More progress....

Here I have added a bird cage which is part of the theme for this piece. Colour has been added to the lower half and also to the top left corner. Parts of the top left and bottom right (between the lines) then got discharged to give a contrast.

Then I painted the top right corner a dark brown which makes the central oval more prominent (more about this corner next blog).

After leaving any dye application to cold batch overnight, I always hose the cloth on my driveway (seen here from the deck above, and around, my studio). This hosing releases any surplus dye and avoids back staining particularly when I want areas to stay white. I don't pre-soak the cloth in a soda ash solution as the surplus dye will strike on the white areas. To avoid this I add the soda ash to the thickened dye solution instead. After hosing the cloth still goes through a washing machine cycle. Any one piece may have gone through up to 20 washes before completion.

All washed and ironed. More colour has been added to the top left and bottom right corners as well.
Yet more to do.....

Working Again

After my weekend away and also attending some NZ Festival of the Arts events, I am back to work again on my big piece. It is quietly coming together.

Some patterning on the left side achieved with freezer paper resists. Then a dye wash over the top.

Here I have taken a large oval shape and discharged some colours within this space. The letters form the word 'escape' which is the theme for this piece.

More next blog.....

National Park Weekend

This last weekend was our annual sibling weekend. We try to do something different each year and this time chose a visit to National Park, a small recreational village in our central North Island which caters for skiers and mountain climbers etc during the winter months. As it was still our summer we didn't have to be too concerned about the weather, and it was indeed very nice.

On Saturday we went on a two hour round walk, with picnic lunch, on the lower slopes of Mount Ruapehu, and enjoyed the changes in scenery along the way.

Looking across the plateau to Mt Ngauruhoe.

Heading into a clump of mountain trees.

Dappled pathway.

Looking out to the distant farmlands.

Taranaki Waterfall where we stopped for a picnic lunch (note people on top of the cliff).

New Piece

Recently I made a start on a new piece. I want my next major works to be more edgy so content is paramount. I also want them to be LARGE. My silk/linen mix fabric is 115cm/45" wide and I plan to use this full measurement, either horizontially or vertically - no test swatches allowed in the side margins!

I started with dye painting some units on to my large screen. Their positioning has no relationship to each other.

Not a very good photo as cloth is still on my printing table. Units have now been screened in their intended positions. I have since added another unit, similar to that top left, to the bottom right corner.

Saturday's workshop

Yesterday's workshop went very well and they were an enthusiastic, experienced bunch. Great results for the brief time available.

Here is my example screened on to calico (muslin)....


Lots of concentration here!

Busy, busy....

A small selection of pieces achieved.....

Another Workshop

Tomorrow I am off to conduct a half-day workshop in Masterton. For 27 years I taught regular workshops around my local area, and also in just about every where in New Zealand. I felt very privileged to be able to do this, and thoroughly enjoyed the exchange of ideas and meeting such lovely people.

About five years ago I decided to devote more time to my own art work which, as you can imagine had become very truncated with teaching and other involvements. I decided to make a clean break and politely declined all requests for teaching.

However, having now lived several decades, life has taught me that things are not as black and white as we thought or think they should be. Last year I agreed to take a workshop with local senior school students while my solo exhibition was on in Upper Hutt. This went well and it was great to be involved with a younger generation and their fresh ideas. What did surprise me however was how much preparation it took for this short workshop! In the past when preparation was on-going this time seemed to get absorbed into the overall scheme of things.

I am repeating this workshop tomorrow and once again I feel I have been organising and gathering together stuff all week! I am of course looking forward to tomorrow and sharing my skills with an enthusiastic bunch.

Think I have everything sorted here, but there is also a list of last minute things....

Dye painted on to a silk screen which at this stage looks a bit fuzzy. I will demonstrate screening this on to a soda ash soaked fabric tomorrow. Will show the result next blog.

Autumn Footprints

I have now completed my Autumn Footprints piece. Apart from getting two small brass eyelets at the top of each piece that is. Although I can 'do' eyelets, some do go wonky so I am going to take these pieces to a local canvas goods maker for a quality job.

I am rather pleased with this diptych. If you recall they use left-over pieces of cloth from previous projects. This presented restrictions which I may not have considered if I had more cloth available. I like the narrowness. I decided to go with the fact that one piece was shorter, and I like this too.

This project reminded me that tailors used to call their left-over scraps 'cabbage'. If they were very clever they could make another garment from these pieces and therefore claim more profit. This was not my intention but any irregular pieces of discarded cloth will now get more consideration than in the past.

2010 ©Diana Parkes, AUTUMN FOOTPRINTS, dye and pigment on silk, size (overall) 107cm x 27cm /42" x 10".


These pieces are lined with a red silk.