The End of the Process

The process of laminating fabric as developed by Claire Benn, has a bigger learning curve than I anticipated. I purchased her book, Paper & Metal Leaf Lamination, read it, watched the DVD and thought about the process. She recommends printing the papers to be laminated at least a week before the lamination process is begun which I did not strictly adhere to and I believe this is one factor that affected the lack of stronger colors in my fabric.

The collage above shows the photographs I began with. The two on the left and the black and white photo were photos of iris manipulated with a kaleidoscope filter in Photoshop. The brown photo was pine leaves, also manipulated.

The final process, after rubbing with oil pastel colors to create texture and fusing the pieces to a white sheet, was minimal quilting. No batting was used. The quilting design was based on the diagonal lines in the black and white photo above.The borders were sew on after quilting and the last step was to adhere the completed piece to a gallery wrapped canvas.

I am not sure I will try this process again. It was very labor intensive and probably takes months to perfect the technique. The outcome is different than what I anticipated. It is definitely one of a kind. I still have no come up with a title, so give me some suggestions.

A Never Ending Process

After seeing the results from my previous laminating experiences, I decided to try laminating images printed in only black and gray and black.

The black ink only image remained black.

The black and grays image became a paler black and the grays have a greenish tinge.

So back to more experimenting.

Time is Wasting

The actual process began today. It isn't as if nothing has been going on. The thermofax screen has been, prepared for use. The printing surface, plywood covered with 4 layers of old sheet and a bottom layer of felt is ready. The images for laminating have been printed.

polyester voile, images, thermofax screen, matte medium, padded print surface

applying matte medium to voile - images are underneath voile

heat setting to laminate the voile and the paper using parchment paper

soaking to soften paper for removal

Removing paper from back side of voile

the result

It appears that there is a whole lot more practice with the process which needs to happen before I have anything bordering on what I was expecting. Most of the colors on the printed image vanished, and the matte medium was not evenly distributed so some of the image did not adhere.  Back to square one.

In Process

I have long been an admirer of layered images, whether in photography, mixed media or fiber art and I am intrigued by Claire Benn's paper lamination which is a technique perfect for layering. Her book was borrowed via interlibrary loan, so I need to get the technique down pat before the book needs to be returned. The technique is a little intimidating, but what can go wrong, go wrong, go wrong

After much searching I finally found a place to purchase thermofax mesh in a reasonable amount for a reasonable price. I am collecting images on paper which is the first step in the process, so I will be ready to give the process a try as soon as the mesh arrives.

Sunshine and Shadow

Lisa's challenge was delightful and frightening at the same time. The embellishments and the color of the lovely hand dyed fabric she sent meant I needed a while to come up with a plan of attack. I still wanted to play around with the Kuba design concept Faith Ringgold had pursued in some of her work, so I began looking through my stash to see if I had some fabric that would work with the fabric Lisa sent.

After selecting a colorful batik fabric, I decided that I really wanted to have some pattern on the solid  fabric which lead to purchasing Shiva paintstiks, some stencils and experimenting. I was not overly enthusiastic with the results.

The triangles, which would make up the rectangles, when sewn together, were already cut and before sewing the triangles together, it seemed wise to decide on the layout. By now I could tell that following through with the Kuba design was not going to work as I had anticipated.

The next idea was to sew the arrangement shown below. This presented a problem. At the edges of the rows, the triangles were turned 90 degrees and when sewn, would have to be inset. I struggled with inset triangles several years ago and knew that this was not the path I was going to take.

After sewing the triangles into rectangles, I discovered that I did not have as many layout options as I had anticipated. My first inclination was a modified color wash. I substituted some hand dyed blue for the boldest yellows and the darkest greens.

Thank goodness, for digital photography! I took a photo of the quilt layout and then proceeded to rearrange blocks until I came up with a design that was more satisfying.

If you squint and use your imagination, you may be able to visualize streams of light flooding from right to left across the quilt, "sunshine and shadow".

Sunshine and Shadow
26" x 27"
2014

This project falls short of the challenge in several respects. It turned out to be "quilty" instead of  "fiber arty" and at this point, adding the embellishments would make them feel tacked on rather than integrated into the design of the piece. Perhaps I felt intimidated by the use of embellishments and didn't even bother to pursue a method for their use. See the leftovers and the paintstik experiments below.

Homage to Braque

For years I have been a fan of the works of Georges Braque, particularly his works which were created during his Synthetic Cubist period, 1912-1914. What I admire are the interplay of shapes, the depth and playful way he breaks up recognizable shapes and his addition of bits of life's ephemera, like a piece of a concert ticket or a leftover scrap of a note. Below are some of my favorites.

