DSP fabrics

DSP, or Deconstructed Screen Printing, is something I had played with a bit before, and a couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days on retreat, doing nothing but DSP.  (Well, we won't mention the food and wine!)

This is a method of using fiber-reactive dyes mixed with a thickening paste to create a resist that gradually deconstructs, giving a series of similar-but-different prints.  Although other artists have taught this technique, I love my "Deconstructed Screen Printing" DVD by Kerr Grabowski.  I had taken a mark-making workshop with her a few years ago, at QSDS (Quilt Surface Design Symposium).  She's an adorable gal with a fun personality and a very laid-back teaching style that nevertheless gives you ALL the information you need.  I highly recommend her DVD, as it is two disks chock full of instructions, demonstrations, recipes for the techniques, and humor.

To get back to my DSP'd fabrics, after batching them I was pleased to see how well the colors held up, and thought I'd post a few of them here.  These happen to be all cottons, but it works very well with rayons and silks, too.

The stereotypical rubber gloves used as resist.  I just had to try it.
(The dark blue line through the top is probably from having
wrapped the fabric for batching while it was still too wet.)

This image shows the further deterioration (or deconstruction)
of the glove-printed resist.  I love this color contrast.

Grasses ... I believe some of the grasses were still
stuck on the screen during this first printing.

Here, the grasses have mostly been removed from the screen,
and the printed dyes are darker where they had adhered.

This is one of the final prints from the grasses.

I'm calling these mono-screen-prints, because the dyes were
simply screened through a blank screen.  This actually shows 4
separate passes over the screen.  Love the streakiness.

As I was packing up to leave, I just had to try another
mono-screen-print over a commercial fabric.

I'm so glad I used prepared fabrics (pre-soaked in soda-ash
solution) as my mop-cloths.  These are kind of funky, but I might
be able to figure out something to do with them.

And last but not least ... my friend Liz Broussard gave me some of her
dye powders to test out the ice-dyeing method (similar to snow-dyeing).
I really loved the outcome on this piece, and can't wait to do more.

More fiber-art birthday cards!

You may remember that my friend Liz Broussard sent me an early birthday card, in the form of a fiber-art postcard.  Well, I'm finally getting around to posting some more birthday fiber-art postcards, from more friends (members of my beloved FiberVoices group).  Since my studio is still in a jumble, a couple of them are from last year, but they are all absolute treasures to me.

"Blowing in the Wind", painted and stitched canvas,
by Connie Marie Fahrion

"Art of Friends" (our first round postcard)
by Cheryl Johnson

Mola Butterfly (multiple cut-away layers)
by Nancy B. Dickey

"Pine" (inked and stitched, with personal  signature chop)
by Susan Fletcher King

Surprise!  Not a postcard this time.  Mary Ann Littlejohn made these little soft folded-and-stitched
boxes for holding sewing notions or snipped thread ends.  We all started calling them
"Connie Catchers", since we will probably use them to save threads for Connie's signature
"thread trash" art-quilt creations.

Selvage Quilt by Liz Broussard

Isn't this cool?  See the Selvage Blog for the full description and where this quilt is going.  My favorite aspects are that Liz dyed some of the fabrics, and then overdyed the selvage blocks ... plus the "ghost" quilting of the imaginary selvage strips in the blank blocks.

On a side note, I have never thought this spelling of the word ("selvage") looked right, so I finally looked it up.  It's because it's the American spelling, vs. the British spelling of "selvedge", which I always thought was the correct one.  (Not to be confused with "salvage", which is a whole 'nother kettle of fish.)  So, both selvage and selvedge are right ... who knew?

A Birthday Postcard

Here is my gorgeous fiber-art Birthday Postcard from my friend Liz Broussard, named "Shattered & Scattered". Besides the beautiful stitching, the sewn binding is made from painted coffee filters! Thank you Liz!

Postcards from my Local Friends!

Here are some belated (or are they just really, really early?) birthday cards from my friends in my Beyond the Borders art quilt group here in Houston. This is so much fun ... receiving ART for your birthday! What could be better?

Liz (aka "Destructo the Magnificent") sent me this cool postcard called "Rust, Mold, & Spores, Oh My!", and it is overlaid with a very irridescent sheer fabric that is hard to see in the photo. It's yummy!

Sara actually gave me this Fabulous Fish while at our last Retreat, and I got to see her making it. Looooove the offset fish and the threadwork, also the hand-dyed fabric.

Nancy started this postcard at the Retreat too, but wouldn't let me have it until it was finished, and I received it at our BTB meeting today. Ohmigosh, "Caribbean Beauty" is truly named! Exquisite applique, threadwork, and painting. (Nancy, you disappeared before I could thank you properly!)

Now, I need to get busy and finish some postcards that are overdue for my friends ... tough to live up to these gals, but it's good to be "pushed". ;^)