What is in a name?

The last few posts have been all about black and white  so I thought it was time for an injection of colour.

Here is some printing done with another stencil made with a fabric soldering iron. See my post 'stencils, soldering irons and inattentive mothers' for the story  here. 

I decided to use the letters of my name for the design. All the letters are right - but not necessarily in the right order! I needed to overlap the letters to make a good design, and since 'Hilary' is shorter than 'Florence' - which went on the 2nd line - there was a bit of jiggery pokery to fit all the letters in.

Of course, making your stencil this way, means you actually end up with two stencils - the positive and the negative of your design. Here, I have started with a yellow negative stencil, overlaid with a positive in red.

In the next example I have added some dark blue to the mix and inverted the stencil so some of the letters are upside down.

This time I've only used the negative stencil, but turning it through 90 degrees to give both horizontal and vertical text.

Here, I have first used the positive stencil - again overlaying horizontally and vertically - then gone over with a sponge roller.

I really like this last one. I've used both positive and negative versions in a kind of checkerboard pattern.

All the prints are done with procion dyes thickened with manutex.

Thanks for dropping by...

Hilary Florence

P.S.

I have become a convert to linky parties. They are a great way to see and be seen. Please find below a list. I may not link to all every week, but I do link with some most weeks. Please go and have a look at all the lovely work there.

Anything goes Mondays @ http://marelize-ries.blogspot.co.uk/

Linky Tuesday at Free motion by  the river­­­­ @ http://www.conniekresin.com/

Fabric Tuesday @http://quiltstory.blogspot.co.uk/    

Sew cute Tuesday @ http://www.blossomheartquilts.com/ 

Show and tell Tuesday @ http://ihavetosay.typepad.com/randi/

Let’s Bee Social @ http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.co.uk

WIP Wednesday at freshly pieced   @   http://www.freshlypieced.com/

WOW = WIPs on Wednesdays  @ http://www.estheraliu.blogspot.co.uk/  

WIP Wednesday at TN + TN  @ http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca

We did it Wednesday @ http://www.sewmuchado.com/

­­­­I Quilt Thursdays @ http://prettybobbins.com/

Really Random Thursdays @ http://www.liveacolorfullife.net/

Needle and Thread Thursday @ http://myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.co.uk/

Off the wall Fridays @ http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.co.uk/

Fabric Frenzy Friday @ http://fortworthfabricstudio.blogspot.co.uk

Friday linky party @ http://www.confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.co.uk/

Stamping: funky foam, rolling pins and scrim = more procion paper play

More procion paper play, using a variety of home-made stamps. All but one use the turquoise/ rust colour scheme. These 2 days mix well to give a verity of greeny sludges.

This is just one overlapped and layered narrow stamp that I cut out of funky foam. I experimented using the soldering iron for this, as the design was quite fiddly. I wouldn't recommend it as the foam tends to bead. Also, I health and safety notice, I have no idea what fumes might be released burning through foam and I did this outside.

Another paper, featuring the same stamp. It also shows a line stamp that I made by cutting out uneven stripes to stick onto a cheap rolling pin.

Add caption

 More layering of various stamps. I've also added a bit of pseudo writing with a needle-noose bottle.

In these last 2 I've also used some hessian scrim as a printing tool.

Enjoy. 

Thanks for dropping by...

Hilary Florence

Stencils, soldering irons and inattentive mothers!

Procion paper play - stencils and rollers with thickened procion dyes

Quite a few years ago I went on a course for fusing fabrics together with a soldering iron - and did not enjoy it. No offence to artists who do fuse. In fact if you visit the website of Margaret Beal,  www.fusingfabric.co.uk, one of the great proponents of fusing, you will see some amazing work. However, as I said to my mother, working with a soldering iron was definitely not for me and not something I intended to do in the future.   

The only thing my mother remembered from that conversation was the word 'soldering iron' and guess what I got for Christmas?!! Well, this soldering iron has lain forlorn in my draw for years, but suddenly I have round a great use for it. It is wonderful for cutting through perspex to make stencils.

Here is the first I made - a sort of plant with berries. Not quilt successful because I didn't put in any bridges. So there a lot of loose bits flapping around in the breeze which allows quite a bit of seepage under the stencil. Still, I'm quite pleased for a first attempt.

It is amazing how effective it can be to restrict yourself to just 2 dyes. The first photo uses turquoise and rust, above and below uses turquoise and charcoal. I've also turned the stencil over and stamped with it, giving both a positive and negative print.

The second stencil is very loosely based on wisteria. 

Turquoise, violet and mustard.

Enjoy

Thanks for dropping by...

Hilary Florence

Notan leaves and more Procion Paper Play

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Notan Leaf 1 - printed on paper with thickened procion dyes

I thought it would be great to start the year I hope to go on - namely with some creative fun.
I have played around a little with Notan - that is motives and patterns that balance negative and positive space. I made a few leaf stamps with funky foam, thickened some dye and off I went.

