Leaving on a jet plane…

May 26, 2014 | JP Dawes Artist

Well not really. The theme for my Arts in The Cards group this month was City Scapes. I could not get inspired beyond anything but the predictable buildings against the skyline. I started with that and they sat on my wet table, eventually that attempt was used on the back of the finished card. I couldn’t let anything go to waste, lol.

About the only thing I like about flying is the view of the city at take off and landing. The trail of headlights and tail lights is fascinating in the patterns they make from thousands of feet in the air.So that is the inspiration for my cards. When seen all together you can see the city with the darker buildings and grayer parking lots. Definitely more me!

In Case you were wondering about the quilt stand….

May 23, 2014May 19, 2014 | JP Dawes Artist

I had one of these for the art walk at the Black Bird Cafe. I was lucky enough to find another one second hand to add to my portable display. These are lightweight fold up displays used in lectures. They have a clamp across the top for holding charts or pads of paper.

I slipped a rod into the pockets of the quilts to hold them straight. I love how this repurpose works out so well.

The Art Odyssey Tour 2014 is Ended

May 19, 2014 | JP Dawes Artist

I am so exhausted. 3 very long days that would have never been possible without Ron as my extension. This is my first year for the art studio tour and I had no idea what to expect. We had 100 people sign the guest registry and estimate a minimum of 50 who did not sign it. I am so grateful to everyone who came to find out what fiber art is all about. At most, there were 5-6 people who weren’t interested in talking about the work and how it is done. That’s a very low number compared to an art show/sale where the majority of the attendees are having an enjoyable day out as they stroll through the art.

Neighbors came, friends we had lost touch with and a surprise visit from a family we knew from wintering in the Rio Grande Valley who moved to the beautiful Ozarks in December.

The living room was turned into a mini boutique style gallery with samples of my work. The fireplace displayed publications I’ve been a part of and exhibition catalogs [ I called it the I Love Me display] and natural printed scarves were in the dye room. Then I took them into my sewing and storage area to see how I design on the design wall and showed samples of hand dyed fabrics.

I was so thrilled to be able to share what I do with so many people. I hope they were richer for discovering an art form that most of them didn’t know existed.

Wow…Our latest Eco Bundles

May 9, 2014 | JP Dawes Artist

The Studio Tour starts in a week! I am the great procrastinator floating along like I have all the time in the world. So I gave us a kick in the butt to get the last few natural printed gauze scarves ready for the tour. We collected leaves a few days ago for the project, fresh and not dead fall. I guess a purist would cringe at that, but I am a Master Gardener and proper pruning was used so no trees or bushes were harmed.

We used combinations of leaves and mordants. A couple of the scarves were failed projects but the way this dyeing goes, they just added layers of mordant to get these fantastic results. I think I know which were the red cabbage blah results but I’m not certain. We were worried that the loose weave of the cotton gauze wouldn’t get good results. We could not be happier with this batch. Of course we would never be able to exactly replicate any of them, but that is what’s fun and exciting about this process. I am linking to http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

Cabbage Anyone?

May 7, 2014 | JP Dawes Artist

I guess I’m late with this, should have experimented with cabbage a few weeks ago around St. Pat’s Day.

I had a half head of purple [red] cabbage that was going to waste so thought I would give it a go as a dye. Ron and I first took crinkled gauze scarves that were mordanted in alum and soda ash, chopped the cabbage and rolled them like eco dyeing. We cooked them along with the the cores, let them stay in the pot overnight and had a great dark pink since we used lemon juice with the water, as per Sasha Druer’s book. We were super happy, until we rinsed them and lost nearly all the color. Bummer.

Not wanting to totally admit defeat, I put the pot back on the burner and scrunched in a pail yellow silk scarf , a scrap of white linen that had only been scoured and a yard of pale silver silk dupioni. Remember, there are no mistakes with dyeing and surface design, just creative opportunities so if they failed, too, I wasn’t too worried. The linen turned out a nice pink, the yellow silk a nice golden color and the silver silk a luscious lavendar. Even the hemp we tied up the gauze with took the dye nicely. The scarves? Not so much. They will be wrapped with black beans and steamed to see what we get. The noticeable brown spots are from a tea bag I tossed into the dye pot. Until next time…..