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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

still more shirts!

Just got these out of the dryer.  Some well timed naps got me to where I am, also, soy wax totally comes out with hot water and soap!  So, you can skip the "wait for the shirt to dry and then iron out the wax" steps!  And do the whole thing in like two days!  Or one day if you get up early enough.

OMG I want to marry soy wax...

Anyway, the picture:

blue shirts
batik on the left and shibori on the right

Left shirt was low water immersion dyed a light green color, then I used a stencil borrowed (with permission) from my child's preschool to do the snowflakes, the dots were done with a brush and the top of a spice bottle.  The right is just stitched shibori.  I was considering adding a print on top, but I like the look... for now, I could always go back, yeah?

More shirts!

I've got two in the dye bath now, I'm hoping to finish them before we go to Texas on Thursday, but that time line may be a bit ambitious... with two little kids underfoot.

red shibori shirts
the color's not right! they are red!

These are 7-8 rings of stitching in half-circles (the shirt is folded in half for dyeing) 2 rings pulled tight, dyed yellow, 2 rings pulled tight, dyed yellow orange, 2 rings pulled tight, dyed orange,  the last rings pulled tight, then plunged into red.  It sounds simple but it took weeks!  Also: I should stop taking pictures in my basement at night. :P

low water immersion dyed shirts
low water immersion dyed shirts + batik-style wax resists

The guy on the left was designed by my elder daughter.  The white eyes and squares on the pink shirt are Soy wax, which is awesome!  It melts at a low temp (for wax) and comes out easy.  They say you can get it out with just hot water and soap, but I've been ironing it out before washing, so I can't say if that's true.  Very excited with the mottled look of the low water immersion dyeing!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

new shoes!

actually, they're not new.  I got them a while back, but have been waiting to break them out until I was fairly sure the baby had stopped spitting up over everything. (sigh)

new shoes
new shoes!

The shoelaces were dyed by me, dyed yellow orange and over-dyed with a hot pink.  Not as awesome as I'd hoped, but I think it works nicely with the shoes.  Understated.

I finally broke them out yesterday as part of my "working at the sale" ensemble.  The sale went alright.  I sold more than I feared, though less than I hoped, but I suppose that's always the way.   At least I spent less money than I made. :D

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Crafts of the Past: Curtains!

As I'm making new screens, my thoughts drift back to the old.

I made a set of curtains for my elder daughter's room  before she was born. Printed on white cotton fabric, then colored in with crayons, and then the crayons melted via iron. Very simple, but neat.

hand printed curtains
still makes me smile


close up of same
close up of same.

I also made several onesies (?) with the same designs of which I think we only had one left when second daughter arrived.  You may recognize the snail from "Yellow" a few days back.

Recent work

I posted a few more woven animals to the gallery, as well as several pairs of fingerless gloves (but more on those later!)

The snowman:
snowman
oh, sweetie!


His scarf is crocheted, the brim of his hat is unspun mohair. And I adore him!

The chipmunk:
chipmunk
hmmm...

I don't know about you guys, but our house is menaced by a very possessive chipmunk, who stands on our porch for hours and chirps, so I suppose I could never have made a cute chipmunk.

Anyway, they will be for sale on November 13th!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

In lieu of progress

I've been playing the long game, which isn't a great idea (ask my bank balance!) but means I've been doing some fiber reactive dyeing. For the first time ever. I'm not entirely clear on many aspects of it yet, but I think I've mastered solid color tub dyeing.

So, I present: Yellow!

yellow shirts

These got thrown in because why waste a half-used dye-bath? The stamps and stencils are old, and so were my fabric paints. New paints are on order, new stamps and stencils are underway...