I belong to a guild here in New Mexico, The New Mexico Silk Painters' Guild. It is a great group of multiple level artists. It has been a real source of engagement and pleasure while I've lived here in New Mexico. For me, obviously, a local living treasure. I am now also vastly enjoying the SPIN presence on Facebook. SPIN stands for Silk Painters International. Their membership is worldwide. The last three conferences they've held (they hold conferences every two years) have been in Santa Fe. So fortunate for we local silk painters and other artists. The FB presence is a gold mine of inspiration and information. Since I'd been reviewing it so much recently I decided to get back into silk painting, which I'd shied away from because of my "fear of gutta". For me that fear was being limited to cartoonish type drawings and/ or doodles which I'd already done years ago. I am not a trained artist and am fully aware of the years of effort it takes to build up a "hand," an "eye," etc. Not that I didn't rush into things over and over thinking "oh, I can do that". But the reality is that, like music, or painting, this technique builds up in complexity, subtlety, etc. over time and lots of practice. So, willing to give it a shot, I tried drawing some tulips--very stylized of course. I love art nouveau so that was ok. But then the problem arose of how to compose something with coherence, meaning? I thought of doing a "one-corner Ma" type composition (a famous Soong dynasty Chinese painter known for his compositions based on large objects in one corner) but quickly realized how super ambitious that was. If I went down that road I'd be working on it for probably years. Then I saw a Japanese kosode (kimono) with stylized silk painting and realized I'd found my template. It took a full week, which surprised me. 36" x 36" is a lot of silk to cover I guess if you're actually painting/drawing. Here is the result.

BREAKDOWN PRINTING OR DECONSTRUCTED PRINTING

I have stumbled across some "new" techniques and rambled carelessly through several books (Kerr Grabowski, Claire Benn, Leslie Morgan, Jane Dunnewold to name a few of the most helpful authors). Of modest means I tend to check them out of the library or borrow them; I did manage to purchase a couple of downloads from Interweave Press (Dunnewold & Grabowski) and they are a good kickstart. I love the "design" that emerges from manipulating dye in this way. I haven't used textile paint very munch because I'm not fond of a cloth with anything laying on the surface rather than being intrinsically a part of it; also the gel medium required to adhere the textile paint to the cloth's surface sold locally is in tiny little bottles for ridiculous prices. I would want to use gallons of the stuff and, alas, shipping gallons of stuff is expensive. Soooooo. Anyway, here are a few images of some breakdown printing using procion dyes!

My "Mistake"

Winter was cold, and spring has been windy here in Albquerque. Getting back to dyework has been slow as it is an outside activity. I am moving this month to a different house with a very large patio area and a covered area, so I'm hoping the dyework genie will come out of his bottle. I recently taught a class and failed to communicate a major step, resulting in the discovery of a new "technique" resembling something I've wanted to achieve for decades, a more organic sea-weedy image. Accidents, apparently, are sometimes "gifts" from "above". My students were captivated by how glad I was I'd shown them a technique leaving out a major step. We just had our second annual Slk Road Show. My companions in the Silk Painters Guild are all so talented. It is a unique group and I am so happy to have found them. The SPIN Conference is coming up soon in Santa Fe. I've decided to enter "Aegean" into the fashion show. I'd love to enter "cintimani" but if it's worn as a sarong the pattern will be lost.

Back to Blue Printing

Been doing a bit of blue printing the past few days as I had a request for crane pillowcases. It was a bit of a surprising challenge. I expected it to be easy. Tried batik first which is pretty easy, but then could not get the wax out. I know I need to take batik pieces to the dry cleaners to get the wax out but the only dry cleaner in ABQ who'll take them is far, far away and I'm going to wait until I collect a substantial pile. So I went to blueprinting. A fascinating process and highly unpredictable. In the process of trying to print the pillowcases I had many failures and made a lot of pieces. My friend is happy with his pieces (phew) so despite a simple project taking well over a week it was worth it. It's under 60 degrees most days here now that winter is at the doorstep so I'm not using any procion which requires at least 70 degrees.

The balloons at Balloon Fiesta here in ABQ won't be flying today due to rain -- the one day I got up at 6:00 am to view an ascension. DRAT! However, looks like the special shapes start arriving today and Friday's Special Shape Rodeo will be a go. Hooray! Will I get out of bed?