Thermofax Class at Artistic Arifacts

A great group of 8 creative ladies spent Saturday at Artistic Artifacts learning to print with thermofax screens.  We played with paint, discharge paste, thickened dye and foil and saw how they could be used with screens. Here they are in action.

And some of their work.

Catherine is over printing a black and white piece she brought with her.

Susan had some pieced with previously printed backgrounds (above) and experimented with mixing colors below.

I think we all had a fun day!  On February 13, we will be teaching how to Turn Your Photos into Thermofax Screens. Learn to manipulate your own photos in Photoshop Elements to create black and white images suitable for screens so you can create with your own unique imagery!

More Snow Dye Results

Round 3 results are OK, not as striking as yesterday, as I didn't do any special folding.  The 2 pieces in the bottom of the pans were twirled in a sort of loose "rosette". The 2 on top of the pans were just scrunched.

This pan had parakeet (blue) and dragonfruit (pink) dye.  It's interesting to see how the 2 colors deposited on the fabric.

This pan had lime squeeze (green) and golden delicious (yellow).

 This is how they looked after the snow had melted.

Below are the 2 pieces that were on top of the screens on both pans.

 The parakeet dye is not even noticeable on the piece above.

The lime is barely visible on this piece.  Not a bad yellow though.

This is my favorite of the 4 pieces.  Apparently all the parakeet dripped through to this piece in the bottom of the pan.

This one has a mixture of the 2 colors.  I was heavy handed with the golden delicious because it is on the old side, and a light color, so thought it would be over powered by the green.  Not the case.   I haven't decided if I will do any more; none in process at the moment.  There is still snow though, so we'll see!

Round 2 of Snow Dyeing

After round 1 of snow dyeing was finished (the light blue pieces), Sue set up batch 2 with the 2 remaining pieces of soda ash soaked fabric.  You may remember this picture from a few days ago.

The only color dye here is called black cherry.  There was a piece in the pan to collect the melting snow, and a piece on the mesh directly under the snow that was folded to create a mandala - at least, that was the plan.  I thought I took a picture of the folded piece, but apparently not.  Here is what the 2 pieces look like after rinsing and final wash.

Not bad for a first attempt!  You can see how the black cherry separates into the component colors.

This piece was in the pan, loosely bunched and banded - kind of like an accordion fold but not exactly folded.  I think I like this effect better than precise folds which produce straighter lines.  Round 3 of snow dyeing is soaking now, so more pictures tomorrow.

Valentine Screens and Mug Rug

With Valentine's Day quickly approaching, we decided to add a few more screens to the shop and make a quick and easy project that featured fabric printed with these screens.  Along with the "love" themed screens we have an additional snowflake screen for the snow enthusiasts as we deal with the blizzard of 2016 here in Northern Virginia.  You can find these screens in the Etsy shop.

First we printed some fabric using the new screens.  The scattered hearts and "love" screens work well together.  These were printed with white and coral paint blended together, which is why some of the hearts appear to be incomplete - those are spots where the coral paint is heavier.  By the way, the background of this hand dyed fabric was previously discharged using deColourant and our water ripple screen.

Sue also had this tic-tac-toe sample which she decided to combine with the "love print" for a quick mug rug.

The finished dimensions were to be about 6 x 8 inches, so the first step was cutting pieces to size and seaming two together for the top, but you can make whatever dimensions you want.  The dimensions she cut were 6.5 x 4, and 6.5 x 5.  The backing was cut 6.5 x.8.5, and fusible fleece 6 x 8.  The two pieces for the top were seamed along the 6.5 inch side with a 1/4 inch seam.  The fusible fleece is cut smaller to eliminate seam allowances and bulk; since it is fused on, no need to worry about it shifting. 

After applying the fleece, layer the top and backing right sides together.

Then stitch a 1/4 inch seam around all sides, leaving a 3-4" opening to turn right side out.

Trim the corners to reduce bulk.  Turn right side out and press, pressing the open edges to the inside.  These edges will be secured with an edge stitch before quilting.  Choose your thread to either blend or contrast.

First stitch close to the edge all the way around.  Then quilt as desired.  Sue chose to do concentric rectangles over the whole piece. 

Starting in one corner, she did continuous stitching using the edge of the presser foot as the guide, which puts the stitching lines about 3/8" apart.

And there you have the finished piece.  (It's not actually as wonky as it looks here - just not the best picture.)  Why not make a few for your favorite people?  Add a mug and some chocolates for an easy Valentine's Day gift! 

Snow Dye Preliminary Results

All the snow on the dye pieces had melted this morning, so it was time to to rinse, soak and wash, but first, I had to see what they look like!  Keep in mind I was aiming for a light blue/white combination, something that might evoke the idea of crystals.  So while the results are not spectacular, I think there's plenty here that I can work with to create the vague vision in my head.  The first 4 have the baby blue dye.

