"Waiting for Dawn"

It all started with a

one-of-a-kind print from many moons ago

Print Made from Raised Impression on a Small Serving Plate

and some hand dyed fabric remnants

After doing some dying, printing and piecing, I had come to a stopping place with a piece I was working on and started to clean up after making a mess.  Just couldn't bring myself to toss the dyed remnants.  I had 8small,  orange tone triangles and a several feet of left over strips of mottled grey fabric.  As I opened the draw were I save workable remnants, the print of a small bird caught my eye.  It had been hiding in that drawer for at least a couple of years.

I tried several arrangements of the remnants and finally settled on a design that I liked and set about piecing it.  On my worktable lay some green fabric that I thought might pull out the muted green in the print.  Yep.  It worked so I pieced a border with it, backed it with batting and fabric and set about doing simple stitch in the ditch quilting.

I could have bound or faced the piece, but since it was 12.5" x 12.5" and I had a 12" square stretched canvas on hand, I put a boxed facing around it and stapled the facing to the back of the canvas.

Stapling the Facing to the Back of the Frame

To finished the piece I cut a mat board backing, glued it to the back, attached small D-rings and strung the piece with hanging wire.  Waalaa!  Another brain fluff was complete.

"Waiting for Dawn"

 I dearly love the creative moments which come about with no planning, just the joy of making something from nothing.

Always remember, never fear to experiment.  

Sometimes wonderful things happen.

© Linda Friedman 2017.  All rights reserved

Block Printing with Craft Foam #1

As I was putting things away in the studio after my day of playtime thread sketching, my hand fell upon some sticky back craft foam.  Instead of continuing to straighten up, I started cutting circles and strips from the foam.

From this seemingly mindless activity emerged four 6" x 9" printing blocks which are being used to create a 40" x 40" themed challenge.  I won't be able to show the completed work until it has gone through a jurying process, hopefully making the cut, and finally being exhibited.  However, here is the beginning of this particular block making technique.

Tools Used for Cutting Sticky Backed Foam

Foam, Ruller, Compass, Craft Knife

Use Compass to Mark Circles and Cut with Scissors

(Block #1)

Circles Ready for Mounting to a Board

Note:  The school of experience has taught me that one layer of the forms is not high enough.  When drawing a paint roller across one layer, or even two layers, often paint will get onto the mounting block and print onto the fabric.  This is definitely not something one wants. So I always make three layers of foam shapes.  See profile below.
 

Three Lays of Foam Shapes

Block #2

Three Layers of Thick Stripes

Block #3

Three Layers of Thin Stripes

(Ultimately I needed a fourth block, but that will be addressed later in this series of blog posts about creating printing blocks with craft foam.)

In order to make somewhat permanent, rigid blocks to make printing easy, I cut 3 6" x 9" plywood blocks onto which I affixed the foam shapes.  I attached he first layer of each foam shape to the plywood with Weldbond glue so that the block would withstand multiple washings without coming loose.  The sticky substance on the back of the foam works well for affixing the foam layers together but it is not strong enough to permanently stay on a wood block.

Plywood Block

 Tomorrow I'll show how I used these blocks to audition the colors to use when printing.

Always remember, never fear to experiment.  

Sometimes wonderful things happen.

© Linda Friedman 2015.  All rights reserved