Hi there. I've been very lax about making blog posts this past year. Part of the reason is that I've found Blogger cumbersome to use. Posting photos takes several tries to get them positioned where I want them and sized correctly. And getting text colors changed for showing links also takes many attempts before it finally works. 

So I decided to move my blog to WordPress where my website is located. I hope I will post more regularly since it is easier to use. I also decided to change its name from blog to The Art of Skipping Stones and changing the format to a shorter one for insights, inspiration, and thoughts instead of longer posts on techniques and projects.  I hope to see you there. The Art of Skipping Stones

Do You Have a Favorite Visual Effect in Artworks?

      When you visit an art gallery or museum or exhibition do you notice that certain types of art attract your attention more than others? Do you try to take time to find out why you like them so much? Over the years, as I’ve explored art, I've realized that one of the things that appeals to me is subtlety. I do like bright, bold colors, also, but find that what impresses me most are details that suggest rather than state loudly. So naturally, as my work has evolved, I found that I often use varying levels of values of the same hue to create subtle contrasts which has led me create a look of transparency.   
     When I dye fabric using fiber reactive dye, I often dye several pieces at the same time using different dilutions of the same dye mixture. I manipulate the fabrics the same way so that they will have the same type of patterns on them. To get the effect of transparency, I place two of the fabrics, one light in value and one darker, side by side. I look for similar markings on them that will line up with each other to make it look like one piece of fabric is partly transparent and overlapping the other.  Or I print an image across them to connect them, visually. Below is a close look at the bottom section of Letting Go where I placed three different values from the same dye mixture.

Letting Go (detail at bottom)

     

Letting Go

     Sometimes, even different patterns will work. For example, In my piece, Emerging, I put a dark gray rectangle on top of a medium gray background. The background was created by printing a shibori-type pattern with thickened dyes. The dark gray piece was dyed using low water immersion and scrunching the fabric. I had not originally intended to use these two fabric together, but when I placed them together on the design wall to check values, I could see several places where, if I cut them correctly, I could match up patterns to look like one flowed into the other. To me, it looks like a semi-transparent darker rectangle is sitting on top of the background, letting the background peek through. In reality, they are both cotton broadcloth (opaque).

Emerging (Detail)

     I can also get that effect with two fabrics of different hues. If part of their edges line up with a similar marking on both sides, it will suggest that it one piece is overlaying the other. For example, placing the gray fabric next to the blue fabric looks like one is laying on top of the other because the darker markings on both line up. To do that, I had larger pieces of both fabrics and moved them around next to each to find a place where the patterns matched. Then I cut the fabric pieces using those portions of them.

Little Transformation 22

     That same sense of layering can be accomplished with paint. I use transparent paints which can allow some of the background to show through. On the lower portion of Emerging, I printed the embroidery image with a dark paint. Above it, I used a much lighter value of paint, matching up the markings on the thermofax screen as I printed. So again, it looks like a semitransparent piece is laying on top of the background and that the background is the layer with the printed embroidery instead of the darker top rectangle on which it actually is painted. 

Emerging

Another way to aid in transparency is to alter thread color. I add to the transparency effect by varying color and value in the threads I chose to use to finish the artwork. In the Transformation series, I stitched a running stitch along the outer edges and changed the color of the thread to match each fabric. On Taking Root, for example, I switched the thread color from light green to darker green, to very light gray to darker gray.

Taking Root

Taking Root
Detail of edge

I want to give a shout out to some artists who have helped me learn about transparency. One of them is Christine Barnes. I've learned a lot about how to get the transparency effect by reading her newsletters. Another source for me was the book Color and Composition for the Creative Quilter by Katie Pasquini Masopust and Brett Barker.

     I find that I’m at the point in my artistic practice where I actually try to plan on having these effects in my works. I enjoy the challenge of doing it and it is one of things that has helped me to define my style. One of my favorite things to do when admiring art is to take the time to analyze specifically what I like best about it. It allows me not only to appreciate the piece, but also to be inspired to incorporate it in my own art in my own way. 
     Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope to hear from you in the comments. 

How Do You Transfer Images to Fabric?

     Do you have a favorite image transfer method? There are so many ways to do it.You can take a photo and transfer it from paper to fabric directly using various media. You can get a digital image of it and use transfer papers. You can make a stencil and paint it on. You can thread sketch or thread paint it on to the fabric. I've tried all of these and they all work. But what has turned out to be my favorite transfer method is using a thermofax. (I'll explain the thermofax at the end.)

  Lately, the images I want to transfer are embroideries. On several of my trips overseas, I've visited tailor shops. I just walk in to see what they are doing. They are always busy places and in Asia they work with amazing fabrics and embroideries. At one in Vietnam, I saw a heap of scraps of them scattered on the floor and asked if I could buy them. They sold me a bag of the ones I chose and charged me based on the weight. At one in Bhutan I asked if I could buy them and they refused to take payment. They put a bunch of them in a bag and gave them to me.

     At first, I just kept them and admired them, not wanting to use them.

some of the embroidery fragments from Vietnam

     I decided that transferring the image would be a good way to use them without using them up so I tried to make a thermofax image of one. To do that, I took a photograph of it and then used the App ArtStudio to turn it into a completely black and white image. It took several steps to simplify the photo and get the image I wanted. Then I fed the black and white copy through the thermofax machine on top of the screen film. It burns holes in the film wherever there is black on the copy. I taped the edges of the screen with Gorilla Tape to stabilize it and then it was ready to use with paint or dye to make prints just like you would use a silk screen.

original embroidery fragment

thermofax screen of the embroidery

     Before printing on the artwork, it is important to practice printing it to get the correct color and value. To do that, I mixed Prochem transparent fabric paint with their colorless extender in various proportions. The extender makes the paint more transparent. And then I printed it on a spare piece of the same fabric I was using in the artwork.

TIP: always dye extra fabric (or have extra pieces of your commercial fabric available) to test print on so you don't spoil your artwork. 

To show you how the extender affects the paint, here is one of the experiments I did. In this experiment, I first stenciled red fabric paint onto pink fabric (#1). Then I mixed the red paint with some extender and stenciled again (#2). And added more extender to the paint and so on. I recorded how much paint and how much extender gave each result. Numbers 8 and 9 were so faint that I circled them so that, in the future, I would realize they were there.

(I sew all my experiments onto cardstock, record info on the cardstock, and store them in a 3-ring binder. Not beautiful, but informative and handy for reference.)

Then, I was ready to print on my artwork. I made one print in one dilution and added extender to the paint as I added prints across to the right side so that the image would seem to be disappearing. After I finished, I fused the artwork to felt and then added handstitch. I changed the color of the thread on the embroidery images to get lighter in value as it went to the right and also had the stitches get more sparse (also to add to the effect of it disappearing).  The artwork is called Clarity and is about how things become more clear and fade away and become clear again during our lives. 

Clarity detail

Clarity

 So, if you are interested in doing thermofax prints, you have a couple of options. One of them is to buy a thermofax machine. That's not such an easy or economical way to go unless you will use it often. The machines haven't been made since the 1970's and you can only buy used ones. They are in high demand and are usually over $1000.  The better option for most people is to find someone online who will make your screen from a photo you send them and then send the screen to you.  You can do a google search for custom thermofax screens to find them and compare costs. There are several people on Etsy who offer that service, too.
    I hope this information was useful to you. You can visit my website if you'd like to see more details of the artwork. Thanks for visiting.