My Birthday Post . . . . . . . . (another reason why I love NJ)

The bitter cold temperatures have given way to a bit of sun. We've had very little snow here so far this year. It has warmed up enough to melt the ice in the Delaware Bay but the shore is still covered with frozen waves. Ray and I took a late afternoon walk on the beach in the Villas today and I took these images. We only saw 2 seagulls. A lovely way to celebrate a winter birthday....

Combination of Techniques

Here are two finished screen prints on rust dyed fabrics. I love the texture the rust marks add to the overall design and the warm golden color.

My Newest Projects

I've spent alot of time recently screen printing on fabric.
The first picture shows my work table with some sketches and preliminary digital images.
The second picture shows the screen set up and ready to print. I'm using thickened procion dyes, rather than paint or ink. I don't want to change the hand of the fabric.
The final pictures are some of my results before washing the activator and excess dye out of the fabric. The colors lighten up just a bit.

Finished Product

Here's the same rusted piece after being washed and pressed.
I used a large coffee can for this piece, it is larger than most of my rusted bits. Now coffee comes in plastic tubs (useful for other enterprises but what to rust with next????)

Rusting Fabric

I've found that I am IN LOVE with rusted fabrics. They stand alone wonderfully in a project and are excellent beginning pieces to dye, paint, stamp or print on. Here you see a collections of rusted elements and the pieces in the rust dye bath. I like to wind cotton cording around my pieces. It increases the pattern on the fabric and yields yard and yards of rusted cording.
The last photo is a piece right out of the bath (in bright sunlight.) It will lighten a bit when it has been washed and pressed.

A New Year, A New Post.....

Happy New Year!

I'm going to try to get caught up posting pictures I've been taking of all my projects these last couple of months.
These are some of the little polymer clay tiles I made while reading "Mixed Media Mosaics" by Laurie Mika. A wonderful book that got me looking at my collections of stamps and mica powders in a whole new way.