Author Archives: ruthlane

Preparing for a Day of Silk Screening

Posted on by under surface design

My local group is going to be doing a day of silk screening at my house soon. So my friend Barb and I made some print paste and made some screens for deconstructing. The photos aren’t the best but hopefully you’ll get the idea.

These are the three screens. The one on the left was done with pine needles for texture. The middle one was stamped with three different foam flower stamps. And the last one was done with a syringe and drawing on the screen. I just realized when I looked at the photo that I forgot to add vertical squiggles on one of the lines. Oh well. I guess that’s a design feature.

This is the paper that I put beneath the pine needle screen to take up any excess dye. Once we pulled the screen off the paper, we turned the pine needles over and printed with them on to the paper. I really like how these turned out. Now to let everything dry. Some of the print paste is pretty thick on the screens so it will take a while to dry. But the meeting isn’t until the 11th so I have plenty of time.

Layering Tissue Paper and Fabric

Posted on by under mixed media

Today my surface design group met and we played with layering tissue paper, cheese cloth, sheer fabric and a fabric base. Then we added metallic foil and even some Pearl Ex Powders. I completely forgot to take any photos while we were there.

layered tissue piece web

Here’s a photo of what I put together. I had to add more blue paint when I got home because one of the tissue papers that I used which was blue, turned red when it got wet.

layered tissue close up web

Here’s a close up. This was an interesting process as the layering keeps changing how it looks. I have to decide if I want to fuse this to fabric and then do some machine stitching or just leave it as is. I might cut it up into smaller pieces and make greeting cards. I haven’t decided yet.

Paula's Piece

This one was done by my friend Paula. We brought it home and used paper croppers to see how it would look framed. The photo doesn’t really do it justice though.

Feeling Batty

Posted on by under Felt, fibers, wet felting

This summer I will be teaching at Olds Fibre Week in Canada. So I have been working on supplies for the classes. Each morning, I make a batt on the drum carder.

drum carder

This first set I am working on is for Felting Cosmic Phone Cases. So the colors are ones that you might think of as night sky.

wool batt

The colors are blues, purples, and mixes of black, grey and cool colors. Then there are contrasting embellishments for planets, stars and constellations.

bin of batts

This is the bin of all the ones I have made so far. I am up to about 18-20.

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

Here’s an example of the phone case that I’ll be teaching. So if you’re interested in taking any classes, you can start signing up on the Olds website on March 8. I will also be teaching how to felt a cup sleeve/cozie, nuno felting a scarf, felting a cat cave and felting slippers.

 

A Peek Into My Sketchbook

Posted on by under sketch book

I had quite a bit of waiting time this week, so I worked in my sketchbook while I waited. It always makes the time go by faster.

I showed you this leaf page before but I wasn’t happy with it. Teri suggested that I add a darker value to the background and it was an excellent suggestion. I like the end result much better.

The rest of these were all done in the same manner with soy wax and paint first. Then once the soy wax is removed, I add in more color. So it is easy to work on when I’m waiting as all I need to do is add in whatever color I’d like. It’s kind of mindless but keeps you occupied. Hope you all have a good weekend.

Quick Update

Posted on by under wet felting

I worked all day today on the First Quarter Challenge for The Felting and Fiber Studio. I didn’t get finished but you can read more about it on my post tomorrow over at the studio site.

This photo is in the middle of the process. And it’s not finished yet so you’ll have to wait to see the end result.

The other thing I have been busy with is my online screen printing course. This week starts the fun stuff so I am looking forward to seeing the prints that the students create. Have a good weekend!