A lesson in contrast well learned! Liquitex Inks!

I was working on a project using Liquitex Inks.  I've had it in previous posts.  I finished it!!!  Did you read that correctly????  I FINISHED IT!!!  Here's a close up photo: 

And then there's "Show & Tell" at our groups recent retreat.  It was set out on display with several other 12 x 12 "tree challenges".  I was HORRIFIED !!!!  There is my beautiful and well loved project looking bland with no focus.  The color of the tree I chose to put on the inked silk background doesn't show from 10 feet away.  Talk about a lesson in looking at things from a distance as well as right at arms length.  The little tree I chose to put in there fades into the background and is lost! Here's a picture from a distance.  See how the tree is lost on the horizon? 

So my only recourse is to replace the tree with something that offers more contrast.  Oddly enough, when I was working on it I made two little thread trees.  The one in these photos, and a blue one.  As soon as I saw the tree was not enough contrast I decided I needed to replace it with the darker one I stitched at the same sitting.  But.......I can't find it!!!  I've cleaned my entire studio and organized all my supplies, UFO's and threads.  That darker trees is not to be found.  So, now that I've wasted more time than it would take to stitch a new one looking for the one I have already done but can't find.....I'm stitching away making new one with more contrast.  And here I thought I'd tidied my studio rather well!

A good lesson learned about stepping back and looking at your work from a distance.  Or perhaps it's a lesson in needing a bigger studio so that I CAN step back to look at it.....either way, next post should be the finished project with a tree that shows from any viewpoint! *sigh* :(

Liquitex Inks, Silk Rods, Tutorial continued.....

This is a photo of my silk rod project. I posted the first steps earlier on this blog.   Today I worked on the little project created by the silk rods colored with Liquitex Inks.  Those inks were provided to me as an Author Ambassador for C & T Publishing.  As shown in my previous post, they were soaked and laid out to re-glue themselves to each other as they dried.  It worked but only partially.  There were some gaps that separated. 

Now I've taken embroidery floss and done some big hand stitches on the seams and above the seams, to create some texture, some embellishment, and the hidden bonus was sticking the bits together.  Can you guess what's next?  I'll make one of the thread trees featured on the cover of my book to add to it.  I never know when it's enough.....could keep going and going.  I feel I need to add some beads as well!  I like to embellish....what can I say? 

I especially like the shape this project has taken on.  I plan to mount it inside an artists canvas, with the backing wrapped around the frame.  That way the "bubble" developed in the silk rods would be protected from being crushed.  We'll see.  For now, the tree and some beads. 

Liquitex Inks, Silk Carrier Rods - Another Experiment

An article in Britain’s Embroidery Guild magazine, “Stitch”, http://www.embroiderersguild.com/stitch/

It used silk rods and Liquitex Inks and enticed me to try this project.  Since being designated an author ambassador by my publisher, C & T Publishing, and receiving some of these inks to experiment with, I had everything I needed on hand so thought it would be a great little project to try these inks out on. http://www.treenwaysilks.com/

Happily on this sunny morning I got out all my supplies and proceeded to arrange everything for this project.  I soaked the silk rods in a bowl of warm water.  The article said 20 minutes to an hour, but I found after about half an hour they separated easily.  The goal is to not lose the gummy stuff that makes them stick together!  They are multi layered so this was also an experiment in how thin to use them.  Here is what they looked like when I started.

When separating these “carrier rods”, it isn’t unusual to find bits and pieces of stuff other than silk.  I found two little brown bits, that made the silk in that area a color just a shade earthier than the surrounding silk, and I think there was one piece that was a silk worm!  However, they are hard and dried and just fall out as you separate the layers.  I tried to capitalize on those spots, but two of them got lost in the inking! 

There are two good sources for these silk by-products.  One is Treenway Silks on Saltspring Island, BC  http://www.treenwaysilks.com/ .

Another supplier is Stef Francis in the U.K. http://www.stef-francis.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=10&products_id=12236  I have purchased from both and find both of them to give excellent service, mailing the order quickly and providing a high quality product. 

Here is a photo of the soaked and separated layers.  They are still wet here. 

From here I laid them out on wax paper on top of paper towel, laying the strips horizontally and overlapping so that the gummy residue could glue them back together.  Another layer of wax paper was placed on top of the wet layers and more paper towel, and then it was pressed with a dry iron. 

And here is a picture of the project after laying out the strips, pressing it dry, peeling it off the wax paper, and painting  water diluted Liquitex  ink onto the surface with a paintbrush.  See the inks here:  http://www.ctpub.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=1987 The ink worked very well but I was not too happy with this sample, although it did stick together the best of the two:

But this one I painted while it was wet, and then pressed it almost dry in the same layered arrangement as the first one.  I think this one has potential for embellishment and mounting on a quilted background. You can see that some layers didn't bond, but I think hand stitching with embroidery floss will fix that problem and add another design element.   I can’t wait to get to that. 

I hadn't worked with Silk Carrier Rods in any capacity other than an already colored item that made an excellent embellishment.   I have a number of items that I’ve done with Liquitex inks now, and they all worked well.  I recommend the product highly.  Now I need to get busy and put them together into pieces of art!  What a lovely way to spend the day. 

A Beautiful November 7th Walk

Our first day on Pacific Standard Time http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/c.htmland I woke up earlier than usual!  WHAT is that all about?  However, not to complain, because I woke to an incredibly beautiful, sunny, warm November 7^th.  What to do with such a special day?  First of all I played with some silk rods (more on that later0, but couldn’t stay inside.  It was too beautiful.  So the dog and I went for a walk on the beach.  It was stunningly beautiful, lots of people with lots of dogs, all of them friendly and in just as good a mood as I was. 

I had my camera with me and was happy about that because there was an eagle sitting on a piling in the middle of the bay, with possibly 500 seagulls on the gravel bank behind him, and behind that the water, the mountains, the clouds and the sky…..all brilliantly colored.  I took several shots of this scene, thinking I could crop and paste and manipulate and add some text so that I could post a beautiful picture of what November 7^th looked like where I live. 

It was not to be.  When I got home I somehow messed up a task I’ve done hundreds of times before and I lost the pictures of my silk rod project and worst of all, the picture of the eagle.  The silk rods I can do again but that scene won’t be duplicated just because I want it to when I go back to the beach!  So here’s a post with a totally unrelated picture!  At least it’s the same dog!!!