Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Making a stack !





Stacks
I used a variety of textures that ran from dark to light in the same colour family. It is hard to tell the value of textures sometimes but I choose my dyes carefully to influence my choices. I dyed them laying the dark wool on the bottom and working through the values to the light. This way I can have a variety of values to work with that relate.
You Need:
flat pan long enough to lay your wool almost flat (wrinkles are GOOD !)
6 Dyes of your choice, one each for each layer
Acid
6 pieces of wet wool 1/16th yd. each

Directions
Lay the darkest piece of wool, Value 6, in your pan.
Prepare 1/32 tsp. ProChem Mint 723 in 1/2 cup of very hot water with a sprinkle of citric acid.
Pour this dye over layer one. Try to spread it around fairly evenly.
Place the next wool layer ( Value 5 ) straight onto the first one.
Prepare 1/32 tsp. ProChem Herb Green 709 as directed above and pour over this layer.
Continue laying on the values of wool and the dyes:
Value 4 is dyed with 1/32 tsp. ProChem Evergreen 729
Value 3 is dyed with 1/32 tsp. ProChem Shamrock 735
Value 2 is dyed with 1/32 tsp. ProChem Grasshopper 719
Value 1 is dyed with 1/32 tsp. ProChem Key Lime 724

Place in oven uncovered at 350˚F until the water clears.
Don’t forget to use really hot water while mixing the dyes, it makes the dye take up quickly.
I encourage you to try this any way you want to over any wool and dyes you have.
Try using different colours of dye and the same colour of wool.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Recent Book Purchases

Happy New Year All !
This is a time for me to learn something new ! I especially like to explore other people's creative endeavours.
I found some good books about creativity.
The first one I found in Colonial Williamsburg.
401 Design Meditations by Catherine Fishel

ex.
It's been very important throughout my career that I've met all the guys i've copied, because at each stage they've said ,"Don't play like me , play like you."

Eric Clapton musician


This one I found in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Kaleidoscope ideas + projects to Spark Your Creativity by Suzanne Simanaitis
This is visually stimulating book. It is a compilation of lively artists and their thoughts and their suggestiond for you on the subject of creativity. It really is a kaleidoscope.

The third one I ordered from amazon.

Living The Creative Life - Ideas and Inspiration from Working Artists by Rice Freeman Zachery
This book explores real lives of artists in the trenches , so to speak. I'm not meaning the suffering artist type stuff but real, practical comments from people who are "doing it '

Try doing something creative this weekend.
Do something that makes you filled with joy.

I'm going to.