Doll

I mentioned at the end of the last post that I was starting to work on my pieces for the printed fabric swap over at Bitter Betty Blogs. I signed up because I have been wanting to try it forever and this is the push I need.

I decided to go with stamping as opposed to silk screen or something. I wanted to try it with the least possible capital outlay and the fewest new skills to learn. I was already feeling totally over my head and have had a very hard time finding any information. The first confusion was over the Speedball Speedy-Cut block- pink or white? What is the difference? The people in my local art store couldn’t enlighten me. Later I found this on Alma Stoller site, so now I know. I ended up buying the white because it cost less and I had no idea what else to base the choice on! Carving was easy and fun! I was having so much fun with the carving part, I was very reluctant to transition to the next step…

printing. I REALLY didn’t want to go out and buy printing inks- I know, I’m cheap. But I have so many types of color mediums already- I just couldn’t imagine bringing something new into the house. I was thinking about oil paints, oil bars, acrylic paints, to start the list. I found this article and it helped me settle on acrylic paints. This is another page of useful links and information. I wanted something that would be washable and have a good feel, not stiff- I want to be able to actually use this fabric!

The first step was to try out my stamps on paper. I used inexpensive craft type acrylic paint- the kind that comes in the little bottles. I sponged the paint onto my stamps using pieces of make-up sponges- those things are a great art tool! Here’s what I got-

The brown stamp on white was my first attempt on fabric.

Based on the various bits of information I could find, this is what I have figured out so far.

-Acrylic paints work very well, but don’t try using a brayer or a brush of any kind- I couldn’t manage anything that wasn’t very streaky. Daubing the paint onto the stamp works very well- I used the make-up sponges and also some wads of felt.

-adding drying retardant was helpful both in slowing the drying and also making the paint a bit gummier.

-one article suggested dampening the fabric first. I had no better results when I tried that. Actually I had some color bleeding so I’d say forget that idea.

-after I finished printing/stamping, I let the fabric dry for a bit (1/2 hour?). Then I ironed the fabric on both sides with steam on a cotton setting. I have no idea if this was necessary. I then threw them all into the washer at a regular warm wash. I noticed no change in the color at all, after the wash. Yeah!

Here are my test pieces after washing-

detail-

Now I have to think about doing my bigger pieces- yikes! This is actually a lot harder then I ever thought. I am nervous about the 1/2 yard pieces with no major screw-ups. Also, choosing the colors turns out to be a lot harder then I thought it would be. I will be coming out of this project with a new respect for fabric designers!

another little thing I was working on this week-

Here’s the problem. I am going to participate in an open studio event in Boston with a group of other Etsy sellers- details on that in a week or so, but in case you want know, it is May 4. I needed to figure out some kind of give-away to add to a promo pack… stuff from all of the exhibitors. Some of the others in the group were already doing this and had buttons made up. Hmm. I knew I didn’t want to spend much money, I wanted a clear image of my work and I didn’t want it to involve a lot of labor. Here is what I came up with-

ta da! Refrigerator magnets!

They are made from photos of Mosaics on Flickr. First, I made up a variety of mosaics. I picked out photos that worked well in the square format and in a 2″ x 2″ photo. I made the mosaics 2 photos by 3 photos since that translates perfectly to a 4 x 6 photo. The most important thing is to upload your images in the large size- spoken from experience. My first batch of photos was too grainy to use. I printed out my info- name and etsy site address- nothing fancy. Then it was just putting them together onto the self adhesive magnetic sheet. The paper doll project brought this stuff into my life and I’m loving it! This project involved no special tools- the photos were printed at Target, I got the magnetic sheets at AC Moore, you can cut the magnetic sheeting with regular scissors, I printed out my info on regular paper with my very low end printer. Yes- meets all criteria!

First of all- Thank you, thank you for all the positive response to mr. naked robot! I’ve been glowing!

It was one of those weeks where a lot was going on that kept me away from the sewing machine. I have a friend that works at Harvard in the African Studies Department. They were having a special event this week which included a workshop lead by Oyenike Okundaye, on Nigerian fabric dyeing. It was fun to get out of the house and get a glimpse into several worlds I’m not part of- African textile arts, Harvard and their academic arts, and people in general who end up at a workshop like this, mostly somehow connected with Harvard, which I am not.

The first night we did what I think of as tie-dyeing. She showed us a variety of traditional ways to fold the fabric before tieing (actually we were using rubber bands). These are the ones I did-

and this is what the floor looked like by mid-evening-

We also did some work with wax and dye and also a technique that involved stitching and pulling to gather the fabric. What I did the second evening-

I think I’ll be able to use some of what I was playing with when I dye my wool fabrics… which I do every once in a while. Lots of fun!

