Notes in Response

Wow! Shocked I am by your response, Fiber Jedi!

Would Yoda say, 'Wow' ? Fozzy Bear (also voiced by Frank Oz) says it rather emphatically. But not Yoda. Somehow it seems so unwise...worse than uncool.

Yes, I do have a teenager now. The voice is mostly changed and there's an armpit hair (note the singular). He'd simply faint with embarassment if he read this. Mother's revenge! And I also am now officially married to a 40 yr old. It's been a busy fall. I'd now like to skip menopause and get right to 'wacky granny', please.

For the non technicians: please don't give up dying because you saw this project. This project is the antithesis of Melody Johnson's blog post, Lazy Dyer So popular (and helpful) is this vintage post that she has it linked in her side bar. Keep in mind that over the past 7 or 8 years I've made lots of great solid and multi colored fabric by the seat of my pants. I've even taken on a few custom dye jobs that required color matching. The eye is still a powerful artist's tool. And dying with no plan is great fun!

Batik artist Arnelle Dow is probably most responsible for my drive to make a bazillion teensy dye samples. Here's another picture, and one more. Yes, that really is batik. I want that deep understanding of color layering! And I want it yesterday! It will further my Evil Plan to Rule Planet Earth Through Fiber. Yes it will, boys and girls.

Now for the techie part. For starters, check out Dyers List. Members of this list include novices, pros, and a few chemists. Carol Soderlund is on there, too. Another good source of informations is Paula Burch's webite. Until Carol publishes a book, there's very little written on this particular experiment. I could say 'nothing written' but it could be out there and I could be wallowing in ignorance. There's plenty written about the dye process. Paula's webite has some book reviews.

Here's what I know:
-I work by weight. Meaning: the amount (in grams) of dye I use is proportional to the weight of my fabric. This has saved me much dye powder, therefore much $$$. Happy, happy!
-My lightest color was .25% Weight of Goods (goods=fabric), my darkest 6% WOG. According to the lab folk at ProChem, for unmixed dye colors, anything higher than 6% doesn't show much color change (dark-darks like black are the exception).
-A yard of Robert Kaufman Kona Cloth weighs about 165.6 grams. A two inch square weighs about .4 g
-I used 36 ml water for each 2" square. How I arrived at that volume is a mystery steeped in the secrets of blury-eyed, late-night reading. If a 2" square weighs .4 g, then 6% of that is .024 g. Therefore I'd need to mix .024 g dye into every 36 ml water. With the goal of making a concentrate, I needed to mix the same amount of dye into 12 ml water. Using larger numbers makes measuring easier, so I called upon the math faeries and ended up mixing 3 g dye into 1.5 liters of water. In each cup requiring 6% WOG, I'd add 12ml dye stock and enough water to equal 36ml. If the cup called for .25% dyestock, I'd add .5ml dye stock and enough water to equal 36 ml.

This is where my eyes glaze over, roll back into my head and the convulsions begin. And this is also where I'm hesitant to give out much direction. Everyone's equipment is different. Everyone reasons differently. Shoot--my balance scale and my electronic scale don't even agree. And I tend to make quantum leaps in my brain, leaving me unable to explain how I drew a conclusion. What's written above probably has Texas-sized holes in the logic. Then we could address the issue of what is Carol Soderlund's intellectual property and how much I may be stepping on her copyright toes.

So, I recommend you buy a good scale, find a calculator you like, and read-read-read. This is challenging, but it isn't Boolean Algebra. You can do this.

Or, you can win the lottery and take the class ;)

The Deal

So, here's the deal: Several years ago, I began to dye fabric for sale, choosing to model my work after Ann Johnston's book 'Color by Accident'. That was fun for a season, but then the honeymoon began to wane.

See, the thing about selling fabric to the masses is that, unless there's a sugar daddy involved, making accidents can be kind of expensive. I'd say 20% of my work was truly fabulous, 40% was seriously mediocre and 40% was complete crap that I couldn't even put out for sale. There is overdyeing for the 'C.C.', but believe me...I have plenty of that by now.

I needed to find a way to bring category #1, "Truly Fabulous", into a higher percentage. After much reading, studying of all kinds of fiber artists, etc.... I'd concluded that I should study with Carol Soderlund to learn as much as I can about layering colors and how dyes work together. Buuuuuut...

(Oodles of Complete Crap+No Money Ever) x (Can't-wait-until-June-200?-for-the-class) = Taking a stab at it all on my own.

