New Projects-Dyed Fabric and Beaded Books!

After finding tons of inspiration and motivation at my Surfce Design group, I have begun to tiptoe into the realm of fabric dyeing. i have held myself back as i thought that there would be a huge amount of supplies and pots and buckets of dyes and mess and such, involved with the whole process. I have come to the realization that it is very possible to dye up small batches of fabric with very limited supplies, without a sea of buckets and pots, and very small quantities of dyes. Oh what fun!!!!

Below you will see my first experiments with sun dyeing using Setacolor Dyes made by Peboe. I used prewashed unbleached muslin and leaves and grasses from the yard to achieve, what I think are, wonderful results!!

This piece was done with yellow and blue dyes ,with rock salt thrown on top. After the piece was thoroughly dried in the sun, the salt was brushed off.

These two pieces were dyed and then laid out on a large piece of plastic covered cardboard. Then I arrainged the leaves and grasses on the wet fabric. I had to move the whole setup around the yard several times in order to follow the sun, at the same time finding spots where the doggies would not trample thru the whole project! Yes , it was a bit of a circus!!!!!

Buddy, the dog, wanted Y'all to know that I had a very able photographic assistant who I relied on heavily to get such excellent shots!! NOT!!!!!

Using these dyed fabrics, I created my Fall Journal page for the upcoming Swap on my Surface Design Group.

This piece began with a personal photograph of some fall leaves. (on the right hand side). I digitally altered the photograph on the computer to give it a watercolour look. Then I printed the image on fabric and added the blue/yellow/ salt fabric to the left. I hand quilted the leaves with metallic and rayon threads, added the beads and was done. I extended the leaves from the photograph onto the blue green side- it is hard to see this in the photograph but it gives a very nice effect when one sees the piece in person. The three leaves at the bottom are glass beads with a frosted finish.

For the back, I used the orange piece of dyed fabric. I decribed my process and added three small brass leaf shaped beads as a finishing touch. This is now ready to be mailed to my swap partner.

The next project is a Journal, Doodle , Treasure keeping Book. It is filled with pages of all sizes and colors and patterns. It is meant to be used for whatever the owner wants. The printed pages can be enhanced by doodles, have a photo glued to them or any little bit or snippet clipped to them. THere are pockets for treasures and blank white pages for old fashioned, serious writing. This is meant to be a fun and crazy, imagination stimulating piece of functioanl art. This whole idea has been totaly explored and advanced by the well known artist Traci Bautista. She has a wonderful book titled, Collage Unleashed, that I refer to over and over again! The binding technique that I used in this piece is also described in her book.

Front cover- paint scrapped over watercolour paper- protective finish added.

An example of some of the inside pages. The book contains three sections (signatures) of about 15 pages each.

More inside pages. The pages wiht diagonal folds in them create pockets for hiding treasures or notes or whatever.

Outside front and back covers with beaded binding and dangles visible. This was such a fun project and it went together very quickly. I love projects that have beading and other "hand work" involved, I find it very restful and calming, never mind portable!!!