Engagement gifts!

Recently I had a nephew get engaged.  Oh, it was on that special day of 12-13-14!  

In my day, we got sexy underwear as engagement gifts but I knew not to try that one!  I searched Google, like all of us, for what to give an engaged couple.  Mostly the answers were that no one gives gifts now.  However, Martha Stewart mentioned that if one feels the need, favorite recipes or a good cook book would be a special gift.

That was  what I needed to put me into motion.  Using recycled plastic bags I created a book cover for a notebook.  I copied the recipes from the Lancaster County Jewish Community Center cookbook.  Not only was this a favorite cookbook, it has family recipes, friend's recipes and isn't available to buy anymore. 

Here is the finished cookbook!

And here is a scrap of the recycled book cover.  This is fun to do and certainly quick and easy.  Just use a coolish iron to melt the bags together.  I did cut the pieces of plastic to create a balance of color. The trim is dyed selvedge from my scrap pile.  I stitched it on the plastic and glued the  completed cover on the inside to the notebook cover. So easy, can be wiped and looks nice!

A gauze scarf

What to do on a cold snowy day in January?  I have several silk gauze scarves.  I dyed them but they lacked body and interest.

Here is the scarf - very delicate to say the least.

   I had an idea!  What if I put this scarf between two pieces dissolve able paper known to me as Solvy.  I then put some dyed silk hankies on it and silk roving - on both sides.  And I pinned it all together.

Two days ago I decided to start stitching it.  I spent more than two days stitching it.  I thought I might run out of thread but I had just enough.  I used two different colors thread.  I knew that all the threads had to touch or it would fall apart when the Solvy was dissolved.  This took hours upon hours!

 Completed Machine Stitched with Solvy

Today I rinsed out the Solvy.  I love it.  It has a lot of texture and interest.  In the bottom photo, the silk hankies are visible, whereas the top photo has just the silk roving in different colors.  The edges are mostly the gauze scarf.   Available!  

A Holiday Gift! A Clutch Bag!

The Keene Art Tour is Nov 8 and 9 from 10 am to 5 pm - this week-end!

I have some new work to show.  A few nice clutches:

Here is one which is a textile collage!

The top is black velveteen. Of course it has a zipper, too.

This quilted clutch is created from my hand dyed and hand painted fabric.  

Also, the eco printed  upcycled blouses will be available.too.

Stop by #14 to see these in person.  

And exhibiting with me is Carol Corliss.    She does lovely pastels.  

Jody Halliday will have her creative jacket, too.

See you soon!

Eco Printing Paper - Just the beginning

After much experimenting and several steam baths, these are the handmade papers printed from my favorite leaves.

The leaves are from the sugar maple trees. They print on silk really well.  Not so well on paper.  I had to brush alum mordant on the paper twice before stacking them into a bundle.  The brown edges are from some wild mushroom growth I purchased a local farmers market.  It dyed silk very well but didn't keep its color on the paper. Good lessons to be learned.

This print is ok.  I printed this one twice.  It is obvious by looking at it.

What I didn't photograph are the papers which printed some live eucalyptus leaves which I found at a local florist.  Those prints were very pastel and the leaf print is boring - no detail.

Now, what else to do with these. I have been thinking about it all day!  

Gradation Dyeing of Cotton

For several years I have created yards of fabric that have been dyed in gradiation of color.  I used black which is the sum of all colors.  Photography shows it slightly brown. In reality, the color ranges from light grey to a very dark grey and green.

 From the bottom, this is four of the dyed pieces, the lightest value at the bottom,  They are 9 x 45 in size.  When I surge them together or sew them on the machine, I get interesting effects.

Here is part of a skirt I surged together.  The skirt has a zipper.  It is my simple design but I love it.

This is the skirt back.   There are more photos on my Etsy shop.

Etsy again!

  It is time to try old things again!  My friends all tell me that Etsy is where it is at!  So, today I have posted two upcycled blouses on my Etsy site.  Take a look and see what you think!  I will try to keep posting new art to create more interest.

I particularly like these two blouses.  The photography does not do them justice.  The local vegetation has so much color now that it is very inspiring.  I am collecting every day!  No wonder I found a worm spinning a nest in my art studio last week!  

This is the beginning process of eco printing on a silk blouse.  The leaves are still pliable.  I find them in my driveway!

Here is an upcycled silk blouse using the sugar Maple leaves, Sumac, carrots, etc.  One never knows what the final colors will be.  This was very purple before it was washed.  The Sumac leaves which are quite yellow in this photo were very green when they came out of the steamer.

