This past weekend was time for some experimenting. i found myself in the painting studio in the wee small hours just itching to open up all those dyes you see lined up on the easel. i dug through my stash of silks leftover from my old wedding gown design business and found a suitable piece of habotai silk. i ripped it to a 36″ square and taped it to the back board. White duct tape. Classy. i’m certain it would have been nicer to stretch the silk onto a frame for painting, but did i mention it was the wee small hours? And i was just experimenting after all, what’s the worst that could happen? A few hours and a few episodes of PSYCH later ( i really love that show!) and i came out with what you see on the board.
The next day, i used fabric markers to add doodles all over the silk as well and here is what resulted.
It was so interesting to see how the intense looking colors in the jars translated to such watery, transparent colors on the fabric. i used Dye-na-Flow silk paints from Dharma Trading. i chose them because they seemed the most user friendly for beginners and are just heat-set with an iron. i am a very low maintenance kinda gal. If you start talking about crafts that require lots of odd ingredients and equipment, i sorta zone out. PLUS! they have a really nice variety of shades and colors….PLUS! they are economical enough to get a whole bunch to experiment with…under $3 for the small jars! My parents actually gave these to me for my birthday in november. Mom is awesome about getting you just what she knows you wanted! Thanks mom & dad!
The silk project was super fun and it made me want to try another project that i cannot believe i’ve put off so long! Lino Block Stamp Making! i have made all sorts of mickey mouse temporary stamps in my day out of potatoes, corrugated cardboard, foamcore etc….but never tried carving linoleum before.
EPIPHANY!!!!
Even though i just picked a simple design for my first time out, and wasn’t super meticulous cutting it, i know i’m hooked! Now i have visions in my head of shelves and shelves of unique patterns and such. Cutting the block is just so relaxing!
Here is the first little bitty block i cut.
And since i didn’t have a specific project in mind for it yet, i just added a few plunks of this design to the background texture of a new painting. Can you find it? i sorta obscured it with other designs….but the stamp will have its day in the spotlight sometime soon. Definitely.
“BLUESY” – 12×12 acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas.
And what’s REALLY weird is that when i logged onto Facebook the day after i posted this, there was a very matchy-matchy post right below it in my feed!
Its the Pantone Spring Color predictions for what’s gonna be hip & happenin in 2012!? i am SO not hip & happenin. How did my brain know to use just about every color in this palette? Must’ve been all the PSYCH i was watching rubbing off on me. : )
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