Break Through
I've been working on woven strip pieces.
The work starts with upcycled cotton sheets, I buy them at thrift stores. (If you really want to take a trip around the cotton growing and manufacturing world take a look at the labels on sheets and where they are made. Very few manufactured in the US of A. Makes you understand why our economy is in the shape that it is.)
I buy king size flat sheets in any color I can find. The sheets are then washed and dryed. After washing I dye the sheets using a variety of dye processes. A few get put aside for more surface textile design - block printing, handpainting, stencilling, silk screen, etc. All of the dye baths are some variety of low water immersion. In Southern California, about 50 weeks out of 52 have enough day light hours of above 70 degree temperatures to allow the chemical process of binding the fabric and cold water dyes to take place.
The sheets are trimmed, color coded and placed in plastic shoe boxes.
When starting a piece I select as many colors as I like, lay them out on the table, and play with them. Sometimes I'll sketch a layout. Then I hang the fabric on my design wall for a while. Look at it in natural light, day light with over head lights and artificial light at night.
The fabric is then cut into strips. Sometimes random widths from 1/4 inch to 2 inches wide. Sometimes the vertical stripes are cut into a regular repeating pattern of widths, sometimes the horizontal are or are not. So far, four of these pieces have been cut and woven. The trick here is making sure that you don't wind up with something that resembles those woven pot holder thingies we all made as children at summer camp.
Originally I thought to hand stitch the horizontal strips. The strips are hand woven and I'm not working on a loom so they are not stable. Because my mind is always twenty steps ahead, I began wondering about finishing the edges. And because I see nothing straight, but these pieces are totally geometric, I began wondering about squaring up the edges, without cutting into the top and bottom horizontal strips at an angle.
Sunday at Michaels I found some stretched canvasses on sale for a good price and bought two. Thinking I will stitch the finished pieces to the canvas. I also input "mounting quilts on canvas" in the Google search box and found several posts that made me think I was heading in the right direction.
While spending two days cutting strips for four garden pieces, I had plenty of time to think. (Don't think too much when using a rotary cutter. Oops isn't fun for the fabric and totally dangerous to the cutter. I wear a gardening glove on my left hand when rotary cutting. (I'm right handed.))
Between looking at the canvas, reading the posts, and cutting the strips, I had a moment. Why not just work directly on the canvas? Glue the ends of either the vertical or horizontal strips directly to the back of the canvas. Takes care of the vision problem and squaring up. Keeps the glue off of the front of the piece. Covers the edges of the canvas and solves the backing issue.
Does this mean giving up stitching? Well, I could hand stitch the strip before weaving and gluing the ends down. This would give the texture the stitching is meant to add. Cause I don't think I'm trying to stitch through gessoed canvas.
By the way I did a search on unprimed canvas and the cost is prohibitive for most pieces. There is a company called French Canvas selling unprimed canvas. French Canvas will also stretch fabric onto wooden stretchers. I may want to use it's services for stretching some large exhibition fabric work.
Blick art supply has a good price on a set of 12 stretchers. Check it out.
I spent this week's budget at Michaels. Uncharacteristically, I will exercise discipline and wait until next week to haul behind to Blicks and buy the smaller size canvas I want to work on. This means my beautiful strips will sit for a week, and my mind will begin racing towards other ideas. Never fear, I have three quilted pillows and a jacket to work on. Guess I better get busy.
The work starts with upcycled cotton sheets, I buy them at thrift stores. (If you really want to take a trip around the cotton growing and manufacturing world take a look at the labels on sheets and where they are made. Very few manufactured in the US of A. Makes you understand why our economy is in the shape that it is.)
I buy king size flat sheets in any color I can find. The sheets are then washed and dryed. After washing I dye the sheets using a variety of dye processes. A few get put aside for more surface textile design - block printing, handpainting, stencilling, silk screen, etc. All of the dye baths are some variety of low water immersion. In Southern California, about 50 weeks out of 52 have enough day light hours of above 70 degree temperatures to allow the chemical process of binding the fabric and cold water dyes to take place.
The sheets are trimmed, color coded and placed in plastic shoe boxes.
When starting a piece I select as many colors as I like, lay them out on the table, and play with them. Sometimes I'll sketch a layout. Then I hang the fabric on my design wall for a while. Look at it in natural light, day light with over head lights and artificial light at night.
The fabric is then cut into strips. Sometimes random widths from 1/4 inch to 2 inches wide. Sometimes the vertical stripes are cut into a regular repeating pattern of widths, sometimes the horizontal are or are not. So far, four of these pieces have been cut and woven. The trick here is making sure that you don't wind up with something that resembles those woven pot holder thingies we all made as children at summer camp.
Originally I thought to hand stitch the horizontal strips. The strips are hand woven and I'm not working on a loom so they are not stable. Because my mind is always twenty steps ahead, I began wondering about finishing the edges. And because I see nothing straight, but these pieces are totally geometric, I began wondering about squaring up the edges, without cutting into the top and bottom horizontal strips at an angle.
Sunday at Michaels I found some stretched canvasses on sale for a good price and bought two. Thinking I will stitch the finished pieces to the canvas. I also input "mounting quilts on canvas" in the Google search box and found several posts that made me think I was heading in the right direction.
While spending two days cutting strips for four garden pieces, I had plenty of time to think. (Don't think too much when using a rotary cutter. Oops isn't fun for the fabric and totally dangerous to the cutter. I wear a gardening glove on my left hand when rotary cutting. (I'm right handed.))
Between looking at the canvas, reading the posts, and cutting the strips, I had a moment. Why not just work directly on the canvas? Glue the ends of either the vertical or horizontal strips directly to the back of the canvas. Takes care of the vision problem and squaring up. Keeps the glue off of the front of the piece. Covers the edges of the canvas and solves the backing issue.
Does this mean giving up stitching? Well, I could hand stitch the strip before weaving and gluing the ends down. This would give the texture the stitching is meant to add. Cause I don't think I'm trying to stitch through gessoed canvas.
By the way I did a search on unprimed canvas and the cost is prohibitive for most pieces. There is a company called French Canvas selling unprimed canvas. French Canvas will also stretch fabric onto wooden stretchers. I may want to use it's services for stretching some large exhibition fabric work.
Blick art supply has a good price on a set of 12 stretchers. Check it out.
I spent this week's budget at Michaels. Uncharacteristically, I will exercise discipline and wait until next week to haul behind to Blicks and buy the smaller size canvas I want to work on. This means my beautiful strips will sit for a week, and my mind will begin racing towards other ideas. Never fear, I have three quilted pillows and a jacket to work on. Guess I better get busy.
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Yasmin