Mini Tute II

I forgot to tell you about washing out the fabric after all your printing is done! Very important.

Start in the sink (or a pan), and rinse and rinse and rinse with cold water (you'll be able to feel the sliminess of the print paste). Next rinse, still in the sink, warm water with a bit of synthrapol. Next rinse, still in the sink, hot water with a bit of synthrapol. Then into the washer with synthrapol, for a long hot wash and rinse. Into the dryer and then you're done, ready to make your new creations!

As I said before, Kerr Grabowski is the expert of experts on this technique, and I highly recommend her DVD, Deconstructed Screen Printing. You can find it on her website.

Coming up close behind, though, is Anita Heady, who does beautiful work, is a teacher extraoirdinaire and put together a Power Point Presentation that kicks butt!

Hope you've enjoyed the tute--go out and have some fun!

Mini Decon Screen Printing Tutorial

I'm back! I know you've been waiting with hearts on fire, on the edge of your seat, cursing each day that you checked and still, no news from Mary Ann!

I'm here to ease your pain.

All kidding aside, it's been crazy here with lots of personal issues, but I have managed to have some fun along the way. I have several days worth of blogs stored up, but I thought I would start with a mini-tute on deconstructed screen printing.

My friend, Anita, and I were scheduled to to a demo on deconstructed screen printing for our Fiber Frenzy group. While Anita seems to have a better instinct than I do, and does some wonderful work, we both agree that the BEST way to learn is to buy the DVD from Kerr Grabowski. She knows it all, and is entertaining, too.

But you can get a taste of what fun it is by the following:

Deconstructed screen printing is basically printing the screen twice, first with thickened dye, then with thickened print paste to release the dye. So each print is slightly different from the one before, and you have a whole series of wonderful surprises.

First you soak your fabric (after scouring if need be) in soda ash (1 gallon of water, 9 tbs of soda ash, which is a pool chemical, or you can buy it online at any dye site.) Soak for at least 15 minutes. Dry it on the line, or shower curtain, don't use the dryer, don't iron it or the soda ash may weaken. You need the soda ash to bond the dye to the fabric.

Make the print paste. Use one quart of warm water, 1 tsp of metaphos (a water softener that I didn't have, so didn't use), 1/4 cup of urea and mix all together. You need to put this mixture in a blender (that you don't use for food), and as it's agitating, gradually add 2 1/2 tbs of sodium alginate (or more, as you'll find out). Let it sit at least an hour, better overnight. It lasts for about 6 months. My best advice (discovery) is that if you put it back in the blender the next day to check for thickness, if you turn the blender on and the top of the paste doesn't move, it's thick enough. If you're still getting some swirling and blending, add some more sodium alginate (seaweed).

Then make your print paste using dry MX procion dyes, mixed with a little water to make a paste, then add your clear print paste. Use normal precautions when mixing dye (a mask for your nose and mouth, gloves, water nearby to wash up any dry particles that land).

Now you're ready. I used two vinyl covered foam core boards. On the first, I put a piece of paper (the kind that movers use.) Kerr G recommends brown paper, but I used what I had. I arranged my objects until they were pleasing to me and fit under the screen I was using.

Lesson learned: use flat objects of about the same thickness, thicker ones will just look like blobs.

This was actually my last layout, and my fvorite. I layered everything over a piece of bubble wrap (what would we do without bubble wrap?!)

And it all fits nicely under the screen.

I'll show you later all of my prints, but first I want to show you what happens when the print paste is not thick enough:

And another:

I added a stamp for some interest, but it wasn't interesting enough. These things will not be thrown out, but will be perfect (wishful thinking?) for some project that will come along.

So we thickened the paste and went back the next day, and then then the next. It was too much fun, everything was already out, so we just kept on.

One of the things we did was make monoprints off the paper after the original dye paste pass was done. Here's one of mine:

I also saved some of the background papers for a collage someday.

I had two screens the first day, but then went home and made two more for the third day. When you get ready to print on your fabric, you need to have a fairly soft surface (as for stamping), so I used a second vinyl-covered foam core board and pinned the fabric to it.

But here are some of the screens and prints I made over those few days:

You need to let the screen completely dry before you can print with the dye. Fans and hair dryers are a great help, or let them dry overnight. For this one I used indigo dye and here's how the prints came out:

.







These aren't exactly in the right order, but you can see how each print changes. I got only 4 or 5 "good" prints from each screen, but Anita got as many as 13! I think she layered her dye print paste, maybe two times, then used less clear print paste than I did for each print. A lesson I learned for the next time.

More screens and prints:

This was the print paste dye screen from the layout that I showed you at the beginning of this post. This is how it came out on the screen:



This was how the bubble wrap looked after the dye was applied to the screen:





  And these were some of the prints:

I think the one above may just need a little stitching and be good to go. Can you see a little bit of orange in the piece? That was left over from some printing I had done earlier, using orange dye. Even though I had washed the lace and metal piece, some of the orange still came through. Not sure if you can see it, but it adds a little interest.



