Stencils, Fabric Dyeing and More!

I love the idea of starting a New Year. The world is wide open for exploring and creating! I got caught up with two projects at the end of December that made me think in a very focused and narrow way. I can only do that for so long before my brain cramps up and demands free time. Over the past few days I was able to carve out free studio time and I feel energetic and happy again... my inner balance was restored.

I recently purchased some of Terri Stegmiller's stencils from Stencil Girl Products. I'm not very familiar with stencils but after following Terri's blog and seeing how she incorporates stencils into her artwork I thought I'd give it a try. Take a peek at Terri's blog - she provides tutorials on her approach which is a real treat! Also, check out Stencil Girl Products; they carry fellow artists stencil designs and are a pleasure to do business with.

Terri's stencil designs are the circles to the far left and to the far right

Here I used Terri's circle stencil along with a dragonfly stencil. The fabric is dyed using the Confetti Method along with many layers of stamping and discharging.

In this piece I used Terri's stencil along with bubble wrap. The lighter colored circles are created by applying Softscrub rather than dye or fabric paint. The bleach in the Softscrub removes or discharges the dye from the fabric.

Next I focused on ice dyeing and Confetti Dyeing to try out some new dyes that arrived from Dharma Trading. I love my new dyes and never tire of seeing the fabric come out of the dye baths.

I had some ideas on color combinations when dyeing with the Confetti technique. I must have made a dozen or more fat quarters. Below is a sampling of colors I found interesting.

Over Dyed

Black Dye

Yellow and Blue

I dragged a comb across the dye to disperse

 

Finally I decided to try my hand at silk screening and created a template from pressed leaves. I applied to two pieces of fabric I've been working on that remind me of Connecticut's woodlands.

The fabric is dyed, batiked, painted, stamped and discharged

Detail of above piece

This fabric started with Confetti Dyeing and then batiked, discharged
stamped and over dyed

Detail of above piece

The last fabric I pulled from the dye bath was created by folding and clamping the fabric before dyeing.

The colors are Imperial Purple and Lavender