Definitely Legible

 

Well, I was good and waited a day to try peeling my work from the class on Thursday with Ana Buzzalino. It came up pretty easily, except for a couple places along the edges. I just used the tip of a pair of sharp scissors to pry it off the freezer paper.

I was surprised at how much matte medium this used up. This was a new container when I started the class, and I used a bit more than a third of it. 

It peeled up quickly once the edges were all started successfully. There were some bits of the Sharpie writing left behind on the freezer paper.

This one turned out to be so yellow because I'd written with an almost highlighter yellow marker that hadn't fully dried before I applied the matte medium in class.

The freezer paper is re-usable for this process as long as it is still shiny (so it will release). But the marks left behind by the first round of writing may be transferred in the second attempt.

Here's how the four pieces look up on the white design wall. I'm glad I used different types of sheers to try out how they look, it really is startling in a way. Now to try and figure out how to use these somehow in a quilt!

To Be Legible Or Not

 

I am absolutely gutted over the election results, the above picture is copied from Facebook (art by Philipp Gumonov) is my sentiment as of the moment. I took yesterday off to be sad and then angry, and I am Carrying On and making myself be Creative today anyways. I hope you are doing okay too.

This morning I woke up very early (at least for me) to join in an Ana Buzzalino class through the Mancuso Brother's online Quiltfest Virtual Schoolhouse. It was totally worth getting up for and I had a lot of fun learning about Text on Sheers. I love learning about the reasons for choosing to be legible vs. illegible.

I had to choose something to write in several different ways, so I went for what Rebecca Solnit wrote in the first paragraph of her essay today. It was rather cathartic to write it out over and over again. This white polyester sheer I used above has a printed black and a grey 1/4 circle, definitely a FabMo acquisition.

My workroom still smells of Sharpie and Golden matte medium, so I have my little table fan blowing as everything is drying, it really helps with the fumes as you're working with this kind of stuff. 

This one above was written over and over again in different colors of pen in different directions as well as ruler drawn lines. This is just a standard grey polyester tulle net.

In class, Ana mentioned all sorts of tools for mark-making and writing one of which most of us in the class had never heard of, a Cola Pen. I found this great how-to video on how to make one for yourself out of aluminum cans and wooden coffee stirrers. I haven't tried it yet, but I certainly will and report back.

This one was a thin sheer cotton or possibly silk another FabMo special as you can still see a piece of the designer paper tag up on the top. I can't wait until everything is actually dry so I can peel them off from the freezer paper and see how the text looks after it was transferred. That'll be tomorrow.

Pre-Print Work

Time for some mark-making before I start doing some Gelli Plate printing. I measured my Gelli Plate and cut pieces of freezer paper to size and ironed it to some of my hand-dyed fabric. 

I recently bought some new-to-me media, Faber-Castell Gelatos, which are pigment/wax/oil crayons and Edding textile markers, which are wash-resistant water-based ink.

I was very pleased with the transparent look of the Gelatos on the fabric. I smeared it around with the sponge included with it. Like a makeup sponge but much more firm.

This was very fun and hard to stop myself from covering the entire surface. I wanted to leave room for what I'll be printing over the top. It's All About The Layers.

I think these pieces of fabric are going to be even more interesting to work with when I'm printing instead of using plain white or solid color fabric.

Back To School = New Pens

My version of buying back-to-school supplies for myself these days consists of acquiring New Pens.  Specifically ones for mark-making on fabric (at least this time around).  Some of these will work on paper and other surfaces too.
I decided I'd test them out all in one place to compare and contrast how each type looks when actually used on fabric.  The fabric is a pretty tight woven cotton without a lot of surface texture.  I like how this looks and it will be useful to me in deciding which pen to use in what situation.  My plan is to keep this piece of fabric and add to it when I find a new type of pen.
Out of these new pens I think I like the look of the fine point Tee Juice. Also, the feel of using the pen was easier than the Zig, maybe the tip material is different somehow?  The Tee Juice pens come in lots of yummy colors, so these may become a new addiction, we shall see...