Her Awakening

Well, I can finally post a few pictures of "Her Awakening",

my latest mixed media fiber art.

I used a lot of rust media that my husband and I rust dyed.

All of our pieces have this wonderful depth of color, don't they?

My husband is the one that does the good job there...

I'm much too, ummm, well,

let's just say that he is much more organized and methodical for that job.

Be sure to check out my Etsy shop for some great

fabrics.

I'll be adding Rust Media packs soon...just keep checking.

Or, better still, email me and ask about them!

Lots of yummy rust fibers such as vintage lace, kimwipes,

tyvek, drawer liners, fabric, sheers...

lots of really cool items that we have rusted.

And at a very economical price!

Here she is, with some close ups.

I drew the face on rust dyed Kimwipes,

which are low lint wipes used in industry.

They are so durable and strong...

we dyed them (in a wet environment), machine washed

and dried them in a lingerie bag. You can see that

it has a few areas that washed out

but is still intact and quite vibrant.

I use these wipes for so many different things in my studio...

anything from general clean up to

the main element of a mixed media fiber piece!

This is a close up of the hand dyed cheese cloth on the left hand side.

I don't usually do hand stitching but this piece insisted on it.

I found that I really liked it too...

kinda like a kitty "making bread", the stitching is a calming, stress free activity for me.

I'm sure I'll be adding more to my work.

Here is the small mixed media heart on the lower right hand side.

It is gilded with a gold pen.

Behind it is a piece of the paper fabric that I made

with the word "believe" adhered to it.

The fabric behind that was sent to me

from Pokey Bolten.

I won a blog give away and have

been hoarding the fabric

for just the right project.

This happened to be one of the

"perfect projects".

Thanks Pokey!

This is a vintage doily that we rusted and I

did some hand beading on.

And yes, I sewed a bead at each little

intersection of the doily.

From a distance, it looks like there is

just some type of shimmer...

but when you get closer,

you are rewarded with

a slew of teeny tiny seed beads!

The Rust Bug

My husband has caught The Rust Bug! Ever since I made the first rust fabric, he has been collecting rusty items for me (or for himself if the truth be told).

A few days ago, we gathered up our growing collection of rusty tid bits, armed ourselves with our secret mixtures of Rust Energizer and got to Work.

We layered.

We spritzed.

We pondered over placement.

As he was studying over where to place each particular piece of treasure, I was itching to just throw all of it on the fabric.

His engineering brain was very methodical...

My Crazy Callie brain was running here, there and yonder.

He added one fat quarter of fabric...

I added a piece of vintage lace, a wadded up kimwipe, a bit of cotton string, a torn piece of loosely woven fabric.

He added a beautiful old gear from a meat grinder...

I added 10 rusty nails, a bolt, a washer and 5 pieces of an old bent & broken tin can.

So (and I say this with laughter in my eyes)you can see how well we work together.

Each of us appreciate and even envy the others creative spirit.

I stand back and watch him work in his exacting way,

my mind screaming,"Hey, try this! Try that!".

He moves out of my way

even as his mind is screaming "Stop!Stop!"

and, in the end both of our ways work,

very nicely I might add...

Very nicely indeed.

That must have been one of the pieces that I could no longer stand it on...I tossed a handful of rusty nails in for good measure!

If you look on the bottom left hand side of this fabric, you'll see the image of a beautiful old key. It wasn't rusty but it acted as a resist for what was under it. In the next picture, you'll see the other side of this fabric...

The key image is now in the upper left of the picture. It is shaped kinda like the key, but you would not recognize it as the same image, now would you? There must be some chemical action or reaction that causes each side of the fabric to look different. One side had the outline of the pieces that you use...while the opposite side of fabric will have the entire image appear as solid rust. Hmmm. it makes for some really interesting pieces!

Look at all the awesome shapes and colors in this piece. This is PFD fabric from Big Horn Quilts.

Vintage lace from my Grandmother's stash, kimwipe, cotton lace and a torn piece of loosely woven fabric.

Paper Fabric Collage

I started out in the studio on Friday working on my Fiber On A Whim project. I did get the netting burned and it is a really cool effect. It looks like an underwater scene now, complete with the fragmented underwater vegetation. I hope that blogger will allow us to enlarge the image, you can really see the effect of the burned netting. It also was quilted with Iredescent thread, bluish black color. The netting has a shimmer to it as well...making the entire piece really cathces the light when you turn it. I plan on adding some beads to it as well.

You know, I started out planning a 5"x7" piece with a grid , like a game board...I have gone about as far away from that as you can. Perhaps I'll keep the underwater one and just work on the original design...we'll see.

Anyway, here are pictures of the 5"x7" piece, along with a practice piece.

Now what happened after I burned the netting is possibily a mystery to even me...and I was there! I somehow got side tracked and began working on fabric paper...similar to what Beryl Taylor demonstrates on the QA dvd. As usual, I strayed from the directions and did my own thing...I really did start the whole thing like she said. But then I thought...hey...this would look good without the paint on top of it all...and you know this would look good without the tissue paper...and I ultimately ended up with a really awesome fabric/paper/found item collage. Here are pictures...oh yeah, I used Ranger Ink Distress Ink refill with Perfect Pearls mixed in a spritz bottle to color the background. I also sprayed it lightly over the top. The entire piece has a shimmery look. TYhe bark is from a tree in our yard. My dh had pruned a few trees and we were moving the limbs to a "burn pile" (yep, Cheryl, that's from the "burn pile incident" story!) and I saw the loose bark on the ground. I knew immediately it was going to go in a piece of artwork! So, here it is.