Currently, these blouses are being sold at the Walpole Artisans Cooperative.  I will also have some for sale at the Keene Art Tour on November 8 and 9.

Beautiful Fall Colors

It is very fall like here in Northern New England!  As the leaves turn, there will be less and less vegetation available for eco printing and dyeing.  The Sugar Maples are wonderful for Eco Printing and I am fortunate in that my neighbor has this beautiful tree right next to my driveway!

I really don't like to clean up the leaves but look at this pile of color!  I will scoop them up!Today I will create some silk printed blouses to post here on my blog.  Right now, they are soaking in an alum mordant solution.  I will also be walking around Keene today so that I can harvest some rhubarb leaves, purple petunias, marigolds, etc.  All of these will yield some interesting results.  I already have my purple cabbage, blackberries and carrots.  No wonder my refrigerator is so full! 

Birding! Come see the flock!

Aren't these birds wonderful!  All created from hand dyed fabric!  That means one of kind, made just of you.

Stop by during the Keene Art Tour in Keene, NH on May 3 and 4 to see the birds!  Yep, they are for sale, too.

The Keene Art Tour in May!

The Keene Art Tour is this week-end.  It is the first time we are doing an art tour in May.  The weather is predicted to be good.  It will be a great time to walk around Keene, NH!

Super Soft Silk Purple Dyed Scarf or Shawl.  It is truly a lovely feel.

Lots of textured Scarf which is Cotton/Linen.
It is stitched shibori dyed in blues.

Beautiful colors in this lovely silk scarf.

Any of these and/or many more will be available this week-end on the art tour.  Perfect for Mother's Day!


Jody Holliday will be here with her lovely jackets, handbags and hats.  Stop by at 103 School Street, Keene, NH 03431.
See you Saturday or Sunday!

New work!

While I was in Mexico I decided to draw on fabric with markers and pastels and see what happens.  I love this look.  I used one of my upcycled blouses which happens to be a nice summer linen blouse.  The look is great!  Machine washable.  Size small.  Email if you are interested.  It will be available during the Keene Art Tour, too.

Artist Residency in San Miguel, Mexico

I am just finishing the works I started while at the Simple Choice Farm in San Miguel, Mexico.  I spent 9 lovely days there, exploring various mediums, doing some plein air watercolors and seeing the sights for photography.  It is an artistic city! The weather was perfect.  The sights inspiring.  This little house was mine for the 9 days.  It was fully furnished and quite spacious.  Spring was just arriving there.  The flowers were just beginning to pop.

Here are a few photos of the sketchbook I did.  All of the photos which are in the sketchbook were printed using the DASS digital image transfer which gives them an interesting look.

Digital Image Transfer

Watercolor Plein Air

This is the cover of the sketchbook.  Recycled trash bags!

Jean Paul Gaultier at the Brooklyn Museum of Art

The Brooklyn Museum of Art is host to the fashion of Jean Paul Gaultier.  If you have an opportunity to see it, run, do not walk.  This show started at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art and will be traveling beyond Brooklyn.

The show is fabulous.  Any artist would adore this inspiration!  Many of the mannequins have animated faces and actually speak.  It is a little weird to be winked at by a mannequin!

 The techniques and materials for the couture range from fabric to ribbon to beads to crochet to feathers, etc.
His trademark,of course, are his pointy boobs!

 This "lady" was next to me in the museum.  He dressed for the occasion, wouldn't you say?

Some of this exhibit included menswear!  I chose to buy the book.  The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier. There are so many fabulous photos and so much inspiration in the book.

Prior to going to Brooklyn, I went to the FIT Museum to the exhibit about Queer Fashion. This dress is by Versace.  While it was relatively small, it was well worth my time.  FIT never disappoints.

And so, on this snowy very cold day, I off to create!  The inspiration is overwhelming.

Keene Art Tour coming up next week!

On November 2 and 3 there will three artists exhibiting their work at my studio/home.  Kyle Stuckey and Mary Ann Knapp will be joining me.  Kyle is a painter/artist.  Mary Ann is a polymer clay artist.

Keene Art Tour will be from 10 am to 4 pm both days.

I am a fiber artist!  Here is one of my textile collages.  And all of this will be at 103 School St in Keene, NH
next week.  See you here!

River Valley Artisan Tour this week-end - along the CT River, NH

The River Valley Artisan Tour is Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 4 pm each day. Artists will have their studios open both days.  All the Artists are within 10 miles of the CT River on the NH side in towns such as Chesterfield and Westmoreland, NH.

