30 March 2014

Batik play date with Judith

I have been pretty sick these last two weeks but I've had a (pleasantly) surprising upturn. So what does that mean? Call Judith.

Yes, we had a ball yesterday and this is what we did.

 First off while I was waiting for her, I made these stamps. One is from clothesline and the other from tile spacers. You'll probably see these in action soon.

This is the green fabric with the wax on. I used basic blue dye.


This is a turquoise piece with the wax on. I used grape dye.



Wax and dye - my favorites



Does this look like an exotic tropical animal?



Green dyed blue

 Turquoise dyed grape.


 Orange red dyed fuchsia 





This last piece was a really ugly tray dye. I used two of my favorite batiking tools, my square sponge and my famous potato masher. Oh, I see the bong bong too That is the coiled wire egg beater that looks like a spiral.
This one was very difficult to figure out what color to dye with so I tried for an olive/brown. I LOVE it.



We had great Thai carry-out for lunch and walked along the beach at low tide collecting rocks, shells and sea glass, just before she had to leave.  The end of a perfect day!!

And last but not least, Judith forgot her scissors so I am holding them hostage til she returns...


17 March 2014

more creative fun


 Round stamps

 Square stamps


oil pastels with a watercolor wash



Raven flying stamp


14 March 2014

Rubbings and stamps

I took tracing paper, vellum and sketch paper and made some rubbings from stamps that I had carved. The next day I used stamps inked up with black acrylic paint and stamped on them. Here are the results.





I particularly like this raven head stamp which I carved then did this rubbing.



On the upper right is a "continuous print" stamp rubbing of feathers with a feather stamp on top of it. In the center is the same "continuous print" stamp rubbing in turquoise color brique with the stamp of the feather in green metallic acrylic paint.


12 March 2014

Very Cool Video

I saw this on the Quilt Show newsletter. This was their blurb:

Be Mesmerized by Thread and Needle in Motion
What takes:
10,000 photos
1 km (350 reels) of thread
73,000 embroidery stitches
6 kg of fabric scraps
100 needles and sewing pins . . . and is not a quilt? 

Check it out here

10 March 2014

More creative fun

This "bookmark" was made when I was trying to use up some paint on a roller I had been using to make create images





This was a quick sketch I made in the hospital waiting room. That song had been rattling around in my head and the first person I saw in the hospital said "Good Morning"



I made this quick sketch with chalk. This was before spraying it with fixative a.k.a. hair spray.


and this one after spraying. It didn't affect the color much but did stabilize the chalk.



I know, I breed dust here. This is  cute girl done in clay and copper wire in the sunshine.


Here she is in indirect light. You can't see the dust as much. She is on a chop stick.



This head was done in clay and fired in a kiln with a glaze. Doesn't it look like Keith Richards?


Two dust covered children. They are probably calling for help from the dust fairie.


I tried to make prints from this not realizing I had used very flat corrugated cardboard and not mat or box board so it wouldn't print. All that effort with no prints but I liked it enough in itself to save it for my viewing pleasure.

05 March 2014

Creativity from this last week

Quite a long time ago I made a crow out of shiny packing tape. I tried to make prints of it and it worked to a degree. I ended up just keep the "original". This is a bookmark I made with plain beige masking tape and covered with black acrylic paint. I waited a while and rubbed the paint off the tape portion.



These were permanent ink pen sketches





This one with colored pencil


And this one with a watercolor wash


This is a sketch of a clay bead I made and fired in the kiln with this partial glaze. I have always like it. I made quite a few beads of heads. I'll show you next week along with the packing tape crow "original".