We went to Kokomo Opalescent Glass which is about an hour from me (what a treat!) where they still make art glass sheets using old methods and have been in business since 1888.

mom designed the piece with magnolias to coordinate with her black and white checkerboard pattern in the border of her tile and with the pink of the rest of the bathroom tiles.  We planned for mostly opaque glass as there will not be any natural light.  The contractor is going to back light it.

I haven’t delivered it to her yet, but sent a photo and she was thrilled.  It makes me happy that I will be contributing to her beautiful historic home!  Thanks for your vision and faith in me, Amy!  Thanks to my mom for making it stress free and doing so much!  Now I want to make a couple of pieces for myself, also.

screened palazzo dei diamante

I have been having fun with my thermofax screens and what is better than a bunch of thermofax screens?  More thermofax screens.  Tee hee hee.  I ordered some more and we were able to have a few from our class fee.  Yippee!  These are some more of the first batch of screens.

original photo of Palazzo dei Diamante

The triangle screen is from a photo I took in Ferrara a few years ago.  I was walking along snapping shots of doors, windows and more when we passed a building with some protruding pyramids all over the facade.  As I described it to my skype friends who lived in Italy at the same time, Iris popped up with “Piazza dei Diamante!”  I googled and verified with awe that she could come up with that from my description of the building!  Well, I didn’t realize it is a very famous palazzo, I just loved the texture!   I took the photo and manipulated it to get a nice graphic black and white image good for making the screen.  I am enjoying using it in multi layers with some color mixing.  Then some different screening on top.

The snow decolored piece was calling out for some more hail, so I thickened some bleach.

second layer of snow bleaching

I have always enjoyed dyeing fabric and the beautiful results.  They always feel done to me.  Now I’m pushing myself to see what more I can do to them.  I’m really enjoying the depth of the layers and complexity of adding more and more.  Here are some layered fabrics that are still not done.  How do you know when enough is enough and more is just more?   So far I haven’t hit the wall of too much yet.

I did a second snow bleaching with the tiny bit of snow we got a couple of weeks ago.  Now we are in the 80s.  Go figure.  Glad I scooped it up!  The piece below has decolored thermofax screenprinting of hail.

second layer of snow bleaching

Below is one I’m really enjoying and can’t wait to show you the next layer.  This one is on layer 4.  First light blue mottle dyed, second and third thermofaxed screens with thickened dye.  Fourth layer was thermofaxed screened corn syrup as a resist and then overdyed in a medium blue.   Can’t wait for studio time tomorrow!

Four layers and counting!

And here is another parfait which had yellow on the bottom, red in the middle and blue on top.

three layers!

This one, above, I dyed in a light blue and then screened on the pink hail and this time I added red hail again with a thermofax screen from my hail photos.  My next step is thermofaxing screening more hail with corn syrup and then overdyeing.

wood stamp random prints

overprinted using wooden stamp

I find it very ethereal and ghostly with many layers.  It still left a lot of black so I decided to try out some discharge paste through thermofax screens.

snow bleached fabric with thermofax print with dishcarge paste

I liked the clarity I could get from the thermofax screens but wasn’t sure I liked the combination of the colors from the bleach and the colors from the paste.  Where the bleach and paste overlapped, it turned yellow.  These screens were made using photos of hail I took in Italy.  The hail was very textural with lots of lumps and bumps.  I thought they would make very interesting thermofax screens because of the flowerlike shapes they were.  I’m sure they will be showing up in some of my future art.

Here is another screen of a well at the top castle in Marostica, Italy.  I did not get good enough definition from this one due to the image and background being too close in value and have sent off another order to Bobbie Vance for a screen which has the background removed to clarify the shape of the well better.  I was really surprised at how detailed the screens can be and it shows so well the scrollwork in the top of the well.  I’m really enjoying my screens!  Many more photos using them to come! I know I will still be able to order them from her after she moves away from Indy, but I’m getting a good supply before she goes.  I love being able to use my own images!  Thanks Bobbie!

Dance of Dusk

Photo of tree printed on copper

The first is my first quilt mixing leather, weaving and quilting, not to mention metal.  The quilt basically has a giant hole in it where the woven leather sun is.  The top is a rod pocket to hang from a bamboo rod.

Dance of Dusk was made to evoke a sunset and fence line at dusk as the birds are scurrying to finish up the day with one last bite, flight or snuggle before heading back to the nest as the sun goes down.  What at first seems to be a quiet calm reveals that there are pockets of quiet motion of the birds.

Photos printed on leather

Dreaming of Dusk

Dreaming of Dusk

Dreaming of Dusk detail

This piece was fun to try out some more techniques like bobbin work and using some fabrics with surface designs.  I also embellished with some silk fibers and a carrier rod.  This quilt also used my original photos on fabric and leather and evokes the same business of dusk in the life of birds.

There is an artists’ reception this Friday March 2,  6-10 pm. and will hang through March 30th.

Harrison Center for the Arts

1505 N. Delaware St

Indianapolis, In

The large tree in the foreground is a dark maroon leather applique.  I have been enjoying using leather in my quilts over the last year and do not feel I have finished exploring its use in quilting.

stamped and thermofax screened trees

I used the tree challenge fabric to make a similar hand carved stamp that I used with thickened dyes on hand dyed fabric, the unobstructed tree in the photo to the right. The tree on the left partially covered is a thermofax screen print and is from a photo of a tree I took in Bolzano Vicentino, Italy,  Where I lived for three years.  My sister and her husband came to visit and we decided to take a walk and found a path with a sign about an old church that led back behind houses and into a field where the church was.  The old church is utilized once a year for a communal celebration.  We enjoyed seeing the old church (look for a quilt with photos of the church in the future) and found a tree with the trunk covered in ivy.

The other thermofax screens were made with my photographs as well, one in Italy and one since moving back to the U.S.  I enjoyed using so many different techniques and exploring the use of various methods to overdye and remove color from the commercial fabrics.  You can scroll down to earlier posts as I worked on dyeing the fabrics.

Wooden stamp with corn syrup resist

It is fun to have dedicated time to go to the Indy Art Center for dye class.  Bobbie Vance has a wealth of knowledge and shares it generously.  Not to mention, she is fun and encouraging.  As are my classmates.

So last week I wanted to get some yardage dyed and did 10 yards.   I did some Navy,

some reds (mixing warm and cool reds),

did some more stamping (flowers at top of post) , some snow dyeing,

some thermofax screen printing using a screen of hail,

top yellow parfait

bottom green parfait

middle red parfait

and tried the parfait method of layering three pieces of fabric each with a different color and then the dye transfers from one to the other with little transfer on the top and lots of transfer to the bottom.  I enjoyed doing it and will definitely be doing more of it because it gives such nice color mixing and splotches.  A very productive week!

I used some oatmeal as a resist on some of the fabric and really liked what it did, but did not enjoy the mess!  I was thinking if I get a really good one and take a picture or scan it I can make a thermofax of the texture and save myself some headache!

I am almost done with the quilt for the challenge and can’t wait to show you how it turns out.  I’m pretty happy with it.

This one didn’t make it into the quilt, nor is it the challenge fabric, but I made it as a possibility of use in the quilt and love the graphic nature of the tree print, the dye complexity, and the photo holds special memories for me.  The tree was in a field we went through to get to a very old church in the little town I lived in in Italy.  My sister, her husband and I went for a walk in our little town, saw a sign pointing us down a walking path between some houses and out into a field.  In the middle of the field was an old church that is no longer used except for once a year for the towns festival of the patron saint. That was only one of the wonderful treasures we found that day.