There is an opening reception at the Westmoreland Town Hall on Friday night from 6 to 8 pm.
I will be at 995 Route 9 in Chesterfield, NH.  Carolyn Kemp, who does lovely baskets and watercolours has her studio there and invited me to join her.

Hope to see you there.

Eco Printing on Silk

What to do with all the decorative cherries the trees are dropping?  We have a tree which is very full of these cherries. Very full may be an understatement!  This photo is after we have collected 6 large trash bags of cherries!

Using some cherries in my eco printing of silks, I have some very subtle pinks in my fabric.  The others are maple leaves which my neighbor's tree is sharing.  Flowers, plant leaves, etc all make their mark.

The most interesting part of this printing process is seeing which mordant leaves the best images.  Mostly I prefer soy milk.

Sometimes I steam my silk with the mordant and found objects and other times I choose to let it batch for a few days.  The results are slightly better when the steamer is used.

This printed silk is the same fabric as the one above.  The biggest difference is that I did a thermofax discharge before its first eco printed bath.  These two pieces of fabrics are from a thrift shop blouse.

Organza Room Dividers

When the last curtains died (they shrunk and looked terrible) I decided to make some room  dividers that would give us more light and allow the heat and AC flow across the room.  I purchased some inexpensive organza and washed it.  I am pretty sure it is polyester.

Because a section of these dividers had to have some privacy I dug out old maps.  Before I did anything I used a cheap hardware store brush and thinned the gesso with water. I then applied the thinned gesso to both sides of the maps.  I used 2 or 3 maps for each 4" section of the dividers.

After that dried I applied a thin coat of raw sienna, also thinned with water. 

I wanted a little more decoration so I found some old stamps I created.  On each side of the map, but off to one side, I stamped this rose pattern.  Note the imperfections  (The blue is the map).

Next I laid out the organza and put the maps where I wanted them. I used Golden Matte Medium and my old paint brush and started applying the Matte Medium.  Two coats all over the map and organza.  When it was dry - overnight - I folded the organza 

at the top so my curtain was 7" top to bottom and 4" wide and applied 2 coats of Matte Medium on each side, being sure that the maps were covered completely.  The Matte Medium sealed the maps in place.

After it dried for two days, I hung it on the curtain rod which has clips.  If it is uneven at the bottom,I just trimmed it off.  There is some flexibility. They will not fold back the way a curtain will. But they will slide and bend a little.The dog walks "through" it all the time. 

The light shines through.  The heat and AC go through it.  And we can have guests and our bed is hidden!

Hand dyed skirt!

Skirt

I did a gradation of black dye panels and that sat here as I pondered.  Finally I decided to stitch them together as a gradated set of black dyes.  There are some additional colors and patches as 2 yards of fabric isn't enough for length!  This photo is the medium values of the gradation.  The black dyes do not really dye a dark black which is fine by me.  They are a blue black.

Here are two other views:

Notice how the side seam brings the lightest and darkest colors together!
The skirt is a circular one. Perfect for summer!

Interested?  Send me your waist, hip and length and I will make you one!  $125.00 and you will have it in just three weeks to wear.  If you want to sew the fabrics yourself or just want to purchase the 8 panels (each is 8 to 9" wide by 45"), that would be $50.00.  Shipping included!

Next up, a blue one and a green one.  How I love green!

64 Miles Exhibition at the Cheshire County Historical Society

Save the date!  Everyone is invited to the opening night of the 64 Miles exhibit at the Historical Society of Cheshire County on Main Street in Keene on July 19 4:30 to 6:30PM.  Can't make the opening?  The show will be up until September.

The Ashuelot River

This exhibit is about the Ashuelot River between Washington, NH to where the river meets the Connecticut River in Hinsdale, NH.  64 miles.  The effects of this river on Cheshire County are enormous: industry, recreation, power, Army Core of Engineering, floods or none, ice fishing, and more.

The more than 40 artists were charged with creating art which represents various parts of the river in one of the four seasons.  90 works were submitted.  There is also a preview at Brewbaker's on Main St.

For this exhibit, I printed a digital image which using a special transfer process, transferred the image onto cloth which had been mounted onto a wooden box frame.  After it was dray, I painted parts of the image to create more intense lights and darks.

About the fabrics I used.  I painted a silk organza which I mounted for two of the images.  The top image here, was transferred onto a rust dyed and over dyed silk habotai fabric.  This fabric emphasis the rust and gold colors of the image.  This image is of an Army Core of Engineer's dam between Gilsum and Marlow, NH.

I love this process.  I am enjoying the photography, some image manipulation and working with all the mediums.  I am curious to see what others will think.