Dyeing Results and More Screen Printing

Posted on May 16, 2014 by ruthlane under mixed media, surface design

I worked today on samples for my mixed media/felt online course that I’m working up. It was lots of fun and I’m looking forward to sharing the processes. I also completed my 2nd quarter challenge for the Felting and Fiber Studio which I’ll post there soon. I thought you’d like to see a few of the dyed pieces from last week’s dyeing session.

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I like how most of them turned out and I’m not sure what they’ll be used for yet but I’m sure they’ll get more layering, especially the two scarves which are pretty boring.

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Because I had a bunch of thickened dye left over from my 2nd quarter challenge piece, I decided to do some screen printing and stenciling on paper. Most of the stencils were ones I had cut a long time ago. There were several that I had never even used. The little blue flowers are a commercial stencil that I won from a blog give away. I had fun playing with these today.

Last, but not least, I got my sewing machine back. So I added some stitching to the fossil paper lamination piece. I really like how it turned out. I will be making many more samples of paper lamination nuno felt as I work up the online class. Fun, fun, fun!

Results of Experimental Screen Printing Plus a Little Dyeing

Posted on May 9, 2014 by ruthlane under Dyeing, surface design

My local group met this afternoon for some gradation dyeing. I remembered to take some photos of the fabric from our last session of experimental screen printing.

These are pieces that Bunny and Carole did. I really like the unpredictability of this process. You never know what you’re going to get.

The rest of the afternoon we spent doing some dyeing. We were supposed to be doing gradation and ombre dyeing but we ended up just painting dye on to different fabric and scarves. I overdyed some of my previously screen printed fabric. All of the fabric is batching at the moment, then I need to rinse it out and iron it. So I’ll have to show you the results later. Have a nice weekend and thanks for stopping by.

Putting Off Tasks

Posted on May 2, 2014 by ruthlane under distorted cross stitch, hand stitching

Today I did a lot of tasks that I had been putting off for a while. First, I sprayed the soles of the slippers that I made for my husband and I. This task had to be put off because it was too cold to spray before this. It was a warm, sunny day, so I took them outside. So far, I’ve done 5 coats. I think I’ll do a few more until the can runs out.

I did a little felting after that but I’ll show you that next week on the Felting and Fiber Studio blog. When I bought my Pfaff sewing machine in June 2012, I was told that I could get a free cleaning and tune up if I brought the machine in before two years was up. So I decided I should get that taken care of and also learn how to use the embroidery unit on the machine. I was offered three free classes to learn how to use the machine which I never used. So, since I was already taking the machine in, I decided I should take a class as well.

Here’s the embroidery piece that I did during the “class”. Essentially, the woman just showed me the basics of how the embroidery unit works. I’m not sure I will use it much but I thought I should at least know the basics. The patterns aren’t exactly what I would normally use and it costs $2,200.00 to buy the software package that allows you to develop your own designs. So I guess if I do use it, I’ll be using what came with the machine.

I haven’t gotten much work done on my felted landscape but I have started the stitching in the tree section. If you click on the photo and enlarge it, you’ll be able to see the stitching a bit better. It still needs a lot of stitching. I’m not sure why I haven’t been working on this one but somehow, I’m not too excited about it. But I’ll get it done eventually. What have you been putting off?

Free Felted Soap Tutorial

Posted on April 25, 2014 by ruthlane under tutorial

When I wrote The Complete Photo Guide to Felting, the book was supposed to include 15 projects. But because I was so wordy and went on and on, they projects got cut. But then the publisher wanted to keep the projects. They haven’t done anything with them so I now have the rights back to them. My plan is now to publish the projects separately as PDF’s and that is what I have been working on today. I have the first wet felting project in PDF form and it is how to make felt covered soap.

This first PDF is free and you are invited to download it and take a look. I’m sure many of you who read this blog are way past needing instructions on how to make felted soap but you can see how the other PDF’s will look and the amount of information that the tutorials will contain. This is the easiest project of the wet felting tutorials and they become more complex. I will be releasing the PDF’s over the next several months and will be selling them from The Purple Pomegranate website. I have been working all month on getting that website store up and running. Hopefully, it will go live on May 1st. So I will let you know when the other tutorials are available. But here is the PDF tutorial on felting soap.

Felt Soap Tutorial

The rest of the day was spent getting ready for the Cosmic Felt Phone Case classes that I am giving at Glacier High School tomorrow.

I have piles of stuff ready to take with me. I am going this evening to scope out the room and set up as much as I can. I will be posting about the class next week on the Felting and Fiber Studio blog.

And my daffodils are finally blooming (the first one bloomed on Easter Sunday)! I have about 500 daffodil bulbs planted on a south-facing hill by my house. Spring for me is when the daffodils start to bloom. And it hasn’t snowed on them yet so we’re doing good 🙂

Circles Sketchbook All Filled Up

Posted on April 18, 2014 by ruthlane under mixed media, Sketching

I have been adding a few more pages to my circles sketchbook over the last month or so. The notebook is completely filled up so I guess it’s finished. I’m sure I will keep using the circle in designing as I have really enjoyed working in the sketchbook.

These three pages were some of the pages that I printed with breakdown screen printing. I just added a bit of silver with a silver Sharpie pen.

This one is done with various sized black pens.

I doodled on the rainbow-colored paper and then cut it into a variety of sizes of circles. Then I glued it down to the yellow page.

This one was cutting the circle up into wedges and then filling the wedges with Zentangles. I added the black lines on top to add a little interest to the page.

These circles are done with white, black and grey. All of the designs don’t really seem to go together but I like the individual designs.

This one was an experiment with wet paper that I pushed on to a textured rolling pin. Then I painted it to go with the page. I’m not sure how I got the yellow “explosion” on the right side of the page but I didn’t do it on purpose.

Here’s a spiraling star done in ink on a painted page.

This is another of my screen printed pages. I glued down the trilobite that was screen printed on paper towel and then added walnut ink. It’s not really a circle but I put it in anyways.

And this is the cover. It is done with metallic Sharpie pens on black paper. I had never tried the metallic Sharpies and I really like them. They come in a set of three with silver, bronze and gold. It’s amazing how many different designs you can develop just starting with the concept of a circle.

Ruth Lane Art

Experimenting with Arts Endless Possibilities