School Project

I told you I would have some stuff to show for school projects. This one was made as a cumulative piece for the class. It was to demonstrate what this class helped us learn and how we progressed.


It's wrinkled from being in my bag. The fabric was all hand-painted with acrylics. The water background was painted as one piece with blues, greens, and purples. The colors were very diluted and I used more of a wash technique with some layering.

The green strips were painted as one larger piece with less diluted paint and just one color of green. I then cut up the fabric into the size pieces that I wanted and sewed them together. The outside of the fabric is hemmed with transparent thread as to not distract from the rest of the piece.

Lastly, I created two fish stamps. They are not as complicated as I had originally hoped to make, but with the supplies I had, it was too difficult to do that. Next time I make something like this I will buy linoleum squares to do some real intricate carvings. The fish are stamped onto the fabric with non-diluted black acrylic paint.





The piece is suppose to represent the potential separation that can happen in a school environment. Me being alone in the corner, feeling like I am lost as a new teacher. The students to my left, sectioned off in their own little world and the other teachers and staff above me sectioned off in their own little world. The large open water area is suppose to represent how the techniques I learned in this class with hopefully equip me to better connect with my students and know how to reach out to other school staff members for assistance.


* * * * * *

I should be back blogging more consistently. The Advil and cold packs seem to be doing a good job. It doesn't seem like I will need physical therapy!!

You will probably see a wider variety of crafts though, because knitting in general seems to aggravate the shoulder. So I will be focusing more on some crafts that I have been wanting to do, but that I put aside for knitting. Hopefully this will be a good thing.

I intend to try to blog each day, except for when we are in Ohio (Jan 1st-Jan 5th). No one in his family even has a computer. We were sent a couple pictures of the boy's nephew, lets face it, I already consider him mine too. Anyways, he's a doll, I'll try to scan one in and show you guys tomorrow. Evidently, I have been spelling his name wrong, not Gerrin, but Garren. Oops, that's what you get when families don't communicate well.

Any who, things seem to be moving in a positive way. Maybe 2010 will be a wonderful year!

Dyeing for the Boy

What is this you ask?

Well this is a box I received yesterday from Dick Blick to dye my boyfriend's jacket. He bought an oatmeal colored, linen/cotton thin dress type jacket this weekend. However, he doesn't like the oatmeal color, but that was the only one they had left because they were on clearance. So, he is actually trusting me to dye it for him. Nifty, huh? Anyways, as long as it turns out some med gray to black he is okay with it. So, sometime this weekend I will hopefully get to dye that. I first have to purchase a bucket to dye it in, since the only large containers I have are pots or bowls used with food making.

Tie-Dye Part 3

This one was clamping. For the first one I used a wooden shape that I designed to be clamped. Two identical wood pieces are need, one of the top of the folded fabric and one for the bottom. They are then literally clamped together with clamps from the tool department and then dropped in dye.


Since my shape was so thin and had different little "legs", I really needed more clamps than that were available to me. I know for in the future now. This technique will probably be used in one of my final projects.


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Here we had to fold the fabric in any way we wanted and then use two straight pieces of wood and rubber band them onto the folded fabric. Mine turned out exactly how I wanted to for the most part.


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Lastly over dyeing using the binding techniques in part 1. I bound this one and dyed it yellow. I didn't completely care for how it turned out so I bound it again in some of the same places and then used clothes pins another area and redyed it in red. Love how it turned out.


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Overall, definitely loving this class. I think I am the only one truly interested in learning these techniques and not just looking for an easy A, but that is the loss of the other students. One girl in class even said that this class makes her feel like an old lady. *eyes roll* Children.

Tie-Dye Part 2.5

More Shibori techniques.


Shippo Shibori(Interlocking Circles):Leaf shaped ovals are drawn and stitch back and forth across the middle of the leaves from one point to the other. Strings pulled tight at end and knotted.


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Dyes, knots cut, strings pulled. I also like this technique, so many different possibilities.


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Maki-hui Shirbori(wrapped stitch):Overhand stitching done, but loosely just wrapping needle over edge. If you stitch smaller, like normal it causes great frustration when trying to pull threads tight, trust me, I know. The three rows on the far left where especially annoying to pull tight, almost impossible.



Dyed, knots cut, and threads pulled. I really like how this reminds me of a spine. Very interesting. Or the tread of a tire.


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Kheto Shibori:Just stitch a design snugly into layers of the fabric, mine was accordion folded. No pulling stitches this time, but knotting is still important.



Mixed feelings about how it turned out. The halo type effect could have uses in certain things. I think this deserves more samples in different designs, foldings, and amount of time left in dye bath.


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Boumaki, Mura-kumo Shibori(Village Cloud):Here the fabric was folded in half and stitched into a long tube. Then it was put over a PVC pipe, string was wrapped tightly around it in a pattern and then pushed down to the bottom of the pipe in a twisting motion. No before picture because I forgot to bring my camera to class.


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I was nervous about this last technique and had serious doubts as to whether or not this was going to look like crap, but I really love how it turned out. This will also probably be a technique used in one of my final projects.

Tie-Dye Part 2

The next tie-dye technique we did was Shibori. I am not sure if the names I will give for these are correct or not, but these are the ones my teacher gave the class. I have what the fabric looked like before dyeing and after.


Mokume Shibori(Wood grain):This is just running stitches parallel to each other. Mine are spaced differently at different points. After all lines were stitched, the strings were pulled tight so things were all scrunched up and then the strings were knotted.


This is after the knots were cut and the strings were pulled out.


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I really like how this one turned out. Slightly disappointed by the fact that my teacher said how wide my stitches were apart didn't mean anything, but I think that is false and would like to try a sampler piece were the different lines had different stitch widths.



Karamatsu Shibori(Chinese Pine):Half circles are stitched on a fold. I varied how many rows were in the half circle and how far they were spaced from each other. After all stitches are complete, all are pulled tight and knotted.









This is after it was dyed, knots cut, and strings pulled out. I really love how this one worked and will be using some of this technique in one of my final projects to show ripples in water.


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Undulating Strips(no Shibori name, as it is unreadable on my sheet):Here, wavy lines are made and stitched on a fold. Interesting to actually stitch. As with the ones above, after all stitches are made, all strings are pulled tight and knotted.


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Dyed, knots cut, strings pulled. Oh how I really love this stitch. This will be another stitch that will be used in one of my final pieces to represent tree branches. I love how the stitches kind of look like dental records.


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Tie-Dye Part 1

Okay guys, lots and lots of info on the stuff I have been doing in my fibers class. So, we began with your typical tie-dye. Rubber bands, clothespins, string, and knots were used.


This one was rubber bands.


This one was folded and rolled up and then bound with string.


close-up of string marks.


Rubber bands and clothespins.


Folded, bundles and then bound.




Overall, not too impressed, the unpredictability of these techniques was definitely not was I prefer.