Tools of the trade

I am lucky to have a big studio, and half of my double garage is occupied by a five metre (5.5 yds) printing table. I am also a keen gardener and keep all my gardening tools and paraphernalia in the garage as well (yep, there is still room for my car!).
After having taken a photo recently of work in progress on my printing table I noticed that it also included a bag of lawn fertiliser. Not only was this on the end of my printing table but it had an iron sitting on the top! Secondly, I have always kept my printing squeegees and screen cleaning brushes on wall hooks which also hold many of my gardening tools. Obviously my passions are entwined. I kid you not, look at the photos....
Below is an image of a piece I have sent off for the member's exhibition at the Surface Design Association's May/June conference in Kansas City, MO. All pieces have to be 46cm x 46cm (18" x 18"). I have always found square dimensions quite difficult so decided to work a triptych and send just one of the pieces. And yes, I will be attending the conference.
Also now open is Thrift, the Art of Making Do, at Pataka Museum of Arts and Cultures, till 17 May. An excellent exhibition with some of our best quilt artists, Heather Harding, Katherine Morrison, Anna Prussing and Esther Woollaston. All artists use recycled fabrics and contemporary messages in their quilts.
Along with the Changing Threads exhibition at The Refinery Artspace, Nelson (closes 7 March), and the Ready To Wear exhibition at Expressions in Upper Hutt, the textile arts are doing pretty well here in New Zealand at the moment.

Next Blog: Black in not always black

Three Sisters III. Silk Broadcloth. Procion MX dyes and pigment. Painting, printing and discharge techniques.

Ready to Wear Exhibition and Silk Spandex length

The Expressions Arts and Entertainment Centre in Upper Hutt (836 Fergusson Drive) now has a Ready to Wear exhibition in their Mount Marua Gallery, 20 February to 22 March. This is a collection of works in a range of media which are inspired by the adornment of the body. Twenty-one artists are featured including myself. There are garments with a twist, jewellery, paintings, shoes, and many other things. Well worth a visit.
I recently completed another silk (and spandex) length. This was a remnant and already a nice soft buttery yellow. I set it up on my printing table and using my 'no frills' plumb line arrangement marked the repeat pattern placements with bits of sticky paper. Then using Procion MX dyes (a red, green, brown and a purple each mixed in a Manutex solution) I hand-painted the motifs. Because I wanted to soften these I squirted each with plain water after painting. This blended the colours and made them spread at their own will. I am pleased with the outcome and feel it would make a nice skirt.




Next Blog: Tools of the trade

Over dyeing an existing garment

I often get asked to over-dye existing garments. I am always very hesitant about this because (a) the fabric content has to be determined, (b) the sewing thread will usually be a synthetic and not over-dye, (c) folds, tucks, add-ons will act as resists, (d) existing stains or fading will not be removed by the over-dyeing process and (e) the original colour will affect any new dye application.
Last week I did accept a silk top and skirt as this did seem a possibility. It had no top-stitching other than the buttonholes, and the applied flowerlets could be removed before dyeing.
The original lime green colour would obviously have an influence on any over-dyeing. My client was relaxed about the new colour and my thoughts were to over-dye it with a purple as this could result in a rather nice aubergine.
Now my purple dye always turns white silk into a cerise. Sometime ago I discovered that a mixture of navy and turquoise, surprisingly, produces a purple on white silk. Purple and green do make a nice aubergine (are you with me so far?). The result however was the darker green. This was not unpleasant at all. I had removed the lime green flowerlets from the top before dyeing and once stitched back, helped to justify the lime green buttonhole stitching. My client will probably change the buttons to something more sympathetic to the new colour.
My third photo today is of one of my WholeCloth Banners which has been accepted into Changing Threads, an exhibition of contemporary fibre and textile art at The Refinery Artspace, Nelson, 14 February to 7 March. This exhibition is organised by the Arts Council Nelson.

The original colour of the silk top and skirt, flowerlets removed at this stage

Flowerlets stitched back on; all done!

NESTING 131cm x 99cm; Silk/linen blend; Procion MX dyes and pigments; dye painting, over-dye, discharge

Next Blog: Silk Spandex length

Silk length to match skirt

It is often said that things come in threes. Well, in the case of my being requested to dye fabric for people, this is definitely a proven fact. Last week it was the silk georgette for bridesmaids. This week it was fabric to match a purchased silk skirt that was difficult to match with a top; and next week will be overdyeing an existing garment.
For this week's fabric blended colours had been decided. I bunched the fabric, poured over orange, blue and purple dyes all laced with the appropriate fixing chemicals, and left it overnight. Next day I felt the resulting colours were too strong, so reduced their depth of colour with discharge. This always produces a more subtle blend of colours and usually some nice surprises.
I then decided to add a repeat motif of dots to tone with the skirt. The fabric was laid out on my printing table and I used my 'no frills' plumb line to centre the repeats. My plumb line consists of two river stones each in plastic bags tied to the ends of a long piece of string. This drapes over the table and tensions itself. I have two plumb lines and together they work well to line up patterns.
I wanted to space the dots 20cm apart and gauged this with a strip of paper. The registrations were marked with small pieces of stick-on paper. I then eye-balled each dot into the space between the paper markings.
The fabric was then cold-batched and washed.