I also worked on another collage. I was trying different tissue paper pieces, thicknesses and colors. I did use the Kimwipes also...they held up just fine as long as I didn't brush it too many times with the glue/water mix. Oh, I guess I didn't tell you how I actually did the pieces, did I?

Well, I started out with a piece of plain muslin or PFD fabric. I then mixed half craft glue/half water. I applied this to the fabric with an old paintbrush. Then I arranged torn papers on the piece. Most of the time there was enough glue to hold them down without adding more , you've got time to move them around also. I preplanned one of them but the other ones evolved as I went. I placed torn pieces of handmade mulberry paper here and there, adding pieces of other handmade paper as I went. I applied a thin layer of the glue mix over this. I then applied either tissue paper or kimwipes over most of the piece. I wanted to see how the fabric paper (or paper fabric?) would respond to being sewn after it dried. I liked the effect of the thin tissue paper, you can still see the color of the paper underneath it. The kimwipes behaved about the same way. The thicker tissue paper changed the color of the underlying paper a bit more but was very nice to work with. It didn't move around or scrunch it when I painted the glue mix over it. I'll try sewing it later today...it will be interesting to see how it does.

Here's a picture of the last one that I did yesterday.

Practice Paper Quilt

I've been working on a practice quilt (5" x 7") using the kimwipes. I am trying a lot of different techniques on it and will post them all later. I did try some very simple outline quilting to see how the wipes do with machine stitching. And they did just fine! Next I think I'll try shading with colored pencils and paint sticks.

Oh, I did try doing a " mask" technique with a rubber stamp, h2o and a paintbrush.I'll post the pictures and results later.

Here is a picture of the practice quilt. I love how you can layer image upon image and still see through to the one under it. And you can still see the fabric under it all ! Awesome product and I know that fiber / mixed media folks are going to love it!

Kimwipe Auction

I sold the original Kimwipe package and have decided to list the auction as a "Buy It Now". I had got a couple of emails about the product and figured this would be the easiest and quickest way to get them to people. I gave samples to Linda Standart, the teacher at Stamps and More By Eleanor. She can do anything with paper, ink, paint, anything to do with paper art and she knits also! She is such an amazing artist and teacher. I can't wait to see what she comes up with! I'll post her findings when I speak with her again.

Please email me at carolsloan@charter.net or carolbsloan@yahoo.com with any questions or comments. I may be changing my email address over to yahoo if we drop Charter Internet. I'll be sure and let everyone know if I do though.

If the above link to eBay doesn't work , the item number is 300224362997.

Thanks.

Kimwipes

I listed several boxes of Kimwipes on eBay if anyone is interested in trying them.

I can't figure out how to publish a link to the auction so I'll just post the auction number. It's #300222357257. Let me know if you can't find it for some reason.

This morning I tried ironing fusible webbing to them and adhering them to another fabric as well as paper and it worked wonderfully! I'll try to get a picture or scan up of that experiment.

This is really exciting to find something so versatile right on my kitchen counter top!

My husband and I plant lettuce in our garden every year and the Kimwipes are what we usually use after we have rinsed it. We layer lettuce leaves and kimwipes and put all that inside a plastic grocery bag. We then place that bag into another grocery bag and put it all into the crisper drawer. You wouldn't believe how long the fresh lettuce lasts when stored that way...

two to three WEEKS !

Can you believe that?! We are spoiled during the "lettuce season" at our house.

We planted a gourmet mix and it was the best lettuce I've ever eaten. They sell the same thing at a local grocery store for 7.00 a pound! And ours is all natural , no chemicals at all.

Last year we had lettuce all the way through May or June.

Anyway, I do hope that there are people out there that either will read this about the Kimwipes or that those who I have shared the info with will tell other people.

I am sure that they will come up with new ways to use them.

Just like Tyvek...look at how popular that is now!

And Paintsticks! Weren't they originally markers for live stock?

Let me kow if you like them , or find a new way to use them.

I'm off to make some small quilt sandwiches so I can practice with my new Patsy Thompson DVD.

Thanks Patsy for an awesome time last Saturday...I am looking forward to sitting down with you in my studio this afternoon!

Oh, speaking of Tyvek I have to send out another big warm fuzzy to my wonderful husband. He also supplies me with Tyvek in the form of Tyvek suits used in industry...He is better than having an art store right in my own home! Not to mention what an awesome cook he is...thanks Baby!

Well, I finally gave in

and started my own blog. I read others and really enjoy them. What I really enjoy is seeing what all the other artists are creating...how they are creating it...I enjoy the learning experience as well as the sharing of info with others.

I will begin my Blog with a picture of my latest project. I went by Judy Coates Perez directions in the Apr/May Quilting Arts magazine. I changed a couple of things so I could use what I had available at home. Instead of using tea bags, I used an awesome product called Kimwipes. It's a low lint wipe used in a lot of industrial settings. My awesome husband is a sales engineer in an industrial setting, so I have access to them. They come in a box of 140 and measure 14 x 16 inches , plenty of room for a large design image if you want. And I believe they are reasonably priced ( even more so if you figure just how many designs you could put out with that many sheets!).

Anyway, here's the (unquilted) paper quilt.

I have had so much fun with this and learned quite a few things. Some things that I will do on the next one and some things that I won't. The tree in the center, the key hole and the small tree are all from the Kimwipes. Notice how the wipe paper almost disappers into the fabric background. It is also very transparent so it's easy to trace images. If you are interested in trying it , let me know and I'll try to get some.

Well, this has been a great week so far...I've actually been able to cross off a few things from my (growing) "to do" list...this blog included.

More later.