What's cooking!

I'm in trouble. My dear hubby who is more interested in food than I am is looking to preserve the rhubarb for winter.

He is also looking for all the jars. There seems to be a shortage of pint jars.

Anybody who knows anything about science and particularly lab experiments knows you use glass in experiments. 8^) Glass is very stable and besides it is very much nicer aesthetically than plastic food containers. And I'm all about form over function. So I have lots of jars in my dye centre.

The TOM for July was dyeing or fabric painting. I decided to use up some of the old dyes that I had in the jars from a previous dye session. That was some time ago so I just used what was left. I did combine a little of the yellows and the reds. This was very much serendipity. I did the soda ash soak then added the dyes to the fabric as they sat in baggies. I did lots of scrunching as I was after an even colour. I intended to let them sit all day and over night but the bright yellow was making me nervous so before I went to bed I just drained off the yellow but left the cloth in the baggies. In the morning I began to rinse, and rinse and RINSE! It looked like most of the dye was rinsing away but some stayed. Phew! I had done a few pieces of plain cotton and some cotton velvet. The colours are fairly subtle and that is okay. I will remember not to let my dyes get too old.

Oh, and the jam turned out quite nice as well! Actually, it had more colour. Hmm, I shoulda asked for the recipe! lol

Stay tuned for a regularly scheduled announcement!

I just checked my calendar and it is looking like Spring has sprung.

That means I'm going to have a summer to dye for.

I'll finish up this week tieing up a few loose ends in the deco department and I'll review my Focus.

I've dallied inside a bit too long and things outside are needing some serious attention. I can't afford the long hours at the sewing machine so I need to have a whole different set of goals. Renovating my Puttering Shed and painting the Coop are high on the list. So is fabric dyeing, stamping and just plain messing around!

I do find it very helpful to plan my seasonal decor all at one time. I've been fine tuning that a bit this afternoon and I'll be moving thru the rooms again on Fridays in the coming 12-13 weeks. Gee, I hope it doesn't happen as fast as the last 12 weeks.

Technique of the Month

This month the TOM was to paint some fabric with metallic paints. Could be for the purpose of disguising ugly fabric or enhancing any fabric.

A few years ago I took two different dye classes. One was actually dyeing fabric while the other was painting fabric. Now darned if I remember which ones I have here but the first was kinda ugly to me so I wet it and then applied a metallic paint with a bit of fabric medium. I used a foam roller with sections missing. The folds leave gaps and I should have repositioned and added another metallic. This was a fat quarter of white muslin originally.

Then the second piece seemed pretty good to me so I found a stencil to which I applied the metallic paint. Again, a fat quarter.

Aha, this is how you get those layered effects!

Now this is what I learned.

1) I should get more foam rollers as that would have been better to roll in the paint and then on the stencil. Less would have gotten down in the grooves and the stencil would have been clearer when pressed onto the fabric.

2) The bigger the stencil the less mess.

3) Anything with fabric needs to be done in the basement. The mixed media counter area is too small and I am sure glad my sewing table came clean. yikes!

4) This is a lot of fun. I had a bit of a time crunch and lots is happening here in the coop. I will definitely be designating some long summer days to DYE for!

Back to the desert!

Whoa! I hope no one is waiting for a tutorial! Yikes! Maybe magic happens when it dries! Course it has to survive the wash! Oh, my goodness. Actually, oh my dumbness!

I read about Alchohol Dyed Intererfacing on Common Life into Art. No reflection on Kelli at all. Maybe my stuff wasn't right. low alchohol %, wrong inks (?) and definitely wrong interfacing as some of the stuff disolved in the washing. Then there was the stuff that melded to the newspaper! 8>( She did say if too much colour comes out then heat setting wasn't enough. ??? But I am pleased my $3 iron works as the scorched paper shows. (Enter son, sniff, sniff ; "what for supper???) LOL

Then there was a book study for Kelli's Stitch Alchemy book on the Yahoo Mixed Media Art Friends Group. I got a late start but thought to still do it. I did my base cloth and today was the day to saturate it with juicy colour. !!! I started with yellow and thought I'd work around the full circumference of the colour wheel. okay, plan B! Tame that lemon yellow with some pale green! Pea Soup, that's what's for supper. Go away!

Now there are a few more chapters to do. There is always hope because you can continue to add colour until everything is covered. Course it'll take longer to dry! 8~{

This was letting lovely drips run down. How many ways can drips careen down a sheer drop off? Ah, maybe a slope woulda been better! Now there are some lovely splatters on the floor. vbsigh I decided to squirt some soup over here as well.

I have decided:

1) I am messy, VERY messy. The kitchen table is not big enough; the Kitchen is not big enough for me and permanent colour. The basement laundry area is not big enough either. I'm afraid to check my good wool skirt which was hanging nearby nor my accessory shelves at the end of the work table. Any fixed walls may not be big enough. I shall look to the great outdoors.

2) My run down potting shed near the coop will be repurposed for puttering. (I don't really pot, but I can putter with the best of them) I shall do this on warm, sunny days and the chickens can advise all they want.

3) I shall reread some of these directions. Maybe some of my pages stuck together.

4) I'm beginning to think parfait dyeing is really, really easy.

5) Coffee isn't doing it! I may need a bit of the bubbly! After all, it is dry in the desert!