Fabric bunched, saturated with dye, and left to cold batch

Cold batched piece washed, discharged and washed again

Plumb lines, paper gauge and stick-on papers

Dots painted inbetween stick-on papers

The completed fabric next to the skirt

Next Blog: Over-dyeing an existing garment

Shades of Grey

I often get requests to dye fabric as the colours required are simply not available elsewhere. Recently I was given 10 metres of white silk georgette to dye for three bridesmaids. It was to have a shiny dark silver silk fabric underneath and needed to tone. This shiny dark silver fabric was also to be used as a band, on top, under the bust line and tying at the back.
Another dyer had attempted this, had achieved a perfect sample, but failed to repeat this on the larger piece. I fully sympathised with this as there is always a big leap between a smaller sample and the larger requirement; and working with a black dye (in lesser amounts this produces silver/grey) is not always easy. I therefore had a double challenge.
I have two black dyes, one which favours brown, the other favours red. I decided on the brown and dyed half a metre accordingly, recording all measurements, volumes and times. As suspected it came out too brown. The colour needed to go more 'black' but the problem I faced was how to make black more black, there being nothing darker than black. I went for a walk.
On my return I dyed another sample replacing some of the black with a navy dye. To my delight, this seemed to do the trick and my client was satisfied.
I then dyed the 10 metres. Despite checking and re-checking my calculations this did dye darker than my original sample but otherwise was perfect. Fortunately all parties involved agreed that the end result would be very elegant and I am looking forward to receiving a photo of the bridal party.

Here are the first two samples displayed against the shiny silver silk

The three dyeings against the silver, the narrow strip on the right being the final colour

The same three against a white background

Nothing to do with the above but the sky towards Wellington on Sunday night. Taken from my studio deck through the trees. The flash lights up the trees very nicely.

Next Blog: New Studio Curtains

Cerise/red and red/orange curtains, finished

When we built our house in 1996 I made calico (muslin) curtains each with a 30cm (12") hand-painted border around the bottom edges for the studio. At that time I was still very much into embroidery and my skills in surface design were embryonic. Over the years as my skills matured I kept thinking I must re-do those borders. As common with such thoughts it often takes time to actually do anything!
Well... I now have new curtain borders! During the last week or so I removed the old borders from the curtains, washed them, printed up some new borders and stitched them in place.
As this was not to be a serious time-consuming project I screenprinted the design using some existing screens and textile pigments. I had a rectangular screen with a grid of dots and used this twice, once masking off a circle in the middle of the screen, and then masking off the space around the circle. With a light grey pigment I randomly printed these two screens on to the borders as a background. Then I used two more existing screens which resulted from drawings of a chrysanthemum flower head. Only the second of these two screens needed registration.
As with the original curtains I used colours relating to the rainbow. There are four windows, eight curtains. They start with yellow/orange, then orange/red, red/cerise, cerise/purple, purple/blue, blue/teal, teal/green, green/yellow. Hopefully they will last at least another 12 years!

Grey dots and first print of cerise

Cerise and red print completed

Blue/teal print

Teal/blue and blue/purple curtains, finished

Next Blog: Shades of Grey

Daily Rituals

I must confess I am a complete failure at the daily drawing/sketching scenario that is often suggested as a worthwhile exercise for artists. I fully appreciate the reasons for doing this but I just sit there blankly, and then move on to other things. It just doesn't work for me. The same goes for taking sketch books and a camera wherever I go. An occasional sketch/note will appear in my handbag notebook but taking a camera around in my day-to-day life doesn't seem to fit. However, whilst overseas I seem to be able to do this successfully. Perhaps the focus is different in these situations and of course there is so much new stuff to see.
There are occasions, however, when I am quick to recognise something, especially when I am not focused on looking artistically. These things will simply 'jump out'. Fortunately, if I am away from home, I have quite a good photographic memory and am able to add the idea, image to my sketchbook when I get home. If the camera is handy, then a photo is taken and filed in a specific folder on my computer.
The other day around about midday I noticed the strong shadows under a chair on the my decking. I grabbed the camera and waited until the sun appeared from behind the clouds again – click! At the moment I have no intention of doing anything with the ideas but I thought I would share it with you.

First photo of chair and shadows

Cropped image

Second photo of chair

Cropped image, and turned. I feel the design goes better this way. If I was to use this as a basis it would still need alot more fine tuning......

Next Blog: New Studio Curtains