.

Well, it happened. I started knitting and spent ALL OF JANUARY on the above sock, which still isn’t finished and it’s February. I’ll finish the foot this week; I’d like to post a photo of it completely done in 48 hours. While I enjoy knitting, I miss making art. It’s been a while. Hopefully not much longer. The hiatus is painful, but the knitting is not. I hope the next sock goes faster! I’m using one circular needle for the sock, a technique also known as “magic loop knitting”.

I haven’t knit in years. I think the last time I had a project going was when my mom was in the hospital 3 1/2 years go; her recent stay (see last post, she went home yesterday) made me go through one of my many yarn boxes and find some needles and yarn. I thought I’d try and remember how to do short row shaping, and I made a little short-row swatch as a reminder-project while I was with my mom at the hospital:

Short rows are good for sock heels and shaping at the hips and bust of garments; I suppose the above shape is self-evident towards this end. There’s a great tank-top pattern and short-row tutorial here; I did have to check it one night to make sure I remembered how to do it.

I’m worried that I might start knitting socks or something. This could be dangerous.

I made macaroni and cheese and brought her some for dinner tonight. No generic elbows for me, though: this dish had Vita Spelt penne pasta, Welsh cheddar with shallots, shitake mushrooms and a generous dollop of butter and milk.

If you’re stuck in a hospital, home cooked food tastes pretty darn good! I had some myself.

Yes, that is duct tape (circa 1958) holding the old shower in place. No wonder it always wobbled.  I should send this image to the duct tape people as a testimonial to how long this stuff holds up. It was still sticky!

Here is the new shower, set considerably higher I might add; my old shower was for midgets.

Here’s the very cool and curvy tub faucet…

And here’s my tub, scrubbed nice and clean and white; I didn’t have the tub re-glazed as it’s held up well. Plus I’ve heard re-glazing involves very stinky solvents, which would certainly give me a migraine.

This is the view from the hall. I just love the tile, which is porcelain from Italy. The small white tiles are glass.

Eric from Absolute Installation tore out my old green tile from 1958 and put up my new tile. Several bricks fell out of the wall during the process (good thing this is a double-wall house) and he mortared them up just fine. I asked him to place random inserts of the small square white tile, and I just love the way it turned out. Even smaller tiles in the same color frame the window and the 2 small corner shelves. Eric was very professional, things were always tidy after he worked, and Bearbear just loved him. I wholeheartedly recommend him; it’s hard to find people who do great, honest, artistic work AND whom you can trust to have in your home.

I put a magnet on the back for added utility; here it is stuck to my sewing lamp:

The base, in theory, will sit on some flower petal shapes:

Here are the shapes, the one the top is finished, the other three need to be sewn and have the bit of batting stuffed inside:

This is the painted rayon/silk fabric that will be stuffed with batting and stitched around the base to resemble something faintly round and will be stuck in the pill bottle top:

Since I have no bulk polyfill, and since today is a no-car day for me (bicycle only) and since I have no interest in pedaling to the fabric store, I chopped up some fusible polyester batting I have gathering dust (why would I ever use polyester fusible batting?) and I think a handful of this stuff chopped will provide an un-lumpy pincushion stuffing.

Pressure is on. Pincushion exchange is in 3 days! I just hope mine will measure up. I don’t want to have the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree Pincushion.

I got some ideas for this pattern from this excellent (miniature) pincushion pattern:

http://www.craftstylish.com/item/945/how-to-make-pretty-pincushions/page/all

As if cutting the felt wasn’t hard enough, gluing it on took for-ev-er.

This is what is really hard about being an artist. If you quit art making for any period of time, getting back into the process takes baby steps; and only after a few baby steps does the routine return.

More pincushion tomorrow.