Left to right- Gueridon 1913, Still Life with Violin 1913
Violin Melodie 1914, Violin and Glass 1913

I didn't want to just reproduce something Braque had created, however had I done so, I might be more satisfied with my end product. 

Because I do not draw or sketch, I started by making paper collages with various shapes, colors and textures. More images can be found on my blog. 

Final design 

After deciding on a design, I selected fabrics from my stash. I also wanted to use some paper cloth for some of the shapes. Paper cloth is basically paper adhered to muslin with diluted glue. In the paper cloth I created, I used dress patterns, tea bags, newspaper, and computer images I had printed. In addition to the fabric and paper cloth I also included words printed on silk photo fabric.

The next major step was cutting out the shapes and adding fusible web to the backs so they could be adhered to the base fabric. I wanted a neutral background and chose a funky gray fabric.

However, after living with this decision for several days, I decided it was a depressing color and changed the background to a lighter fabric.

Homage to Braque
16"x 20"

A Beginning

It is awfully quiet, here at the TT blog. I hope you are just bursting with excitement and are progressing on our challenge due March 16. Here is something to keep you guessing.

Artistic License

“ A writer’s or artist’s freedom to deviate from fact or from conventions . . . for effect.” www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/license

“The freedom to create an artwork, musical work, or piece of writing based  on the artist's interpretation . . .” ‎dictionary.reference.com/browse/artistic+license

Some of us have mentioned the influence of others on our work, especially the influence of famous artists or those well known in the world of fiber art. Over the years, I have noticed works of art in museums and galleries and thought, “wouldn’t that be a great quilt?” What painting, sculpture, photograph, architectural wonder or graphic arts image has given you inspiration?

Piet Mondrian Composition A

Some artists modify older works of art to develop new ones. What shapes, colors, composition or media in the works of other have given you an “aha moment”? Or maybe you have been inspired by something in the natural world.

Just in case you need some images to get your creative juices flowing, this may prove to be useful: http://www.artcyclopedia.com/

  

DISSONANCE

This variety of triangles with differing fabric patterns in an asymmetrical arrangement produces a feeling of  tension and dissonance. This is not  how I generally view the “music of life”, but I wanted to break out of my traditional method of approaching our challenges. A literal interpretation of music and its beauty was not intended.  After looking at some examples of “modern art” I was struck with the idea of creating something which was not literally musical, but rather portrayed an aspect of music which is almost antithetical to the harmony one usually expects and appreciates. 

For a previous project, I had fused and cut out triangles, but that idea failed to come together. The fabrics I used are a combination of commercial, hand dyed, acrylic monoprints and digital inkjet prints. The quilting, although parallel, hopefully enhances the dissonance theme. The arrangement of the pieces follows no set pattern. The placement of the black lines and the shapes going off the edge of the composition are intended to increase the tension.

Dissonance
17 5/16"  x 18"

Variations on a Theme

I hope you are all humming along on your composition.

In-box Technique

I have long admired Susan Lenz fiber art work. Linda Matthews has shared a tutorial describing the In Box technique Susan uses.

free motion embroidery linking the boxes

Open Ended

I chose to take Gina at her word and made this an "open art event".  I had used a similar technique years ago in a cloth book and decided now was a good time to try the technique again.

Fall Leaves

This technique requires lots of fusible web.

The process:

• decide on the dimensions of the project
• iron fabric to fusible web and cut strips in varying widths 

fused strips of fabric

• remove paper from fusible web
• decide which strips will be the the warp and which will be the weft
• set up a weaving board securing the warp at one end with pins. (A piece of cardboard works well).

warp attached to weaving board

• begin weaving the weft strips

• When the weaving is complete, tighten up the warp and weft strips so no background shows through
• Place the completed weaving on a background fabric and iron. Follow fusible web manufacturers instructions. Make sure the entire piece is fused to the background fabric.
• Layer the weaving, batting and another piece of backing fabric and the piece is ready for quilting

The warp I used was originally black, but after completing the weaving, I decided the contrast between the warp and the weft strips was too great, so I fused and cut more strips and wove the piece again. The fun part is substituting one woven strip for another without needing to use a seam ripper.

Open Ended

Did you see the five leaves? I couldn't decide whether or not to stitch around them. What do you think?

Leftovers

Although the challenger gave us many wonderful examples of "remnants", my immediate impulse was to use leftover fabrics from other projects. Most quilters and fiber artists have an abundance of remnants in their fabric stash and it is always a challenge to use them in another project or maybe even give them away or toss them. This Tangled Textiles challenge seemed like a good opportunity to use the leftovers in a productive and perhaps creative way.