So, here goes:

Lots of itty-bitty cups containg dyes and 2" squares. See my teenager trying to veer out of the lense? He was my minion for this project. And a fine minion he was, by golly!

I'm waiting....

AND waiting....hate the waiting. Waiting is eeeeeviiilll.

Evil waiting's over and some squares laid out in order:


Then rinsed....


Then stuffed into a ripped up pair of kid tights:


And put through my usual rinse-hotsoak-finalwash:


Finally glued to cardstock:


Now, here's why I (ahem)...I mean...'You' should pay the stupid $ and just take the class with Carol:
-She's already done the math----there was lots of math. And though I love math, my brain was floating in a sludge of numbers by the end.

-Teamwork. This project was a ton of work (according to the 'backache' scale). It took me just as long to cut and glue all the little squares as it did to do the math and get them dyed. In Carol's class, because of teamwork, you accomplish 3 times as much in half the time.

-Mistakes and Safety in Numbers. There are some mistakes on my pages, places where the colors don't grade quite as smoothly as they should. Because I was dyeing such small pieces, dye was measured in tenths of milliliters. One little accidental drop of red could mess up what is suppose to be pale mint. In Carol's class, you're making more fabric per color and there's more room for error.

The good parts:
- I got some of the knowledge I needed right now.
- I tend to be someone that works best with my own systems (kind of a blockhead that way) and have never been a great 'taker of classes'.
- I needed an intense distraction from Christmas. Love the holiday, hate the expectations and the work.

So there you have it. I'll probably do this again now that I've done it once. And as seen in the previous post, I've already begun to apply the knowledge.

Hey! I live! There are witnesses. Some of them recieved fabric for Christmas:



To avoid getting ready for Christmas, I made a dye sample book (will show that tomorrow). And when I realized the 'gift preparation' time had been sucked up by my gigantemous dye experiment, the light came on! I could use my new...and seemingly useless....knowledge to make gifts! Hurray! See? I wasn't really procrastinating after all. I'm a genius.

And just where have I been anyway? Well...being a hermit. Between April and October I travelled waaaay too much, tried to make toooo many people happy, started and abandoned a bazillion projects. So now, I'm home...being quiet, peaceful and attempting to stand in one place for more than 10 minutes.

Enough of that. Back to the fabric pictures:

Other People's Work

I've been officially reminded by several friends that today marks 1 month plus one day since my last post. There. I've stated the shameful truth, now let's gloss it over and move on!

Last night was crit group. We don't have a name yet. We don't have officers or rules. We don't care. But! We *DO* work. Actually, some of us just came back from the Fabrications retreat where we took classes with Laura Cater-Woods and Ellen Anne Eddy.

First up, Sharon. Here's a piece she finished up. I just love the color palette--so subtle and soothing.



Nextly, Deb. This is the beginning of Deb's beginning. She is transitioning from 'starving entrepreneur' to 'starving artist' and this piece is her first in a long, long time. Can't wait to see it finished. Go, Deb, Go!!


And then Linda. She started an embroidered chameleon in Ellen Anne Eddy's class and also made a stamp of her face that I think is just cool.



The background fabric is made by Ellen Anne Eddy and I'm jealous....not because I don't own it, but because I didn't make it. Call me 'nutty'. This is the wrong side by the way. I believe Linda is still bobbin drawing at this point.

Here's the right side:


And Linda also made this groovy stamp from an old photo of herself. How cool is that?


Now we have the other Linda (seen above with the first Linda). She made this thing she calls a 'fabric kaleidescope'. It's two seperate layers, joined at the center. The top layer can be rotated to reveal different prints in different holes. If you study the pictures, you can see I've rotated the wheel a bit. Is it not clever? What a great idea for a child's gift. Actually, forget the kid. Just give it to me (I was mesmorized).




Sandy brought this piece in progress. Great contrast.

She had another fabulous piece, too, but I, the Mighty Super Spec, screwed up the picture.

As for me, I'm just happy to be sitting still. The Fabrications retreat signifies the end of a year that has been mostly travel for me. Now that the retreat is over, the only travel I forsee is to buy groceries. Perhaps there will be some light Christmas shopping that forces me to drive 30 miles or so. Otherwise, I'm happy to be boring at home....at least for today.

It's done!

I'm Super Spec today: facing impossible challenges against all odds. Consequently, this won't be too wordy.

