Thoughts, news, and more

Getting intimate with MX colors

Over the last few weeks I've been doing some experiments and gathering supplies for a project that I've had kicking around in my head for the last 2 years: I'm going to dye every combination of MX primary colors. I should qualify that statement a bit and add a few "yes, I knows":

I fully acknowledge that this might be a little crazy (in the OCD category).
I'm only planning to dye the primaries, secondary, and tertiary colors, and I"m only dying a single value of each hue.
Yes, there will be duplication from one color group to the next. For example, the same yellow will be crossed with multiple reds and blues.

When all's said and done (and dyed) the goals are these:

Produce a reference that shows how the primaries interact.
Identify primary triads that speak to me and merit further exploration (Soderlund color cube?).
Learn by doing.
Develop color palettes different from the one that have become habitual to me.

So why am I doing that? Well, in part it's because I can't seem to resist doing it. Yes it's lots of work, but the discovery will be fun. And, the end result will be useful.

The dyeing plan is a little convoluted. After a couple of sessions where I dyed one or two color families at a time in small containers I realized that, while this was the easiest approach to organize, it was also the most wasteful. I would be spending most of my time mixing dye. Instead, I've developed a whopping big spreadsheet that allows me to identify every combination of the 4 yellows, 4 reds, and 5 blues--that makes 80 distinct color wheels--and shows how many 5"x 5" squares of each distinct YR, YB, and RB pair that I need to dye to assemble the wheels.

Once all of the dyeing is done I'm also going to do discharge samples to accompany each color wheel.

I'm looking at this as a 1-year project. I really want to do this, but I can't shutdown every other studio activity for this one obsession. More to come...

Russ 2/29/12 Russ 2/29/12

Untitled work in progress

Not sure where this piece is going, but it's up on the design wall in studio incubating. The black line is pieces in. I've been thinking about line quality and trying to create pieced work that has a gestural quality to the line work. More to come...perhaps.

Russ 2/28/12 Russ 2/28/12

Getting ready for Kerr

Sunday morning I'm off to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi for a 1-week workshop with Kerr Grabowski. It's a very small group, just 6 of us, and all former students of hers. It should be great. Friends ask me what these workshops are like. Well, there's just no one-size-fits-all answer. Some are incredibly hard work. Others are lot's of laughing (and really hard work). It depends on the mix of teacher, students, and the phase of the moon. In every case there is learning and growth.

Now, Kerr is a special person. She's given me some of the most helpful critique I've ever received. And we laugh. It's hard to put a value on that. This YouTube video might give you a little insight into what her workshops are like. It's lots of what-if and "Oh, now I like that." There's lots of discovery and a good bit of laughter.

I'm talking myself into a big smile and a real sense of anticipation.

Russ 2/27/12 Russ 2/27/12

Restructured Circles #3

I finished this piece about a month ago and submitted it for a local show. No luck. It would have been nice to show it, but for some reason I'm not terribly disappointed that I don't have delivery, pickup, and reception on my to do list. Go figure. This is the 3rd completed piece in my "Restructured Circles" art quilt series. The marks are made entirely by discharge and I very happy with the results. The piecing is minimal, by which I mean it's 2 pieces. It doesn't get much more minimal.

When I finished the piece I stood back and said, "OMG it's a cairn." I've been taking pictures of rocks for years, and in the last few years have really become fascinated with stacked rocks. I think this might be the beginning of something. A new direction or a course refinement? To be determined.

Russ 12/2/11 Russ 12/2/11

All set for the Greenbelt Art+Craft fair

Sherill and I are all setup for the Greenbelt Festival of Lights Art + Craft Fair. For a first attempt booth I'm very pleased. As it worked out it's pretty much exactly a 50/50 mix of her work and mine. The framed work on the wall is Sherill's cut paper--just fantastic stuff. She's also got books and other paper work. She also make small purses and other things out of some my hand dyed and printed cloth from my scrap pile. I'll have to post some more detailed pictures of them. I wasn't sure what to expect, but they are terrific and absolutely cool. For my part is just miles of scarves--miles. I've very happy with the result of my recent work and I'm hoping for a good show.

Now I just need a drink, a little snack, and someplace to park my rear for a little while before bed. It'll be an early start tomorrow.

Russ 9/26/11 Russ 9/26/11

Finally finished: Part 4

OK. This is the last of the series of finally completed work, but I promise that there's more to come. These two pieces are called, "Sedona #1" and "Sedona #2". They're the first installments in a little mini-series inspired by a few days spent hiking in Sedona, Arizona earlier this summer. They each measure 30" w X 72" h. They're art cloth (cotton broadcloth) with a rod pocket at the top. They incorporate painting with thickened dye, low water immersion dyeing, soy wax resist, bound and stitched resist, and discharge with both chlorine and thiox.

Russ 9/23/11 Russ 9/23/11

Finally finished: Part 3

But wait, there's more. This one is called "Restructured Circles #2," which of course means it's another member of my "Restructured Circles" series. I have to say that I really love this piece. It's not heavily pieces, but it didn't need to be. It started out, as all of the pieces in this series will, as a whole cloth. It was then cut up and reassembled. In this case nothing happened to it after the reassembly other than quilting. The quilting is closely spaced echos following the general shape of the circular forms.

I'm pleased with the line quality and the feeling of the brush strokes, some of which I applied directly to the cloth and others indirectly through a silk screen. I also got where I wanted to be in terms of value and balance.

Russ 9/21/11 Russ 9/21/11

Finally finished: Part 2

This is the next installment in the series of recently finished work. It's called "Restructured Circles #1." I'm not sure that's the most evocative name, but it's part of a series by that name. I'm happy with both the concept and the result, and I'm looking forward to continuing this series for awhile.

The quilting is equally spaced parallel lines with a few lines intersecting at obtuse angles in the lower left. I used a mixture of variegated and light solid colored thread to create a visual variation in the quilting.

Russ 9/18/11 Russ 9/18/11

Finally finished: Part 1

This is the first of several posts showing newly finished work. This one is called "Line and Rhythm." I finished the quilt top probably two years ago, but have only recently completed the quilting. Like several recent pieces, the quilting here is very dense, about 1/4" spacing. I love the texture it creates.

I like this piece very much and have yet to make anything quite like it. I hope to get back to this sometime to use it as a starting point for a series. Actually, I can say that about several of pieces. Getting them photographed and getting some distance is allowing me to to see better what's working and what's not and to think about how individual pieces can inspire future work. Yes, of course, I know that I'm supposed to do that along the way--and I do take photos of work in progress. But, sometimes it seems that only at the very end--and sometimes only ofter considerable time has past--can I see the connection between one piece and something to follow.

UPDATED 9/21: In response to Judy's request, here's a detail shot of as well. Forgive the color balance and quality. It's an iPhone quickie.

By the time that I quilted this piece I'd switched to Aurifil 50 weight Mako cotton thread for quilting and I just love it. I was using Gutermann before. It's not bad thread per se, but the Aurifil is just so very superior. It's wonderfully fine. It feeds beautifully through the machine and there's virtually no lint (except of course from the batting). There's no local source around here that I know of so I've been mail ordering from Red Rock Threads in Nevada (redrockrockthreads.com).

Russ 7/3/11 Russ 7/3/11

Dyeing to Discharge: Workshop samples

Here are some examples from the workshop. These are the cotton and rayon pieces. I've still got to wash and iron the silk pieces. I'll post photos of those another day.

Commercial black rayon discharged with bleach, overdyed, then discharged with thiox.