Many of these fabrics were left over from previous TT challenges. Many were digital prints on fabric, gelatin monoprints, or acrylic monoprints on fabric.

The leftovers were sewn together in strips in no particular order, the strips were joined to form a piece of fabric and then the piece was cut into various widths of approximately 18 inch long strips.

I had seen an interesting fiber art piece on the web which inspired me and for that I needed dark fabric interspersed throughout the strips. So I cut apart strips and inserted dark fabric of assorted colors and sizes and then began to arrange them on my design wall.

I arranged and rearranged for about a week and decided that my original inspiration was not working. I removed most of the dark areas and ended up with the work below. I had intended to make this piece in a rectangular format, however it ended up being square.

Remnants

A Start

Believe it or not, I have an idea and have started working on "Remnants". The fabrics are selected and I am at the fabric arrangement stage and can't quite settle on a design I am totally happy with, so it may take me until April to finish!!

Of course, since I am so far ahead of my usual "wait until the last minute" procrastination,  I may change my mind completely. Time will tell.

True Blue...

Well, we all survived our latest challenge 

(thanks Beverly)

despite the many trials and tribulations 

some of us encountered along the way!

But we will go into the wide blue yonder for a bit

until Brigette announces our next challenge!

Random Recycled Blue

I toyed with the idea of using denim at one point, briefly abandoned it and then when I saw Nicolett's  post about boro, I was really intrigued by this method of recycling garments.

After further contemplation I decided to use denim which brought to mind a picnic quilt I had made for my daughter's family years ago. At my artist husband's insistence, we have been saving worn blue jeans for years, so having enough denim in my stash was no problem. Over  the years I have made handbags and tote bags from denim and my daughter even made a jacket from the leftovers. So using denim was decided.

Now for the design. I started with a photo of the picnic quilt and began manipulating it with Photoshop.

Picnic quilt

Manipulated design

Most of the ensuing designs would have been very labor intensive but I finally created a design which seemed achievable. The picnic quilt was huge in comparison to our 16" x 16" format, so I cropped a section of the design and used it as a point of departure.

When I realized that even the pared down design would require piecing very small bits of fabric, it seemed that if I was to finish on time, I could not meticulously follow the colors and patterns in the cropped design.

So the finished quilt is randomly pieced 2 ½" squares set together in a mostly random pattern.

A few more construction details can be viewed on my  blog.

Random Recycled Blue

Blue Period

Renate's post brought this to mind - Picasso and his blue period. It  looks like we will be in good, artistic company with our "blue" challenge. Images from: Wiki PaintingsVisual Art Encyclopedia

Picasso and S. Junier-Vidal sitting near Celestina- Pablo Picasso, 1904

Rouen Cathedral, Magic in Blue - Claude Monet, 1894

Blue Calligraphic Lines on Dark Blue - Jiro Yoshihara, 1963

Music Pink and Blue II - Georgia O'Keeffe

Thought you might enjoy this variations on "blue" which I stumbled upon. Gorgeous even though it is not fabric.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55780937@N08/5400969309/in/faves-tastykaeru/

Aaaaand... the bell rings!!!

 Ding! 

Round one is officially over!!!

 We have had eight (yes, 8!!!) challenges!!!

  

This last challenge featured a really eclectic mix of art work!

 Stay tuned to see what happens next at Tangled Textiles!!!

Go Until You End

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop. ~~~Lewis Carroll 

Even if you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere. That, in a nutshell,  is the story of this creation. The goal was to use Citra Solv on National Geographic magazine pages and transfer the magical images to fabric.

 There was a YouTube video which mentioned this possibility but there was never a followup. The procedure was to spray Citra Solv onto the magazine pages, turn them face down onto the fabric and then them cover with plastic wrap.

pages sprayed and put under plastic wrap

Now I know why there was never a followup video. It doesn't work and here is proof.

failed Citra Solv transfer

So the alternative was to scan the altered magazine pages, take them into Photoshop, manipulate them some more and then print the images on fabric. I was hoping to avoid all these time consuming steps.

printed fabric

So to tie this into our challenge, this was the beginning of a new technique and a plunge into the unknown with no preconceived notion of what the result would be. I looked at Paul Klee paintings for inspiration, but the resulting piece does not in anyway come close to the inspiration I had hoped to somehow emulate.

I don't see much sense in that," said Rabbit. "No," said Pooh humbly, "there isn't. But there was going to be when I began it. It's just that something happened to it along the way."  -- Winnie the Pooh