Here's the fabric of the moment, fully painted, waiting for washout:


The sheet underneat is cool, too. I'm planning to use a length of cotton, prepped and ready as my undersheet next time (in about 10 minutes):


Shot this on the clothesline for a full view. It's breezy today. The photo's a bit washed out:


And a bit closer:


That's it for today! Super Spec must fly away.

Color!

Here's what happened Friday morning:


Followed up by a little:


Now, I'm not intending for the background to be yellow. I want it to be green....with yellow lines. So, I'm trying to think of this like a batik project, where there's a gradual build of color.

And I also have a lot to learn. Some people let their fabric dry, others cover it and let it batch:

I felt good about this except that when I took the plastic off, the resist lines were tacky. This was worrisome to me. And then, the fabric took forever to dry. I probably could have left it uncovered and been just fine.

The other lesson I learned was this:

The Dreaded Crocking!!
The color from the petal wicked across the sheet underneath my fabric and then placed color on the other side of the resist line. It didn't just bleed through the resist line. I'm really a closet silk painter, but am too lazy for all the fuss that silk painters put into their prep. Often there is great care taken in attaching the fabric to a frame, so nothing is touching the table. This prevents Dreaded Crocking, even though too much paint will bleed across a line. I suspect allowing the table to dry out completely before adding the petal color would have prevented this. Or maybe more thickener in the dye....that would have made a difference. Either way, I'm calling it a happy accident.

And now, the reveal:


I still have another layer of resist and a final layer of color before this piece is done. Will issue a full report at the end!

Table: The Maiden Voyage

That's right. I had to whip out some fabric and lay a hurt on it:


Up until the birth of my print table, I'd been doing this kind of thing on 4' x 8' sheets of foam insulation. Getting the pins to stay in was problem A. Keeping the sheet from bowing while stretching fabric taut made me absolutely crazy. So, imagine my delight when the pins stayed where I pinned them---without sinking into the surface or popping out at the worst possible time---and the fabric stretched like a dream.

I put the last pin in and broke into a fit of geek-snort laughter. What is that? Well have you seen the commercial for identity theft that ends with the line, '...my Girl robot,'? A nasal-y, throaty 'hee, hrr, hee', interjected with well placed snorts. That's geek-snort laughter. And tonight, I was giddy with it.

Now, what's going on with the fabric? It called for a little corn dextrin resist, so I broke out my trusty:

...and whomped up a batch of hot dextrin. It's lumpy, I know. But can you really expect me to use a seive in a moment of evil genius? No! Thank goodness there was one T-pin left over. It served well as a squeeze bottle unclogger.

Now I'm waiting for the dextrin to dry. After that, there will be a layer of dye, some drying, followed by more dextrin and dye. It's fabulous in my head. Let's see if it ends up that way.

One last view of the design:


Until tomorrow....
Funky C.

A Table is Born

Welcome to the birth of my new PRINT TABLE!! Yeah, I'm yellin'. Just a little excited here.



Features include two storage shelves, a vertical bin on the end for storing silk screens, 4 wheels, two of which lock. The table is 4' x 10', big enough to print 3 yards at a time.

Here we have the elves adding the oil based paint, two coats please:

Painting done:


Then, two layers of plain ol' felt from JoAnn Fabrics, wrapped and stapled:


Finish with one layer of unbleached cotton twill (denim), wrong side up:


And Voila! I'm cookin' with gas.

Moving On....

Are we all tired of the Scary Clown Girl picture yet? Me, too!

So, for a change up, let me introduce you to Harriette:



Harriette is my ride. She takes me everywhere I want to go. She's not so easy on the eyes, but full of interesting quirks....just like me. AND! She came from my friend MolliB who purchased her to prove that a woman can own her own car. So, Harriette reminds me daily about Girl Power. Who could not love such a car?

Anyway, Harriete has driven me to Paducah, Kentucky, home of the AQS quilt show. Above you can see her parked outside the Museum of the American Quilters Society. Below, Harriette is visiting Paducah's amazing Flood Wall.



I am not really in Paducah to pay homage to quilts, or to shop, or any of that. I'm in Paducah waiting for this (see picture #3):


...to reveal it's contents. My sister and her husband have made a baby. And I think that's waaay cooler than any quilt I could ever produce.

All My Love,
Funky C

Star Girl

The things I do for kids that come to vacation Bible school:



But then, my husband superglued a bone to his nose. Don't even ask!

fiberliciously yours,
Funky C