Looking back one year. Feb 8, 2025

Last year this week I was in San Diego taking a dye painting class with Pat Pauly.   What a rood experience that was.  I shared an  AirB&B with Pat, only a few blocks from the spacious two room classroom.  There were  some amazing artists in  the group  - some experience, but mostly, like me, very much beginners.  Pat is a great teacher and  keeps things moving along.   We pressed, stroked, rubbed, stamped, rubbered, stenciled, painted...... well, anything one can to with thickened dye on fabric.  Messy, but amazingly freeing to the creative spirit.   I haven't kept track of who made most  of these pieces, but each student created to their own tune.

All the pieces are in their faw state: unrinsed, washed, or pressed. 

Using a piece of truck tire tread picked up on I-5.

Some students see things more realistic. 

We also dined out - very well.

Now, a year later, I am recovering from the RSV and coughing much less.  Hope to feel well enough tomorrow to maybe walk around the  cul de sac with KoKo.  

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Enjoyed a one day workshop 08-27-22

Friends who belong to the group "Quilts on the Wall", which promotes member quilts in various venues, but is apparently now a ZOOM meeting group, convinced me to join them for a one day live workshop on carving and printing with linoleum blocks.  There may be a new modern name for that, but so it was called sixty years or so ago when I did it for the first time.  The teacher, Tara Ritacco, provided blocks and erasers to carve and a carving tool, along with other materials, so it was easy prep.  We ran out of time and the printing part was a demo by Tara in possibilities to do at home.  She is very imaginative and gave us a lot of inspiration to try different paints, inks, fabrics, and experiments.  I carved two blocks in the class and did a little printing with textile paint at home.  I enjoyed the day and even hit a gas station with gas for $4.99 a gallon - something I haven't seen for quite a long time.  Since then I filled my tank at $4.79, so things are looking up for a less expensive road trip to....   somewhere!

This is the first block I carved.  I was amazed that the technique came back to me after so many years.  I think I did some blocks for a project in mid-1980s, but haven't even thought about it since then.  I must have some old blocks in a box some place in this crowded house. 

Then I tried some trees and my classmates thought this looked like trees with a bird house.  I didn't intend that, but I agree.  The large white triangle was a mistake, a problem that comes with thinking in reverse and carving away what you don't want to print.  I am thinking of ways to put a couple little branches to fill the space a bit. 

So, this is what I had to work with, including a commercial leaf stamp from a box of miscellaneous art stuff, the only stamp I could find when I wanted to try printing.

This was a first print.  Need to do this so that corrections can be made to the block.  I had to carve away some layers in the upper right corner to make a clean print. 

Then I did a more "serious" test print combining the blocks.  The fabric was a scrap from a previous dyeing class, I have a box of those leftovers.   As You can see the prints are in reverse, something planned for when the carving starts.  I think an opposite carving of the bird would make an interesting border with the birds facing each other.  

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No! I don't have a terrible cold!! 07-26-19

I have been snorted and coughing and blowing and dripping and...  all of that.  But I don't think it is a cold.   I think it is the pollen in the air.  It feels more like asthma than anything.  I have been doctoring with Robitussin DM, Mucinex, and Airborne.  Having a hard time keeping track of what to take, when.  Anyway, I did not miss any class time, except that I was a little dopey at times!  

The class is over and what a class it is.  If you are interested in painting with dyes in a free, unstructured, inventive design sort of way, this is a class you must take.  

"Expressive DyePainting" with Sue Benner

There is a LOT of information about safety using the chemicals and dyes, pages of "formulas" for mixing different colors and the opportunity to invent your own colors.  You can try different fabrics - cotton (in which I was particularly interested), silk, rayon, linen, bamboo, etc., or any combination of anything.  You are able to see the results other students get, even if you don't do the different fabrics yourself.   There are dozens and dozens of ideas for different tools to use, from those invented for the purpose and everything else one might find around.  Some work out, some don't, you get to see the results of what everyone in the class tries.   Some students worked practically from dawn to dusk and dyed a LOT of fabric.  Others, like I, were too tired by the end of the class time to work on into the evening.  Your choice.  

I have taken some great dyeing classes before, but this one is extra fun and more information than I can absorb in five days.  But I have the great handout and some notes and the fabrics that I dyed to encourage me to try this again.  I will post pictures of lots of different work, mostly without attribution, just so you can see the variety of work done.  Hope it inspires you to take the class.  I may do it again one day!

Black and white and every possible color. Pieces approx 22" X 22"

 Joy Siragusa also did some over dyeing and solid dyeing in plastic Ziplock bags.

