More Indigo!

Only half of the OT gang could attend our last together but Jackie and I had lots of success with the indigo bucket. We made new clothes and home accessories from the old. Here's what's new and blue ...

The t-shirt was an over-dye from our last session. There was more white than I wanted so I was going to do a quick dip to add some lighter blue in the background but Jackie suggested another tie-dye session for it, on the diagonal, which is what I did and I'm very happy with it now.


Jackie adds:

Lime linen shirt overdyed in indigo

indigo overdye assortment

tatty peach shirt before

not so tatty shirt after

overdyed doilies in indigo

3/21/2014 Gelli and Paste Papers at Belinda's

In South Florida where we live, we are able to utilize our outdoor space in the winter or summer for drying our painted creations. Many find our summers too intense but others are happy to be here no matter the weather - hurricanes notwithstanding. 

Belinda and Elizabeth made wallpaper paste papers and Gina watched our process because she had never used this technique. The wallpaper paste gives a raised texture to the painted image especially when you draw into it with plastic utensils or other mark making tool. 

Belinda and Gina also used their Gelli pads for fabric and paper monoprinting.

In the picture below, left to right, on the top row are Elizabeth's paste papers, Gina's Gellied fabric, Belinda's paste papers.

Middle row, center are Gina's Gellied papers and right,a table full of drying papers.

Bottom row center is the reverse of Belinda's Gellied deli paper and right, the front of that same paper. We liked how the translucence made the paper usable from either side.

Above left are two bookmarks created with packing tape pressed and gently burnished onto the dried paint on the Gelli pad and then removed and pressed onto an old book page. Trimmed up they make pretty cool bookmarks to remember another fun Odd Tuesday. 

As we were leaving Belinda's house, we noticed her hand almost looked as if it had been painted henna-style. But was imprinted with some paint images from a lovely day making messes and getting our hands dirty.

Indigo Dyeing Day

Indigo Dyeing Day

A breezy and slightly chilly day on the patio with two indigo dye buckets.

Jackie's bucket used a slightly older Jacquard indigo kit, while Gina's was newer. Biggest difference? Gina's white powder chemicals (soda ash and thiox?) were in separate packets, while Jackie's were pre-mixed.

Neither bucket seemed to produce the 'bloom flower' to scoop off of the top prior to dunking the fabrics.

The dyes seemed to take quite well initially, but the proof is in the washout! What will stick? Was Jackie's bucket mix viable?

Pics to follow of the washout results!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jackie adds:

Here's the grid of cotton and linen pieces after
a) rinse with hose and bucket outside
b) wash in washing machine with detergent
c) dryer drying (except doilies or scarf)

Jackie's cotton and linen indigo dye results

1. blue cotton t-shirt with spiral tie
2. pink cotton t-shirt with spiral tie
3. Belinda's "car seat cover" with spiral tie
4. Belinda's other "car seat cover" with spiral tie
5. overdyed gelli prints on cotton
6. overdyed old doilies
7-9. overdyed linen shirt with some stitch resist (and mark-hiding result)

Jackie's overdyed rayon scarf

Rayon scarf with procion dye base and indigo overdye.

Summary/thoughts:

My cotton and linen washout results are a bit disappointing. The coloration is very subtle - I hoped for darker and/or more dye sticking.
So...was it the prep (tshirts may have had dryer sheet residue) ...or the prep of the bucket...or the temperature of the day (heard that heat gives better indigo results) or the fabric type... or impatience (longer oxidizing/soak wait).

Or - did we exhaust the indigo in the bucket? I thought it was good for 5 shirts - yet Gina thought it was 15. Hmmmm.

However - the rayon worked out great! It had two dunkings in the indigo bucket.

I was all set to fling everything in a new bucket right away - but I'll ponder my approach for a bit and do some technique research before I go experimenting!

Hope to see everyone else's pieces soon....

--Jackie

And another update from Jackie:

I looked up the instructions/reviews on the Dharma Trading site:

The kit should do 5 pounds of fabric or about 15 yards.

One reviewer posted the following

 Excellent results. Dyed about three pounds of cotton fabric some silk ribbon three huge skeins of handspun over three days. After that the flower shrunk up and the liquid turned blue--exhausted. Ordered several more kits.

and I'm now thinking my dye pot was exhausted quickly because it was overwhemingly blue vs. green to start.

--Jackie

Updates Continue.....Gina's Results:

I did a total of 12 t-shirts/tops, 8 or 9 pairs of socks and several pieces of varying sizes of fabric. A few pieces were given a second dip. I was happy with the color. I didn't notice a difference between pre-soaking fabric and putting it in dry although I did the dry pieces near the end of my dyeing so perhaps they would not have absorbed as much dye had they been wet. They sure did sop up the dye water though as my bucket was down to about 1/3 full after the bulky t-shirts and socks. My vat stayed green though throughout.

Elizabeth here - I dyed four items:
some fabric that had been sunprinted with acrylic paint on an earlier OT day and then a linen napkin. I scrunched them in my hand and held them in the dye for a little more than a minute.

