Thursday, October 20, 2016

Meanwhile

A little experiential learning.

Black walnut dyeing. All of these silk pieces have been tinted. The lightest one is closest to the original. I still have some soaking in bell jars. I love the richest brown which came from the freshest walnut juice and stayed in the longest.

The thing I want to accept is that experiential learning does not always create beautiful pieces. This is a tea bag that I embroidered onto a piece of hand-dyed silk organza. I had attached pieces from a newspaper article to the 5x7 canvas first. 
This one is not beautiful but it is more successful.

Drawing on dried tea bag, then attached to paper with matte medium, and finally machine stitched.
Matte medium works differently with fabric than with paper. Good to know.

2 comments:

  1. These are very cool experiments, Martha! It is so true that experiential learning doesn't always create beautiful pieces--but the learning is the important thing, I think. And sometimes those experiments have their own charm. You might want to check out Tommye Scanlin's blog http://tapestry13.blogspot.com/2016/10/experiments.html
    She is drawing with walnut dye and grinding earth pigments right now. Fascinating stuff.

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  2. I love this series of photos, showing the steps in your experimental process. I think each piece will emerge as important in an overall whole.

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