Grid stamped Notan Leaf 1

I've overlapped the stamp here to make a loose grid. The background overlaps but not the leaf itself. Extra texture is added with another stamp, made from rubber bands stretched across a base.

Overlapping Notan Leaf 1 stamp

Here I've overlapped the leaves in this one - not sure I like this.

Notan Leaf 1 multi-directional  overlapping

And pretty sure I don't like just overlapping in all directions

Notan Leaf 2

 Here is Leaf 2...

Notan Leaf 2 - mirror repeat

repeated and with mirror image..

Notan Leaf 2 stamp half drop repeat

different colour scheme and a half-drop repeat grid.

Notan Leaf 3 - simple repeat

 Notan Leaf 3 - very fiddly stamp to make this one, not just cutting out all the little bits of foam but sticking them on to the other side!

Notan Leaf 3 horizontal half drop repeat

Enjoy!

Thanks for dropping by

Hilary Florence

A sensuous curve too far

Now for a free motion quilting interlude - which is another way of saying that I could never stick to one thing at a time. Somehow the ideas in my head queueing up to get out are too impatient to wait their turn. Impatience is great for creativity but not too good for finishing things in a hurry! I usually have several things on the go at once.

Time for a bit of procion paper play

Procion paper play is all about thickening up some procion dyes with manutex and printing, rolling, painting, dribbling, splashing them about on paper. Anything goes really. It is a great way to explore, experiment and play with no goal in mind - just discover what come out.

Bottles are a gift for quilters - all those sensuous curves. I've been meaning to explore exploiting them for ages. A clear out had left me with a pile of old folder dividers and I decided I could up-cycle these into masks and stencils. I perfect opportunity to make something for nothing and feel virtuous about reducing my rubbish. The idea - gleaned from an article on making stencils - was to paint them in acrylic to make them waterproof. I expected them to curl up when the first side was painted. I expected them - as per article - to lie flat again when I painted the reverse side. Not so. My stencils, not having read the article, decided to corkscrew. I know that I wanted sensuous curves, but that was taking things too far!

It was also quite time consuming, messy and used up a lot of acrylic paint - and probably cost a lot more than simply cutting them out of acetate. Ah well - I tried.

Here are the un-corkscrewed stencils, weighed down by stones to keep them flat...

stencils made from painted dividers - weighed down to stop corkscrewing

and the masks.

masks made out of old dividers, waterproofed with acrylic paint

This first one uses a couple of the masks and stencils, apply the dye with a sponge roller. Sponge rollers are very dye hungry and soak up a lot of dye-paint, but I do like the texture they give.

Procion paper play - bottle masks and stencils

detail

For this one I've limited myself to just one bottle shape. It's done with a brayer, which gives a totally different texture. It looks thicker, glopier, much more messy, but therefore there is more textural interest. I used electic blue and mustard yellow, which I think give a lovely colour combination. Areas under the mask were of course white, and I've gone over these with lemon yellow.

Blue and yellow bottle procion paper play

Blue and yellow bottles - detail

The last two from this session are cheerfully chuby. Again the sencil and mask give the postive and negative shape. I've used the sponge roller again and given a bit of extra colour with a light rolloing of magenta. I might give it a colour wash at some stage to colour in the white.

Cheerfully chubby bottles in yellows and organges with a bit of magenta

Detail

Back to the quilting next.

Thanks for dropping by.

surface design with procion MX dyes

As in the previous post, these couple of abstracts are done with (an old!) credit card. This time, the card was not so loaded, so no beads of dye around the edges. I've created movement by dragging the card in a curvy waves.

The 'doodling' is again done with a needle-nosed bottle. I've aimed at imitating a script without it actually saying anything. 

I really enjoy working with the effects you can create using a needle-nosed bottle. It took me a long time to find a supplier in the UK (Art-van-go has them). Then a friend produced the bottle her home hair-dye kit comes in. Identical! So if you are having problems finding a needle-nosed bottle - go and buy some hair dye.

I've used turquoise and charcoal dyes, which of course mix to give lovely shades of teal.

printing paper and fabric with procion MX thickened dyes

My free motion quilting project is now sadly on hold while my broken arm mends, so I thought I would use the time to post another project  I did on printing paper and fabric with procion MX thickened dyes.

These two abstract designs are done using an old credit card to scrape thickened turquoise and lemon dyes onto paper. The darker lines are made by using a heavily loaded card that leaves thick streaks. On paper, leaving white areas added texture and lightness, but didn't look so good when I tried it on cloth.

This next one has no white left. I have also added scribbles using a needle-nosed bottle. The thickened dye needs to be quite a bit runnier for this.