Composite

You know the trouble with memory is that sometimes you misplace it. Forgive me if I've posted something similar before. I've been gathering some images tonight and thought I'd finish a composite of scarf details that I started some time ago and that shows the wide variety of marks that can be made with shibori rusting. You may recognize some of the designs or colors from past posts. The blues were created with elderberries. One blue piece in the center also has some yellow created by turmeric. The rest is just the the usual rust and tea with whatever tannin I had handy.

Fun in the Shade

Elizabeth Adams Marks returned the favor of the rust party at my house by setting up an indigo vat in her garden. I haven't worked with indigo since grad school and then I did little more than a couple of experiments. We played for a few hours on Saturday before we attended an opening at Art Saint Louis where she has a gorgeous paper piece in the Texture show.

The big shawl that Elizabeth rusted in my previous post, has now been transformed with indigo. Quite a striking change don't you think?  Actually, just realized I didn't post a pic of the finished rusted shawl.  The post only shows her sprinkling tea on the rotary hoe pieces.

Elizabeth's shawl just after rusting.

The other large piece is also Elizabeth's.  I was working small.  A couple of scarves, one of which had been previously rusted, a scrap of cotton, a t-shirt and a small piece of rayon that I composted several years ago.

This is a piece of cotton previously (but lightly) rusted.  Did a little popsicle stick clamping to get this pattern. For those of you who have worked with indigo this may seem like small potatoes to you, but I got a little thrill out of the magic that was made when the color oxidized and when I unbound the goodies.

Arashi shibori scarf -- just pure indigo on a new scarf.  Love the color variation resulting from the folded layers.

This my favorite piece however. Just a small sueded rayon scrap about 15" big that had previously been composted with walnuts.  There was a lot of light creamy areas left in the design which allowed the pure indigo to shine through.  I preserved some of the brown with rubberbanded circles, other parts of the walnut turned very dark.  The fabric is translucent.   Very much would like to do more indigo with some of my old compost experiments.  But it will have to wait till after I get several pieces done for an upcoming show.

The Snarky Twins make their debut at ARTEAST

Shibori rust dyed scarf detail.  100% silk satin.

The actual scarf is about 72 inches long--this is an 8x10 

direct scan near the bottom.  Shibori is Japanese for

shaped resist dyeing--the only difference is that I do 

not make a dye bath.  My imagery comes from direct 

contact with rust objects.  More about that in a later 

post.

I've rust dyed 50 scarves!  I surprised myself with the 

number.  That's the most I've made in one summer.

Most of them are in the shibori method--

and all will be for sale at ARTEAST this weekend.

I'll be exhibiting at Villa Marie Winery in Maryville, Illinois.

Maps to 50 venues can be found at the ARTEAST website.

Come see me on the lower level in the Vino Room.  I'm 

sharing the space with 3 other artists -- Jerie Artz and her 

mother Arvilla Friar who are great watercolorists, and 

Alison Reeves who makes fabulous jewelry.

Along with scarves, I will have some of my huge silk hangings

and also some smaller quilted felted collages. 

This is my first post on my brand new blog.  I'll add more 

as soon as I can and introduce you to the art I make.

BTW, can you see the Snarky Twins?