SCAD Fiber Department Tour continues

The Sewing Machine Studio

Students learn to work with electronic, digitised machines...

...and old-school machines for sewing, knitting, embroidery and serging.

The Weaving Studio

I have very limited knowledge on looms but could see the room was filled with many different types - small and large. The largest one in the back is the only such machine in North America - having come from Scandinavia. 

The Surface Design Studio

I have never seen a cleaner surface design room. It was simple and perfectly set up. The above image shows only one side of one of the rooms.

The screen cleaning set up is quite unique. They have worked within the limits of an old building basement to come up with a simple solution.

The SCAD tour was an exciting start to the Textile Society of America's Symposium 2016.

Studio: Loading Up

The studio is ready to be 'loaded up.'

The first step is to assemble the shelving, but I need to also have the stuff to go on each shelf ready to show where to place each shelf, working from the bottom up. This procedure makes the most of the shelving space.

We took the furniture from the old studio that I wanted to continue using out to the new studio.

Good friends JP and Caroline McCartin came to stay for the week and we put them to work. They willingly made all of the trips between the old and the new to move all of the containers and furniture.

Ron and JP leveled off table tops...

...and assembled shelving while I loaded them up.

Caroline got into the cleaning...

... getting into spots I couldn't reach.

Caroline pulling herself out of the fabric-roll storage.

Caroline cleaning my bead storage unit.

Caroline and I spent the afternoon making a print table board - a two person job for one this size. First we joined two pieces of closed cell insulation board with duct tape then trimmed the board to 8' x 4', the size of the table. We taped on a sheet of cardboard from the steel shelving packaging to give the insulation some strength. This was wrapped in a king-sized wool blanket trimmed and sewn to make a snug fit. The final layer was a wrap of heavy plastic. I am very excited about being able to print to this size.

Big thanks to Caroline and JP for working so hard at transforming an empty space into something looking more like a studio.

Jane Dunnewold Workshop

I attended Jane Dunnewold's Dye workshop at the Pacific Northwest Art School in Coupeville. Jane took us through many different dyeing techniques. I picked up lots of valuable tips to fine tune my dyeing practice and I was able to correct the bad habits I had developed over the years.

The first exercise was to dye cloth to make a colour wheel. Jane talked about the importance of making a colour wheel that was our own personal 'colour constant' - a reference check for all colours produced. I use Joan Wolfram's 3-in-1 Color Tool but it is printed on paper. I have put on my 'To Do' list to make a cloth one.

We worked with thickened Procion MX dyes. Here are 2 different cloth samples batching. A lesson learned was: take to workshops my best fabrics for the exercises. I had taken several used 100% cotton bedsheets and got some disappointing results. I suspect one wasn't true to label and there was some polyester spun in with the cotton thread. It did not take the dye well. When the base cloth is inferior for the job it is very difficult to assess the results of the other dyeing variables.

Pots were set up outside for silk dyeing.

It was such a warm breezy day the conditions were most pleasant for working outside. I dyed all the silk I brought with me.

Shibori and random scrunch resist techniques with results that could be achieved within minutes.

Jane demonstrated many unique techniques she has developed over the years and left us lots of time to experiment with whatever we wanted. She created such an atmosphere that for me it was low stress and intensive at the same time. I felt tired at the end of each day and so keen and energised at the beginning of each day.

Jane is thinking of offering her 'Complex Cloth' course again, after a hiatus of several years. It was this course coupled with her book 'Complex Cloth', plus her own output that played a major role in a better understanding of surface design in the art world.

So keep your feelers out for 'Complex Cloth' and 'run-don't-walk' to sign up.

When is a bathroom not a bathroom?

Daughter Elizabeth went to work on another under-utilized wall in my wet studio....

... after I was told I couldn't remove that white porcelain thing.

A door on trestles fit into the space making a great print table.

With the door taken off the shower it is easier to get into the rinsing area.
A plastic shelving unit stores waterproof dyeing equipment close at hand.

The other rinse basin is only big enough for the small jobs.
And I get to look at myself while I work - ideal for taking selfies.

Two drawers of print tools.

When is a bathroom not a bathroom?
When it is a dye studio!

Play With A Silk Screen

 

 

Whole cloths using Kerr Grabowski's 'Play' technique.
My kind of silk screening.

Playing Around with Bubble Wrap

 

 

 

Kerr Grabowski says you need to/have to pop the bubbles before using the wrap.
That is a fun part of the technique.

Screen Printing Techniques

The messy bits off the edge of the screen were caused by saggy screens. One of the drapery fabrics I used to make screens stretches when wet. 

More embedded screens.

I used a variety of grids collected from produce wrappings.

Extruded technique.

More extruded play using a squeeze bottle full of thickened dye.

Deconstructed Screen Trials

Next technique was to embed a variety of materials on a screen painted with thickened dye.

Once the screen was dry the materials were removed.

This screen produced 4 images before it was exhausted. 

This screen produced 12 images before the dye was finished.
I suspect the variable making the difference is the fabric on the screen.
This fabric is rougher and seems to be able to hold more dye that the fabric used in the previous screen.

Screen Printing - Stencils

I made a print board from insulation foam, an old wool blanket, vinyl and an old poly-cotton bed sheet.
   

Ready to go, starting with primary coloured Procion MX dyes.

Working with a newspaper stencil is the 1st technique on Kerr Grabowski's 'Deconstructed Screen Printing for Fabric and Paper' DVD.
The image fuzziness is an example of learning from mistakes. The cloth was too wet when I rolled it up in plastic and left it for 12 hours for the dye  molecules to bond. The water encouraged the dye molecules to continue migrating.

More often I would be working for a crisper image but now I know how to make a fuzzy one when I want to.
The spots(drips) on this sample show where I learnt the ideal viscosity for the print paste.
Both valuable lessons to learn.