lac notre dame

I couldn't resist publishing one of my most recent pictures of our beloved lake.  I thought the reflection of the clouds on the lake was magical.

most recent dying results

 My latest Dying results

This was a shibori experiment.  I folded the cotton and wrapped it tightly with elastic bands and then dripped dye over it in different colours and left it in a container of colour.

These two pieces are again, using the print paste, attempting to create a 'whole cloth' scene.  Since I was at the cottage I was inspired to create a red canoe.  I think, with a lot of thread embellishment, the top one has promise.  These were both dryed flat, and I will wash them in the synthrapol and see what happens.

These two pieces were the result of trying to 'paint' with the dye.  I added print paste to the dye colours and used a brush to apply the colours.  These are 'vessels'.  For the most part I was successful at controlling the flow of the dye which I was happy with.  However, when the 2nd one was hung to dry, even after serious rinsing, the dye continued to bleed which is disappointing.  Another lesson learnt, dry flat! 

This is the latest painting I did, and was quite happy with my control over the dyes.  I was careful to dye it flat.  I was very happy with the brilliant colours that you can see here (when it was still wet).  It is now dry and the colours have really faded.  I would love to know why and how to prevent this from happening.  Your thoughts are welcome.   This piece is another reoccuring theme for me,  'we are all connected'.

colour close ups

Here is the selection of cotton that I have dyed so far.  I am interested in creating gradations of colour but also would like to increase the intensity of tone. 

Here I was working with a shibori technique folding and wrapping the fabric with string.

at the cottage

At the Cottage!

I have moved to the country for the summer.  This is the first time I am able to spend so much time on  my own in this glorious place, to be able to focus on experimenting with my fibres.  I am working with MX dyes from PRO Chemical.  Here are a few of my first tries.

Copper wire project completed

This is the completed project framed.  I created the frame by inserting the weaving between pieces of wood and then joining them together.  This is difficult to photograph but I am hoping that, when hung, the sun will reflect off the wire and will give it a glow.

copper wire weaving

Weaving with copper wire on a loom

As we are in the last stages of completing the building process of my husband's new office, I am reminded that last year I worked on a loom project for installation into the 'building to be'.  Although it didn't take quite as long to create this piece as it did to build the building, it was at least as challenging! Threading each piece of copper wire without it getting tangled with it's neighbours was a remarkably difficult task.

These are a couple of images of the process of inserting the images into the woven wire.

I had the images digitally printed onto cotton and then inserted them between the weft and the warp as I wove.  They needed some extra re-inforcement to stay in place so I had to hand sew them in with the wire thread.

A Novel Idea

This is a full view of the whole book.  Each 'page' is 7.5" tall by 5.5" wide.