Making stuff in March

Been a busy set of weeks since my last posting!!

‘Heron’ was accepted for the AAFG show in the gallery at the Village Theater at Cherry Hill, Canton, MI.  The show run March 1-26, 2013.

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March 8-10, I spent a fabulous 3 days in a dye workshop with Jane Dunnewold.  Jane is a wonderful artist and teacher!  Using fiber reactive MX dyes, we printed on silk, cotton, linen, and rayon fabric using stencils, thermofax screen printing, paint brushes, stamps and more!!

I spent the last day working on a parasol.  Using stencil, thermofax screen printing and paint brushes on a commercial cotton umbrella blank I created ‘Butterfly Sunshade’ Parasol.  Using the brushes to ‘paint’ the dyes created the textured ‘watercolor’ effect.  UV block sun protection fabric treatment provides 30+ UPF.

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Over the past 2 weeks, I made 2 new garments from yardage I wove last summer.  The jacket and vest (along with the dyed parasol) have been accepted for the runway at the AAFG’s annual Fiber Feast Fashion Show on April 13th.

Woven in plain weave @24epi.  The warp is 5/2 spaced dyed mercerized perle cotton (‘Prairie’ from Valley Cottons) with a 1″ stripe of 5/2 black perle cotton.  The weft is 10/2 perle cotton.  The woven fabric reminds me of the dark chestnut coat and stripes on the hindquarters and upper legs, the Okapi of central Africa.

Woven in plain weave – @24epi.  The warp is alternating stripes of thick and thin Rayon Boucle.  The weft is a Mohair/wool/nylon blend.

The woven fabric reminds me of the changing colors of the fall foliage here in Michigan.  The finished vest is fully lined in silk habotai.