I kept going, but many of the others went into my over-dye stack. But here's an example of how each print gets lighter and lighter:

Do you believe there's even more?

But enough for today. I'll show you more later, and also how we played with the dye that we didn't use for the screen printing. Lots of fun and lots of options.

Thanks for coming by, and stop in again soon!

Mary Ann

I must be an artist . . .

since I have an exhibit of my work! For the month of July, my work will be shown at the Jittery Joe's on the eastside of Athens. I'm getting great feedback and have sold a few pieces as well.

Here's (literally) some snapshots of my exhibit:

As you can see, it's mostly Mini-mees, but I threw in some other things as well. I have to admit, it feels good to walk in there and see my work on the walls! And it's especially fun to watch people come in and look. I think I can get used to this artist thing!

I've Been Busy!

I've finally gotten out of my slump and have been busy this week.

I finished some minimees, this time, instead of mounting them on canvas or mat board, I made them into little quilts and I have to say I like them very much!

12" x 12"

City Street

c 2011



And a detail:

Watery Wonderland:

Watery Wonderland

12.5" x 13"

c 2011

And a detail:







And a landscape:

12" x 14"

Evening Song

c 2011

And a final detail:



I've also been dyeing. I got some gradation dyeing kits from ProChem and it's really been fun. These kits have only 3 colors of dye and will dye 30 fat eighths plus one yard. It's really an experiment (to me) in color mixing. I followed the directions to a tee for the first batch, using Tangerine, Sapphire Blue and Boysenberry from a kit called "Flower Garden." The three colors alone were gorgeous, but look what happened when they were mixed:

 I loved the colors, but I wasn't happy with the big blobs of white. So the next time I wet the fabric before putting it into the cups, and I dyed fat quarters instead of fat eighths. This kit was called "Sea and Sky" and produced some much calmer and cooler pieces:

AND I have an announcement to make! My work will be hung at Jittery Joe's (on the east side of Athens) for the month of July. I know, it's not the Met, but it's a start and I can't wait! If you're in the area, stop in and take a look. Jittery Joe's is on Gaine's School Road, in the Publix shopping center next to Chick-Fil-A.

Thanks for stopping by!







"Capturing Nature" Class at the Dragonfly

I know I haven't been very good about writing lately. No good excuses, just haven't done it. The last fun thing that I did was teach a class at the Dragonfly Quilt Shop in Watkinsville GA.

I had 9 students and it was great seeing what they all came up with. Some were independent from the start, choosing a different flower than the day lily that I had planned. I love that and encourage it for my students. Some had a hard time creating, hmm, let's say "a less than structured" art quilt. That's great too, and something else that I encourage. I like to tell my students to leave their perfectionism at home, it's time to play and have fun. And we did have fun!

I have photos for 8 of the 9 students and must apologize to whoever I left out. I also have to apologize for not remembering some students' names. I knew I should have blogged about the class the next day, or some things are bound to be lost in the deep recesses of the little bit of mind I have left--never to return!

Enjoy these photos that I took early on in the class, during the construction phase and before the stitching began:

Isn't it fun to see how their personalities come through? That's just one of the reasons why I love teaching! Not to mention the instant camaraderie and the fact that I ALWAYS learn from my students. It's just a win-win situation!

Bye for now. Hope to be back soon.

A New Pattern

I am so excited--I published my first pattern! If someone had told me a year ago that I would be writing and publishing patterns, I never would have believed them. Funny how things happen.

AND, I've already sold some to my fabulous local quilt shop!

AND, my friend, Anita, is taking them to the Mobile, Alabama quilt show this weekend. Am I a lucky girl or what?!

What started out as a photo of a single gerbera daisy, became this:



an art quilt. And, when I decided to do craft shows and needed to make some things to sell, it became this:

I've had so many positive responses to my table toppers/placemats, but don't sell a lot of them. At our own quilt show in March, a lot of people asked for a pattern. So, here it is and here I am, in a place I never thought I would be, but one that feels good.

My next big project is to open an Etsy Store. I'll let you know when I'm all set to go.

Oh, and if you're in the Atlanta area on Friday, I'll be at the Artist's Walk in Marietta, in front of Doodlebugz--hope to see you there!

My Plans

This is what I'll be working on for the next few days:

Okay, well maybe I need to do some straightening up first. I went to the dollar store yesterday and got some buckets, quart containers and measuring cups, and you know what that means--dyeing! I got a few gradient kits from ProChem and I haven't done that before, so it should be fun.

I also went through my stash and patterns and decided to make a blouse.

I will be painting some canvases and art boards to mount my mini-mees in time for the Artist's Walk on Friday, the 3rd.

And last but not least, more mini-mees in the works!

What is not represented in this photo is the beginning of an art quilt. I have been working on class samples, mini-mees and things to sell, so it's been quite a while since I've done an art quilt just for pleasure. After going through all my photos, I found this one, taken on the beach in Cozumel--what great memories!

For some reason, I thought it was a minah bird. Duh, no. So I did some research and think it's some kind of gackle. This one and a few of his friends hang out on the beach, waiting for their handouts. What a life!

Come back soon!