HAPPY EASTER

I made several of these many years ago when my children were young. Brings back lots of wonderful Easter memories.

SENSELESS BEAUTY

SENSELESS BEAUTY is the title of an article I read recently in Notre Dame's alumni magazine. The article became the inspiration for my cigar box project which I have finally finished. For years I have collected interesting bits and pieces of nature that I find on my daily walks. They have sat on windowsills, in baskets or tucked away in boxes for years. Many of them have found a home in this project. So happy to use these senseless bits of beauty for a good cause, YOUTH VISION, an arts program for at risk youthl.

"What do you make of a universe saturated with an extravagance of beauty? ...I will let the philosophers define what beauty is. But I think I understand some of what beauty does. It calls us out of ourselves. It feeds our senses. It provides standards for art and science, for language and literature. It inspires affection and gratitude. How then should we live in a world overflowing with such beauty? Rejoice in it, care for it, and strive to add our own mite of beauty, with whatever power and talent we possess."--Scott Russell Sanders

PROGRESS OR LACK OF PROGRESS

Thought I would be farther along on this cigar box project by now, but 2 migraine headaches this week, end of the winter blues and a general lack of interest in stepping any further into this project has kept me from doing much of anything this week. Need some sunshine and warm weather to get me going.

Art For A Cause

This weekend I am working on altering a cigar box for an organization called Young Vision, which provides art opportunities for at risk youth. All cigar boxes will be auctioned off to raise money for the kids. Looking forward to messing with paint and papers this weekend.

Finished

This is the third piece in a series I have been working on for the last couple of years. I don't want to say too much about it other than each piece deals with growing up in the South during the sixties--the way things were, the way things weren't and the way things might have been. Here are links to the two other pieces:  http://playingwithtexture.blogspot.com/2011/08/in-between-eco-dyeing.html#links and  http://playingwithtexture.blogspot.com/2012/03/finale-i-began-my-interior-life-on.html#links

Happy Weekend!

Random Hearts

It's a good day

                                                                                                         for

some random acts of kindness.
Happy Valentine's Day!



TEXTURES OF ECOPRINTS

Yesterday I was going through all my ecoprinted fabrics and was struck by the variety of textural prints a leaf can leave on fabric. There are these flat, but definite prints that look like they were made with a rubber stamp.

Or there are more colorful prints that have a look of being layered with color.

Then there are ghost prints, leaving barely an image.

  Ghost prints with veins. Probably more of a resist print here but the vein printed. Amazing!

 Two color pigments in one leaf that each printed instead of combining together and producing a muddy print.

 Prints that look like they were made with pigment on a pin-head. Reminds me of stitching.

Prints made from the mingling of dye pigments and the folds of fabric.

Watercolor like images

and those defined by iron in the dye bath.

Awesome veining.

Resist prints with a iron outlline.

 Mirror images with texture provided by the fold in the fabric and string binding.

  The magic of iron

A three dimensional print

and the difference between a print using the top of the leaf and the under side.

This is what I love about ecoprinting. You never know what you are going to get. You can't MAKE something happen and no two prints will ever be the same.