TEXT-ILE: TEXT in Art Textiles

Good morning,

I’ve been away for a while.  First in Nova Scotia teaching at Pictou Lodge and then in Ohio, at the Crow Timber Frame Barn for Claire Benn’s Text-Ile:  Text in Art Textiles 5-day workshop.  Another amazing workshop by Claire with 19 other very talented ladies.  Lisa and I got together in St. Mary’s, ON at Lisa’s and then drove to Reynoldsburg with a day or so to spare which gave us a chance to get to the art store and spend some time oohing and aahing over all kinds of cool stuff we couldn’t help but purchase (at least some of it).

Photos of some of my work from the workshop:

Sampler of different writing tools using different media
Sampler of different writing tools using different media

This one is a sampler.  The first day of the workshop we worked on paper, and you’ll see a photo of some of the results a bit later on the post.  The next day we worked on fabric, and a few of us made a sampler using some of the writing tools that we had tried on paper the day before, but on fabric this time.  The large “Montana” on the right-hand side was written using a Montana marker with liquid dye; the smaller “Montana” at the top right was written using a smaller Montana marker with India Ink.  The red “M’s” – a wooden letter I used as a stamp with thickened dyes (the fabric was prepared with soda ash beforehand).  The yellow square is acrylic ink – I wasn’t sure if it was going to work as the acrylic ink doesn’t need soda ash, but despite the washing, the color remained.

Other writing was done with a needle nose bottle and thinner thickened dyes; the circles were stamped with acrylic stamps using thickened dyes; the turquoise letters were done with a cola pen that we made the day before.  They are soooo cool.  I don’t have a photo right now, but promise to post one soon.

Some of the work on paper used to make Thermofax screens
Some of the work on paper used to make Thermofax screens

You can see here some of the work done on paper with different writing tools.  I used some of these to make Thermofax screens.

Breakdown screen printing using print paste and a bit of orange rust
Breakdown screen printing using print paste and a bit of orange rust

This photo is not very clear, but it gives you an idea … it was made using a screen prepared the day before and left to dry very well.  The letters were added using a plastic stencil, some large wooden letters and some cardboard letter which we found out was not that great an idea as the cardboard was difficult to remove once dry.  But … remove them I did very carefully, and it worked great although I could not reuse the letters … oh, well … more where those came from and they weren’t that expensive.  I did figure out that you CAN use cardboard letters but you need to seal them first.

It is such a neat technique … very serendipitous as you cannot predict what’s going to happen exactly.  The drier the screen, the longer it takes to break down.  The second attempt I made was not as successful as the screen broke down very fast.  We figured that the weather had changed and the screen was not as dry as we’d liked … but, I still ended up with a beautiful piece of fabric to add some more to it.  The second piece – I’ll post about it later with photos – was done on a piece of natural coloured linen.

I love this piece.  It reminds me of brick walls back home with old posters from political campaigns torn and more added on top; ads for supermarkets, music festivals, etc.  It is ready to be layered and quilted.  More on that as soon as I start working on it.

Well, that’s it for this one.  Just a taste of what the workshop was all about.  Came home with lots of ideas and lots of things to try and work on.

Thanks for reading.  Let me know what you are up to these days.  And in the meantime, keep quilting.

Ana

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