mongoose vs. cobra scarf
I decided to start trying to combine the acrylic ink and thickened fiber reactive dye applications on my illustrated scarves. These are the materials I have, and I don't really want to have to spend a bunch of money on realio trulio silk paints and dyes that require three hours of steaming. Lately I've been looking at a lot of work by professional silk painters, and while it is all very beautiful, it isn't necessarily the direction I feel my artwork would take.
Thinking about how the scarf lies on the body when worn, I've been considering the imagery of opposites or enemies falling at either end, coming to face one another on the body. That's where this came in - thinking about Rikki-tikki-tavi's battle with Nag.
The figures are painted with Tsukineko ink and the green background was painted with thickened fiber reactive dye.
Do you like process shots? Here's the layering of ink that made my mongoose:
I know I'm fairly alone in my love of the blotchy, running parts, but oh well.
toddler sewing projects
Easter weekend, Alice spent the night at my mom's house, and my husband's band had a show in the Virginia Beach area, so I had the house to myself. I spent the day eating sandwiches and sewing the Oliver + S Ice Cream Dress.
ACTION!
Fabrics: Cloud 9 Monsterz Spotlight, Liberty Bloomsbury Collection Dorothy Pastel (and you can't see it but there's hand dyed pink cotton sheeting on the inner hem)
I had made one of the Oliver + S bucket hats for her before she turned 1, which she obviously grew out of. So in June I copied her new size pattern and made another one.
Fabrics: itsy bitsy spider from Nursery Versery by Heather Ross for Kokka, purple stripe dot from Jo-Ann overdyed yellow
She's a lot more willing to wear hats this year.
some dyed scarves from spring 2014
direct application of fiber reactive dye, resisted with clamped shapes, dyed in black acid dye
red low-water immersion dyed, folded, tied with dental floss, dyed in black acid dye
direct application of fiber reactive dye, tied with dental floss, dyed in black fiber reactive dye
folded and clamped with plastic shapes, direct application of fiber reactive dyes
folded and clamped with wood shapes, direct application of fiber reactive dyes
folded and tied with dental floss, direct application of fiber reactive dyes
Gharial scarf
Gharials are my favorite crocodilians. I suppose if you look at the thresher shark's giant tail and the gharial's super-long snout, I dunno, maybe I have a favorite animal type.
the Helix Nebula
This is a 4x6" freehand threadpainting stitched while glancing at an image from Astronomy Picture of the Day I left up on my computer screen. Lots of thread, cotton duck, Peltex. There's a bit of watercolor on paper to back it in its vintage frame.
Thresher shark scarf
The thresher shark is my favorite shark. I remember leafing through my Poppop's copy of The Lore of Sportfishing, looking at all the illustrations of different species of fish, and loving the thresher shark most of all for its large eyes and ultra-long tail.
I've been combing through my mental animal inventory to think of creatures that fit nicely on an elongated rectangle, and the shark seemed appropriate.
Anglerfish scarf
Fourth painted scarf: anglerfish. The metallic ink came in handy here for the lures. And the teeth, but that's harder to see in the photos.
Sour Grapes scarf
I think a lot about the Aesop’s fables sour grapes fox, like, “yeah those grapes are probably sour anyway,” he walks away saying dismissively, but obsesses over them in his head afterward, has dreams about them, those unobtainable grapes and that rotten crow, and slowly his life becomes all about devouring grapes and seeking revenge against the crow.. Basically it’s like a supervillain origin story. I keep drawing the fox, wetly licking his chops as he dreams about roast crow stuffed with grapes.
I thought it would be fun to paint it on a scarf in some way. Originally I had planned on putting the grapes in the center with the crow and fox at either end. Then when I started painting I just forgot? and put the grapes and crow on one end, with the fox on the other. Now when the scarf is worn, the grapes are upside-down. But it doesn't look even half as weird as I thought it would.
Squid scarf
For my second try with the Tsukineko ink, I wanted to do something big, with colors bleeding together, and then go back and fill in the details with a dry brush. (If you get anything from looking at the images I make, it's that a. I like to draw animals and b. I like heavy outlines.) So I decided to make a squid that ran the full length of the scarf.
