"Dome of Heaven"

10"x15", painted cotton cloth, chiffon, machine stitching, embroidery, metallic and cotton thread, black beads and red glass beads.
This piece began with the painted fabric found once again after rummaging through my scrap box. The fabric had become rather stiff from the paint and so I began composing strips to strips, square to strip using my old standby the zig zag machine stitch...metallic, gray, yellow and black threads. Also added the blue sparkle chiffon as the dome. Years ago I bought 1/4 yd fancy evening fabrics to use someday?
I've been watching my DVD "Walking the Bible" and scene after scene of the Sinai and Negev desert...plus Jordan River and Nile river scenes have been astounding. What is so fascinating to me are the color changes brought on by sunrise and sunset. These views of rather bleak brownish areas are transformed into dances of pink and lavender or golden yellow and orange. These beautiful combinations as well as the sparkle of light glittering on dry rocks giving the feeling of glistening water! Because of this DVD, I think I have several more desert expressions to compose. It is getting close to Spring and working with fabrics was my winter project....but now I find myself wanting to continue this art form through to summer. I also have back ordered some supplies from Jacquard inks...more silk screens, inks, and instructions for unusual applications.So I continue to dream desert dreams right here living on the edge of white foamed waves....I have the best of both worlds.

UPDATE:  Hurray...this is my 400th post!!!

"Pharaoh's Daughter"

8"x10, cotton cloth, screen printed, silver foil, embroidery, glue resist, flour paste resist, Jacquard screen printing ink.

I recently became fascinated with the mystery of the tomb of the Pharaoh's Daughter. The tomb in Israel is a beautifully created monolith made out of a single block of rock...made by Egyptian design and it at one time held a pyramid style roof. One coffin and highly decorated with paint and mosaics. Dated to the eighth century B.C.E., the time of King Hezekiah of Judah. Nothing remains, grave robbers ransacked it all. At one time Byzantine monks lived in this tomb and made changes during 4-6th century C.E. The mystery goes unsolved but the name sticks. It has been known all this time (thousands of years) and still is named the tomb of Pharaoh's Daughter.
I bring this up because I decided to make a mosaic from my cloth sample...a tribute to a daughter, a fragment of something beautiful long lost but not forgotten.

Screen printing has been quite a challenge as I am using unusual approaches. I used a flour-paste technique that I just couldn't get right....too much water, too little water, tape lifted?? I'm not a patient person and each time I waited for 24 hours drying time to figure out my mistakes!! A more successful process was using a common glue as a resist, a grid on the screen. I will use glue resist again but am now aware of the careful hot water scrubbing and clean up?!. I printed, over printed, added silver foil, embroidery and machine stitching. I can say it has a well worn appearance and the grid does give a feeling of a mosaic. whew!!!

Learning Curve

 Update: I've had to add word verification for comments for awhile because of some daily spam visitors.
silk screen prints, Jacquard screen printing inks, (water clean-up) freezer paper stencils both positive and negative views, sample of gold foil on fusible web, embroidery.

Oh what a fine mess I've made! Hardly know how to proceed but willing to try new stuff! These samples beg for more of something so I'll over print on them as my next step. I'm using a simple leaf design so I can spot my efforts. My plan sounds a little odd...I'm mixing flour and water and applying it to the back of the screen. When it drys, I can make marks and then overprint these leaf prints.This process and the freezer paper effort come under the title "Impermanent Screen Surfaces" described in the book "Art Cloth" by Jane Dunnewold. After the printing is complete the screen is washed and you begin again with a blank screen. Reminds me of monotypes that I loved so much years back when I was using oil based inks!

I haven't let go of my desert vision as I'm trying to stay with muted desert colors. How any of this will turn out is pretty much a wild guess. I'm willing to print, overprint, cut, stitch, embroidery etc...as I am totally in love(for now) with cloth as my art expression!