Also- I think I worked out the twisting leg problem that was bugging me on the naked robot guy- I did some ripping stitches out, adjusting and resewing- better now- phew!

Doll club was yesterday and we tried needle felting. I’ve never done it except to try putting hair on a doll- not for me. But this was fun! We made bunnies-

mine is very soft and squishy- too much. If I do it again, I will try to start out with firmer wrapped wool roving.

Today we went to Logee’s for a mini-vacation expedition. It is worth the drive just to breathe the air.

I’ve gotten a little done on the pears. Here they are, all basted down. They are made from 5 wool recycled sweaters and one piece of woven wool.

I am appliqueing them, using that method I learned at Purl last summer-

and now they are sewed down. That’s a piece of cashmere that they are sewed onto, from my Mom’s stash.

I’m sorry about all the problems with the blog and comments and all. Hopefully we will figure out a way to get things running smoothly and consistently again.

The night before leaving for Minnesota, it became clear that he didn’t have a scarf. I made him a scrappy one out of woven cashmere from my mom’s scraps.

Here, I am playing around on the floor with design and color possibilities-

I nixed that brown check and added red.

Here it is, laid out on the front porch, finished (yes, we had a little snow last night)-

a close-up of construction-

It is 7 3/4 inches wide and 6 feet 8 inches long.

I’d like to make a blanket like this some day- wouldn’t that be fantastic, a cashmere blanket?!

Today was our doll club holiday lunch. We do a swap every year, and this year I suggested that we might do pincushions. That was what prompted my article on make-dos for the club newsletter. Here is mine in progress-

I piled up some of my wool scraps in the bottom. Here it the finished object-

I was VERY inspired by Kristen’s pins- my version!

wow, 2 finished projects to post about in one day!

Here is the finished “make-do” pin cushion for Tina.

I glued the pin cushion to the glass but also put these strings on. I thought it would be a good reinforcement and I also like how it looks-

And here is Little Red Ridinghood 2-

a detail of her face-

and body-

and here she is flat- “I fell down and I can’t get up!!!” - sorry, don’t quite know if anyone would be interested in this view but here it is anyway-

I put up some more dolls and postcards on my Etsy shop if you’re interested.

This is what I brought home from NIADA-

It is called “Church Hat”, is about 6″ tall with the pedestal, and is by Annie Wahl. If you are interested in seeing some more photos from NIADA- much better then mine- Deb Wood posted her’s here.

Since I’ve been home my mind has been spinning with ideas. I am inspired to do another gourd doll… a bit late for the NIADA show, but I don’t do well when I feel I am trying to fit my work into a challenge prompt. I cleaned a bunch of gourds and who knows, I might get around to painting them…

I had several things on my list of things to do, even before I left town. I had promised my sister a “make-do” pin cushion. She picked out the glass and the colors when she was visiting me last month.

I got it finished today. Here it is in bondage, no I mean being glued in place-

and now another Red Riding Hood. I’ve got to work through some of the bits I’m not satisfied with on the first one-

I was so excited to see that my first Red Riding Hood was on Whip Up! Welcome anyone that has found me through Kath’s fantastic blog!

So I just did a group of postcards. I had fun drawing little doodles on fabric with Micron Markers. We had a family field trip over to Utrecht to buy art supplies for Peter’s summer classes. Surprise- look what I found! These fantastic markers were on sale, only .99 and in such beautiful colors- So much for Peter’s art supplies!

Well, the new markers inspired this little project that I did today. I was thinking it would be fun to make myself a sketchbook with cloth pages instead of paper. Then, I could snip out little drawings when I wanted to do the applique collage postcards or atc’s. I made myself 2 piles of fabrics and put sheets of freezer paper between each layer of fabric. I machine sewed an edge and then sliced them into sketchbook sized pieces. I’ve ended up with a total of 5, so I am probably set for life.

The fabric “sketchbooks” are way too floopy to use, so I decided they needed some kind of support structure. I made a little portfolio cover to put them in. Here are all the parts layed out. The colors in this photo are accurate- the next photos are sort of washed out. You can see the cardboard covers and spine on the right of the photo.

Here is the front- it has a pocket for my pens and pencil-

and the back- it closes with a wrap around tie-

here are some pages. You can see the layers of freezer paper. This pad has lots of colors, the other side is mostly white. The 2 pads are held in place with bulldog clips.

and I put a strip of fabric in the back so my little moleskin can have a place too.

I did this using the same technique that I used on this project- wonder-under onto cardboard. I am still amazed.