More Than Frost Is On The Pumpkin

Much to my surprise, I woke up to accumulating snow this morning. Driving around town, this was one of the sights I saw.

But not all the leaves are off the trees yet.

Although my maple lost all its golden glow about a week ago, and now makes a stark contrast to the white snow.

Last week I did some more work on the red blob piece. This is the result after discharging, i.e., barely any change.

So I decided to put in some additional elements. It is still batching, and I hope to wash it out today. But now I must go out into the snowish weather and search for a Thanksgiving turkey.

It All Starts with White Fabric, Part II

Three pieces of fabric in process, most recently screened with the same image and color, then washed:

This one started with using up left over dye.

This one is the orange that won't die, but will dye.

Don't know what to say about this one as I can't remember how it started, although there seems to be some of that orange in it.

Who knows what will happen next? I certainly don't. Hope you stay tuned for further installments.

It All Starts with White Fabric, Part I

Yes, this is how it starts, and I never know how it's going to turn out. But I've been doing more work lately, so I'm going to post lots of pictures so you can see how it's going.

This is the one piece I've been focusing on. I've been working on it in a once-a-week class on whole cloth composition. The class is challenging me to think and work in a way that is different from how I usually work. I screened the whole piece using torn freezer paper as a resist for the red shapes. For once the red dye really took. I free-handed the black curve with a black Sharpie marker.

But the background color wasn't right, so I decided to discharge it. The freezer paper got a little burned and was difficult to remove. Some of it lasted through four hot water washings!

Then it looked like this. Lighter background, but still not right. That Sharpie marker seems to stay no matter what you do.

Then I screened in some chartreuse.

And it came out like this. (My back door makes for an interesting design wall.)

Then I decided to discharge a different shape and got this. I used freezer paper again to keep the red shapes from being discharged.

But the color was still bothering me, so I screened purple over all of it. It's interesting to note that--in terms of true color--sometimes the photos look better than the fabric and vice versa.

And this is where it is now. (Please ignore the background, it's all part of my archeological design wall.) I think the piece is much more interesting than what shows up every time I take a photo. On the whole, the piece is more complex than the photos indicate, and now I'm also concerned about how well it might ultimately photograph, assuming I continue to the finish with it. I can't believe how those red blobs jump out in the photos, but are much more subdued in reality. I think I'm going to have to do something to them, but I'm not sure what. Suggestions welcome.



For more quick views of other pieces in process, see Part II.