Good to be working

I was happy to be in my studio these past few days. There was so much to catch up with when we got home that it took a few days before I could spend some time working on things. I finished up my second neutral piece for submission for the next High Fiber Diet show and photoed my piece and submitted online for the Oregon SAQA show. I am nervous about that one. My submission didn't get into the last Oregon SAQA show and I felt really crummy about that. I don't know about this one either. I was really literal in my response to the theme and what I am seeing of what some of my friends are working on is subtle. Mine might just be way out of step. But what's done is done and I like it. Photos to come.

So today the deck was clear and I could start to think about all the stuff that went through my head over 9000 miles of views from the car window. First up I knew I needed to over dye some fabric. I need some bruised, storm-comin' sky colors. I've had some great white-on-white striped fabric I've been wanting to add some color to.

Over-dyeing is unpredictable, but I was pretty sure the stripes would take the dye differently. I mixed up what I hoped would be a light blue-green-gray and dyed two chunks of the stripe, leaving one in the dye longer than the other, then threw in a couple of light blue pieces as well. They took a lot more of the dye than the white stripe.

Here's how they looked after I rinsed all the excess dye out. Wet is always much darker than dry. Here's how they came out after they dried and were ironed. The striped pieces are different on the front and back, which is a nice bonus.

The stripes are grayer than I wanted, but these are good, useful colors.

While the fabrics dried I started putting together a small test piece to see if my ideas for some "American" landscapes had any validity.

Maybe.

 

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