Anke Wildman  squeezed out dye and applied some with a brush on the big tile table, laid the fabric over it, brayered it in, and came out with this gorgeous scarf -  the bottom picture is a detail.  Pre-hemmed scarf is 14"W X 72"L

Nita Wester did some fabulous pieces while she also served as an excellent class assistant.  22" squares

I did these three trees on the big tile board - 44"W x 72"L.  I had a hard time keeping an even flow when squeezing the dye out of a squeeze bottle and created some thick blobs.  This will take a lot more work, more dye, more definition.  

Squeezed, brushed, and maybe sprayed.  22" square  Maker unknown.

Bambi Relie on the right did this 44" X 72" piece on the big tile table.  One needs a lifting assistant for these large pieces - Karen Orewiler on the left. 

22" squares by Chris Berry

Close up of texture - maker unknown. 

 Many different application techniques - maker unknown. 

22" square - dripping, squeezing, brushing, dotting.  Maker unknown. 

We were each to do three piece of black and white, but I don't seem to have taken very many pictures of those.  Here is one that I particularly liked along with another piece by Chris Berry.   22" squares

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Yes, I have a terrible cold. 07-24-19

I was hoping it was just allergies, but it is truly a cold with aching joints and a headache and all the rest of the stuff that comes with a cold.  I hope that others in the class don't catch it and go home sick.  They will hate me.   I did go to class today and it was a hard drag, but I learned a lot more about dye painting and techniques for "mark making".   Here are some pictures from today's class.  Sorry, no ID on anyone's work except mine.  There is nothing here I am proud of, but I did accomplish something.  Maybe overdyeing is in my future. 

From the top:  First piece - too detailed, 2nd piece - of course there would be trees, 3rd piece has way too much thickened dye which smeared all over, 4th piece was a clean off my palette, needs more over dyeing. 

Some students utilized their hot cars to "batch" the dye.  

This one was taped to the windshield! 

And there are clotheslines outside where the wind whips everything dry.

Three pieces of nice work from two different students.

This lady had some long pieces of cotton from trimming her fabric and came up with a great idea to use them.  

Sue Benner did a demo of how to do a 44" square piece with the help of an assistant.

These four images are of a student doing this with her assistant. 

Apply the dye  to the palette using any technique one chooses. 

With the help of an assistant stretch the fabric as taunt as possible and lay it on the surface. 

 Then use a brayer or the back of a Styrofoam plate to smooth and transfer the dye. 

Then with the assistant on one end and the student on the other lift the fabric straight up to avoid smearing.  Then it must be laid out on plastic sheets to dry.  I hope to try this tomorrow. 

I'm taking my pills and cough syrup and going to bed. 

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Oh, NO! Not a cold. 07-23-19

The last few days I thought I was having allergy problems.  The doors and windows in the classroom are open for ventilation and I have been sneezing and wheezing.  Lots of plants that I don't usually encounter are blooming.  Tonight, however, I think this is a head cold and I don't know if I should go to class tomorrow.  Everyone will hate me if they all come down with colds next week.  After all, I was so sick two years ago after Empty Spools because my seatmate had a cold and passed it on to me.  Oh, dear.  What to do?

The class progressed today in the organized way that Sue's classes do.  We learned about dyeing with black dyes, somewhat more exacting that other colors.  And we started making mono-prints in black and in color.  So far I have not created the image to top all images.  And surely never will!  But I am happy with most of my pieces so far.  They are all 22" X 22" so there is no great loss in materials if they end up in the rag bag.  Besides, each one that we make we can learn something, if only that something doesn't work.  We all have pieces "batching" under an electric blanket in the classroom.  The temperature here has been running 70F or below, so extra heat needs to be applied to set the dye.  When the temps are over 70F the electric blanket is not required.

The only pictures I took today were of the goldfinches at the feeders in the yard here at the cabins.   I was in the driveway, inside my car so they wouldn't be spooked.  Not good pictures, taken with my phone, the only available implement at the time.  There were about a dozen finches changing places and an equal number of swallows swooping over the lawn eating flying bugs.  

I have never seen feeders like these, they seem to be made of some kind of mesh and are surely filled with nyjer seed, the goldfinches dinner of choice. 

I believe these are lesser goldfinches, but could be females mixed in. 

Only one male in his bright yellow plumage.  Wonder if all the other birds are his harem?

https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-attract-goldfinches-386247

Hope I am feeling better in the morning and can go to class.  I will be very sad to miss this class that I booked so long ago and spent so much time, money, and energy to take.  

Woe is I!

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