dyeing workshop

I spent today at Karen Williams and Leah Kaufman’s art studio, dyeing 30 fat quarters of cotton. We started by creating a series of tints and shades. Then we mixed secondary colors with two dyes. Our final lesson was creating complimentary color mixes.

Was it easy? Yes, because Karen had everything set up and showed us exactly how to get known results. She is like a scientist who has tried and recorded every color combination.

The day ended with experimental dyeing. In 24 hours I will see what I have created. That’s when I’ll rinse out my wads of damp fabric, set the colors, and iron my dyed cotton squares.

Karen Williams is a mixed media artist whose work revolves around fabrics, beads and thread. You can learn more about Karen and her art at skunkhillstudio.com.

march piece makers

African Night & Day, 2009, in progress

Ten ladies came to this month’s Plymouth Piece Makers meeting! That is pretty remarkable because when I first joined, three to six would gather for a “show and tell.” One time there were only two of us.

Our group is finishing up our annual assignment of making quilts for graduating high school seniors heading off to college and such. This year there are 16 students—five girls, ten boys and one transgendered youth.

At the meeting, three more quilts were added to our Youth Forum stash. We’ll make the goal handsomely with all the talent and energy of our burgeoning group.

youth reigns supreme

Prince William’s Kichaka, 2009, in process

My 18-year old daughter, Vik, has trumped me in the quilting arena. That is, with two artist friends Max Woodring and Ana Kochetova—who created the black and white animal squares.

The recipient of the quilt will be the new baby son of Olivia Britt, an art administrator at Gage Academy of Art. Olivia leads the teen art programs at Gage—where Max, Anna and Vik have all been Teacher Assistants.

Vik plans to hand stitch the quilt with orange thread to match the orange flannel backing, except around the animals—where she’ll use black thread just inside the edge of each shape.

oil sticks and freezer paper!

Owlet Artwork and Textured Surface

I headed to SODO today to check out the new studio space of Leah Kaufman and Karen Williams. The Studio Warming event was very different than I expected.

Instead of showing off their artwork, Leah and Karen invited me to use some of their tools and supplies—to learn something new. Karen creates advanced fiber art. I was intrigued by her colorful stencil work.

Next thing I knew, I was cutting out a freezer paper stencil and ironing it to a piece of black cotton. Then I used yellow and orange oil sticks to apply color over a piece of textured string fabric.

The whole exercise was mind-blowing. I can imagine all the ways I can add oil stick artwork to fabric for my own quilt projects!