Wednesday, October 24, 2012

A Lesson In What Not To Do

Sometimes the creative urge overtakes common sense. This happened on a Sunday evening, well after stores are closed!

I decided to trace a fish onto my Indigo piece and was out of tear away or water solvable paper. Our household has become a fan of tear away paper towels. So I figured that because the paper is porous and tears easily that it would work.

Well I got carried away and filled in some fin lines. I the proceeded for the next 2 hours to pull the bits of paper out, using a tweezers that has a small magnifying glass attached. To keep me on task in between bouts of unladylike adjectives, I imagined that I was a surgeon carefully removing a tumor .

I finally removed it all and was then able to thread paint to my heart's content. In the future, I hope that I will remember this lesson when the creative urge returns .

Gail Kotowski

Sunday, October 7, 2012

A Play Day for Fiber Artists


Karen Loprete, fiber artist and member of the CT Fiber Arts Collective, invited members of Sisters in Cloth to a meeting at her home.
It was Karen's birthday, and she gave us all a wonderful gift:  a demonstration of dying silk scarves using Dye-Na-Flow dyes. Here we are, gathered around Karen, in rapt attention:


Below are a couple of Karen's pieces displaying Karen's colorful style. The one on the right is silk, the piece on the left a piece of cotton fabric that had been under the silk as Karen painted with her dyes.


Two of our pieces trying to dry in the drizzle that came in as we worked, but did not dampen our spirits (left) and, right,  Carol Eaton happily at work on a colorful piece. I wonder how long it takes the dye to wash off hands.



















Here I am (Ruth Anne Olson) with my scarf. I was not happy with the look when I finished with the dyes, so I scrunched, twisted, and squeezed every which way so that the colors blended. You can see by the look on my face I am now happy (although I may be stamping it, or drawing some thin lines of metallic paints on it).






Rosalind Spann, who kept painting with dyes and then sprinkled with alcohol drops on one and salt on another.


Mary Lachman, obviously delighted with her lovely project:

 Debbie Bento pondering possible further options:

Barb Adams with her wonderful creation.


It was the best kind of a day for fiber artists: Getting together with friends who all love to create and try something new and who are all very talented artists. Many thanks to Karen and CT Fiber Arts Collective.  Many more photos of our play day and their art can be found on their blog.