This is the piece that had the whiffle balls in it.  Bursts of darker color, lots of white.

The pole wrapped piece.  This worked better than I expected.

This piece was loosely bunched with widely spaced rubber bands around it and was in the pan under the whiffle ball piece.  It worked pretty well; more random than the piece in the next photo which was in the same pan.

This one was accordion folded with rubber bands about every 3 inches.  This has a more defined pattern because of the folds.

This is the piece that was scrunched and has both azure blue and kingfisher blue dyes.  The pinkish/coral color in the bottom right corner is probably from the kingfisher blue.  In snow and ice dyeing, the dyes that are made up of multiple colors separate out which can create some really interesting fabrics.  This is an "extra" - not intended for the "crystal" project.  These pieces are all soaking, to be rinsed and washed later to get rid of the excess dye.  We'll see if they change much through the rinsing and washing.


Since I had one more piece that was soda ash soaked, I was inspired by Vicki Welsh's dyeing to try creating a mandala.  So I used a portion of the half yard to fold for the mandala, and put the rest of the piece in the bottom of the pan.  This has black cherry dye, which is one of those that is made up of other colors, so I'm hoping for some interesting patterning.  We'll see tomorrow.  I've never done a mandala before, so again, another experiment!

Blizzard of 2016 = Snow Dyeing

Winter storm Jonas hit northern Virginia about 1PM Friday, continued through the night and it is still snowing at 3PM Saturday.  We are easily at 20 inches, with more to come.  So what does one do with all that snow?  Snow dye, of course!  Elizabeth had her pieces prepped earlier in the week in anticipation, but unfortunately had to leave town due to a family emergency just before the storm hit.  So not to disappoint, I (Sue) started pulling things together Friday night by soaking some PFD (prepared for dyeing) fabric in a soda ash solution.  This afternoon I finally got things set up and dye applied.  I am trying some different things this time, a few shibori pieces, so we'll see what the results are some time tomorrow.

The piece on the left has the fabric banded around baseball size whiffle balls.  A smaller size might work better, but this is what I had available.  Don't know what you'll get until you try it, right?  In the pan underneath are 2 pieces - a half yard that is accordion pleated and rubber banded, and a fat quarter.  These will soak up the melting snow and dye.  The blue pan has a piece that is pole wrapped.  Normally, this would be set in a container of liquid dye, but again, another experiment to see if this works with snow.  The green pan is the standard scrunched half yard on top and a fat quarter below.  My philosophy is, if I don't like the results, they can always be over dyed!

Here are the pans packed with snow.  It only took 2 dishpans of snow to cover these - not even a dent in the amount of snow outside! 

It must be a blue day.  The left & center pans have baby blue dye and the right has azure blue with a bit of kingfisher blue added in.  This is another experiment.  Usually I mix a liquid dye solution to pour over the snow, but this time I decided to try it in powder form.   The reason for all blue is a project I have in mind.  I want light blue with plenty of white still showing, so that is the reason for the various shibori methods.  The azure blue on the green pan surprised me with how dark it is.  Hopefully the end result of all will be considerably lighter with some interesting effects.  Stay tuned for results!

Moon River

The process of making Moon River was challenging.  There were a few trial and error elements to this quilt that evolved over time.  Here are some pictures from the process as well as some detail shots of the finished quilt.  Since the exhibit and piece are all about the moon, that's what I started with.  I had a shibori resist piece done with large circles, so I used one of those circles, which were light blue surrounded by indigo, and printed with half a head of cabbage to give it texture.

In the first incarnation, I kept the indigo surrounding the moon as part of the sky, but wasn't happy with the sky so ended up cutting the moon out and making it a fusible applique on top of the reworked sky.

The river was the other important part of this piece and I had purchased several batiks that I thought would work, but as I auditioned them and went through my stash, this piece of pole wrapped shibori jumped out as being the right one.

Back to the moon.  It needed more shine than just the paint, so I fused some Angelina fibers together, then fused them on top of the moon to give it a glow.  The sky was redone with curved piecing and embellished with fibers.  (The first go round used raw edge strips that were straight; it needed the curved edges instead.)

The trees were cut from a batik, fused on and then stitched.  Those in the path of the moonlight were stitched with "shimmer" thread for extra sparkle.

In the bottom left corner of the quilt is a rock made from a hand dyed fabric and thermofax printed with a crackle screen.  Next to the rock is the silhouette of a boy, contemplating the river and where it might be going.  The song lyrics by Johnny Mercer are reminiscent of his youth in the southern US and his longing to expand his horizons, so that is my tribute to the lyricist.

Also in the corner is a QR code which, when scanned with a QR reader on a smart phone, links to a YouTube video of the Andy Williams version of Moon River.

I'm pleased with the end result, though it was a bit of a struggle to get there!