 I also overdyed a silk scarf  that had been dyed with procion dyes. I knotted it and used Gina's dye bucket and it came out with many gradations of blues and greens and I am very pleased with it.

~~Belinda's photos via Jerry...~~~

Origami Boxes and Book folding

Much, much sharing takes place during our bi-monthly gatherings! As our shared project we  tasked ourselves with exploring origami box folding from papers we've created in the past. And some of us tried folded book forms.

Separately we've all been decluttering and minimizing our stashes - and friends' stashes of stuff.

We share - plants, fabrics, jewelry bits, magazines, books,   - some to use, some to sell, some to pass along again!

And we share - stories and tales of technology woes, travel hopes, family, pets, books, films, and shows.

And always - good company and nibbles galore!

Elizabeth here - I am participating in the Documented Life Project that is the brain child of five artists who blog at http://www.arttothe5th.com/.  Every week we are encouraged to document our lives using the offered prompt and if we choose - to share those on the Facebook page. Here are two of my journal pages that I shared with our Odd Tuesday tribe.

The prompt was inspiration from your favorite artist. I tried to create in the  style of Ingrid Dijkers with photos of my father and my grandson.

We were prompted to add a flap to a flap for this page. I had happily purged some of my husband's very old and bad wine so using the label and a journaling card, I added a playing card. "It's a good thing."

The Documented Life Project Facebook group has 5600+ members with so much information, inspiration and encouragement that I'm finding it a wonderful experience. Check it out!

Gouache Resist

Last get together Jackie told us about this technique she had tried out, pretty cool using water color paints, gouache watercolor paint and India ink. She and Belinda both did some experimenting before today so we had a tutorial. Jackie and Belinda getting started.....

 Elizabeth and I hadn't done our prep work so planned to just audit the class but I couldn't resist a resist class so got busy with my supplies.

 Here's one of Jackie's completed pieces she brought to show us. I love it! (I've been trying to save all the Monarch butterflies in our yard this week so this little bug shape is very special and it's so well done!)

 More of Jackie's work in the foreground and Belinda is working on her design. First step is draw and outline your design with a black marker.

 Jackie getting ready to spread white gauche paint over her watercolor painted design.

 It was a winter day in Florida .... B's wearing a sweater!

 Cool but sunny outside so we hurried the drying time with the help of the sun. Note previous OT project, painted rocks used as weights.

 I think Jackie's bug held with the rocks is in the second drying stage (gouache done) . B's and mine are in first drying stage (watercolor done).

 Third drying stage was covering the whole thing with India ink. Here Jackie is washing it off.

 J's paper was a softer paper (recommended is watercolor paper) so she was gentle in the wash as the paper can also get washed away!

 The magic begins .... color appears.....

 and a bug emerges .....

 Here Belinda washes madly using a toothbrush. That streak in the middle is the blur of her toothbrush.

Three finishes pieces or at least the start of something .....

 I wasn't happy with my teapot so tried to add some more watercolor but that only made it muddier so I used a sponge  to pounce some white acrylic on it. It's still the start of something.

Thanks for another fun OT day ladies!

Elizabeth here - in between drying times and while we were eating lunch, we watched a video called Art Stamping Innovations: Carving Workshop by Gloria Page which we would recommend. We got it from our local library.

It was such an informative video with many new techniques that we may try in the future. We were especially impressed with her helpful, unassuming manner in her directions and narration. It is so sad that Gloria Page passed on last February, 2013.

Jackie's heart cards - gouache resist technique

Jackie here - there's my heart cards that were in process at Gina's. At home I added the black ink while being mindful of the brush stroke direction - choosing to encircle the heart on the left card, and radiate lines outward from the heart in the right card. Both of these cards used colored gouache - a mix of yellows and pinks. I think the color mixing is interesting - more vibrant end result than white only.

And a 'watch this next time' point: when drying cards outside in the wind - be aware that the paper will take on the shape of the paper weight. I have huge circles impressed in the plain side of the cards from my flower pot paper weights!!

For future reference source of the gouache resist idea: Jane Powell gouache resist demo
Martha Lever blog

October 1st Gelli Time

Our first fall get together was at Gina's but only three of us could make it. At show and tell Jackie showed us the clay parts to her doll and explained how she added the color ......

 ....she soaked the clay pieces in tea, leaving them until the tea had evaporated. How cool is that?! They looked yummy enough to nibble on.

We moved on to our Gelli pads and did some printing, forgetting about photo taking. After Jackie and Belinda left I continued printing and then remembered the camera. So here are a few pieces.......

The nice big one was made by Belinda .... thanks for leaving it Belinda! Did you say you'd like it back?

The rest were done on standard 81/2 x 11 paper....

 I really like using this cool plastic lid.

Odd Tuesday Withdrawals

Missing OT so I've decided to make a post..... I remembered to take photos before sending off 'just a piece of paper' earlier this summer.....