Category: Art Projects

Thermofax Blooper

I picked up an old thermal copier a while back; once artifacts lingering in old public school Audio-Visual closets–next to the overhead projectors–these things are now in high demand by fiber artists (they make silk screens) and tattoo artists (for design stencils):

I got mine on Craigslist for $200.

For a very clear and lucid explanation of how/why you’d want to use a thermofax for fiber art, read this blog post.

Anyway, my machine seems to work fine, and I just made my first silkscreen from a black and white photocopy, here it is:

Since this was just a sample, I made a quick “frame” with duct tape:

And here it is, outside with some fabric and dye paste; but when I made my first attempt at a print, all I got was a rectangular blob of dye paste on my fabric.

I won’t both showing you the blob. I think the problem is that my black and white copy from the copy shop isn’t toner-based. If you don’t use a carbon-based black-and-white original for the design, the thermal copier won’t be able to bind the image to the silkscreen mesh.

I’ll have to try again.

Post-Grasslands Adjustment

I’ve been very tired this week; last weekend–closing down the Grasslands–was exhausting. I’ve been busy moving stuff around my house to accommodate the art and dry-goods I took from the bakery.

For example, all my books were once on this wall…

…but I moved them to this corner to make room for the art my sister gave me, when the Grasslands closed, and which now needs a home.

Then, in what I hope is an exciting turn of events in my quest to make frames for my art–especially the new paper laminations I’m making, which I don’t think look great in a traditional quilt binding–I found a deal on Craigslist last Tuesday while I was just browsing. The ad had just been placed for this mitre trimmer….

which can be best thought of as a kind of paper-cutter for picture-frame-sized wood, as it trims already mitre-cut wood to a smooth finish, and…

…the same folks who had the cutter also had this picture joiner, which is a handy way to clamp and staple–with v-nails–the mitre-cut frame wood:

I’m going to give these a shot tomorrow I hope! Almost ready to get back into the art-making.

Fabric Auditions

I dyed some fabric after work today; my goal was to get a good yellow for the border of the Desert Marigold quilt, and a good fuschia for the penstemon quilt.

The penstemon fabric turned out better; this is what I think of as a good audition. The fabric on the left with the gray turned out very cool:

The yellow turned out….not so cool:

I was trying for a pale-ish yellow, but it got too pale; if I have time, I’ll over dye these fabrics tomorrow. I used lemon yellow, but may use a gold yellow for the next go around.

Presenting…My Newest Laminations

Here are the finished silk/paper lamination collages: my camera flash reflects a bit of glare from the center of each piece. I use a matte gel medium for the lamination, but even a matte finish seems to generate some reflection.

Now…time to piece on a border and quilt. But I’m going to have to dye some fabric first. These are #3 and #4 in a series, and I want each piece to have a slightly different color border. Not necessarily an easy task; most desert wildflowers (at least, the ones in my yard that I photographed!) are on the yellow or pink spectrum.

There are a few violet wildflower outliers, like my favorite desert lupine (a dwarf lupine compared to lupines from more lush climates)…but they aren’t as common in my neighborhood in the spring. I’ve seen acres of them out west on the Tohono O’odham reservation, but in my own backyard I see maybe one every other year.

So. I’ll need some variety in my yellow and pink borders for this series. I think maybe I’ll dye the yellow and pink fabric for these pieces with a bit of gray shot through, to pick up on the black-and-white photocopies in the background.

 

Silk Scrub-a-thon

Today I laminated the collages it’s taken me all summer to make. Clearly, the long, hot days really got to me this year!

Here are the Desert Marigold and Penstemon collages, with silk organza pinned very tightly on top.   I silk-screened each piece with acrylic gel medium. You can see pics of this process elsewhere on this blog.

Once the gel medium is applied, you need to let the silk/paper set just a bit, 10 minutes max, and then quickly take out the pins and pull the pieces off, otherwise everything gets stuck: the gel medium is strong and dries super fast. It’s easy to rip silk organza if you have to exert too much force pulling it away.

I got rust-proof pins last time Joanne’s had a half-price notions sale: this way I can take the pins out, put them in a small tub of water to get the gel medium off, and drain.

Once dry, each silk/paper piece needs to be ironed on the hottest setting, slowly, with baking parchment. That’s Bruce Bochy walking out to the mound.

Then you have to soak in cool water for about 15 minutes….

…and then you first pull, rub and then scour all the paper off.

This is the wet paper I pulled off; it’s the size of a baseball:

How do they look? I need to press them; but not now! You’ll have to check in later tomorrow to see, but the results are pretty good this time. 🙂

(Desert) Marigold Madness

The picky shredding and ripping of paper continues at my dining room table; these are my most recent results, the product of 2 re-runs of The Closer and a few major league ball games:

It is a bit tedious and I’m getting a bit tired of the limited color palate. I figure I need a couple more ball games (about 6 leisurely hours) and I’ll be done.

Desert Marigold: the 4th of 5

Feeling better. It’ll be a while before I complain about having my usual aches and pains, after this past weekend when I could barely walk! I mean, I’m used to being achy AND having some mobility. So I can at least walk around and complain at the same time!

This is the sketch for the 4th of 5 collage pieces I’m working on, all featuring desert plants/flowers; this piece is going to be 19″x23″. The sketch will be filled in with ripped up photocopies of photos I took of desert marigolds in my yard this past spring. The photos that inspired the basic shapes of the flowers, and which are the basis for the collage, are also shown in the photograph above.

I’ll start ripping tomorrow!

Collage is Done!

Well, this is the completed collage. It took an Act of God to get this done; the last few days have seen me hobbled by a subluxated rib, which is a type of dislocation where the rib articulates (or, fails to articulate) with the joint at the vertebrae, which has some cartilage . Very unpleasant business. I even called in sick which I never do (I don’t ear enough time off!).  It was a struggle to glue down a few pieces of ripped up paper every day, sigh.

But it’s done, time to either start a new collage, or laminate this to silk organza! I don’t think I’m up to much activity; so ripping up paper may be all I can do.

Hope to start a new collage soon…