Marlene's Blog

I found a pattern for a fabric box and thought what a great idea for

Mia Kitty napping under the turned sandwiches ready to free motion.

using up Silk dye samples or my Japanese small piece collection and thus the addiction began. I made a variety of sizes-4 inch on up to 22 inch square sandwiches and practiced my free motion. Then turned them into a box. When I stacked them one inside the other, I found a blossom so I never turned down the points and secured them to the box per the pattern

Side view of interlocking blossoms. It is also possible to turn the boxes inside out and have a different color combination.

Needless to say, I have continued with this blossom proliferation. Some will be in the Dunedin Fine Arts Center Gift Shop soon.  I am also thinking of making a Color Series of Box Blossoms.

Top view of the blossom boxes

Had a wonderful workshop On Monday all day with enthusiastic professional women who had a great time dyeing silk scarves at my home studio!

Jackie Denning who was a member of our Tampa Bay Surface Design Guild moved to Kansas City and it still carrying on the tradition of sharing with others-her craft, her enthusiasm for creating and teaching. Here are some pictures from her latest workshop with Color Hue dyes, indelible ink pens and Silk.

Color Hue dyed silk

Color Hue dyed silk and Ink Pen

I have a number of pictures to post from students who have sent me examples of their work using Color Hue Dyes. Check out the amazing effects and ways to present or hang their work.

Joani's Lime Green Silk Forest

Here is a picture of Joani’s work hung within a few days after taking the dyeing workshop for the first time.

Here is a greeting card Joani did and framed and hung on the wall.

Joani's silk greeting card

Joani's knotted and dyed silk

I mentioned in my last art newsletter list that I would post pictures of the sequence for folding, clamping with clothespins and dyeing silk using Color Hue dyes. Someone emailed after the previous newsletter requesting photos. Here they are.

1 and 2. Lay out silk fabric and clothespins.Fold Silk in half.

Lay out silk and wooden clothespins.

Fold in half.

3. Fold in Half to form a square.

Fold in half to form a square.

4. Fold to form a triangle and repeat for a smaller triangle.

Fold square in half to make a triangle.

Fold into a smaller triangle.

6. Clamp with wooden Clothespins and Dye around the pins on both sides using Color Hue Dyes.

Dye around the pins.

7. After dyeing around the pins on both sides of the fabric and when the water around the silk is clear, remove the pins. Open up your design. Spray over resisted lighter areas if you want to shift the contrast.

My color series panels have been a variety of sizes from 3 collages long per panel to 15 collages long. I decided to make a doorway of the panels with 4 on each side and shorter ones in the middle. When I finished the doorway I realized people would be walking through it and seeing the back side of all the collages. I then did a design on the backside of each collage, free motion drew on each to secure it and it was fun to see the impact the stitching had on the front side of the collage.

Color Series doorway

close up

A friend and I collaborated on a piece together which was going to be in a show outdoors for a month with the title the Octopus’ Garden. I painted the fabric and turned it over to Annie! to do anything she wanted to it-mixed media, painting, ripping, cutting, etc. She added coral, beads, pearls, and more. She gave it back to me and I added more. It originally had a window with a fish swimming through it, then for the next show I added to side panels and for the third show removed the window and made a doorway.

Breathing Underwater Doorway front

Some of Annie's coral

Some of Annie's fish

back of doorway

I really got into the orange red colors and started doing layers of 3 inch squares of all sorts of fabrics. It just grew and grew into a doorway. All three panels can be taken apart to make three separate works of art that can hang individually. Here are pictures of both front and back sides which are done in different techniques with different designs and images.

Dancing with Fire life-sized doorway front

layers of fabrics

Dancing with Fire doorway back view

Here is the second in the series of doorways I have been working on for the last 10 years. It is called Sunshine Portal and has been in a variety of shows and displayed so people can walk through the doorway. This is the front view. Below is the back.

Sunshine Portal, life-sized doorway, front

Sunshine Portal Back of doorway

My five doorways have been shipped and will be opening in the Original Sewing and Quilting Expo in Pittsburgh. See details for the show schedule at their website.

Here is the first doorway in the series called “What is Your Dream?” based on Martin Luther King’s speech. The back of the doorway is a group of see through black netting pockets. People are invited to answer the question What is your Dream (for mankind, yourself, your family, your community). They write it down on a piece of paper provided and place it in a pocket. It has been to many places in the US and then spent 2 1/2 years in the American Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan to encourage communication. It was part of the Roots of Racism: Ignorance and Fear show which included 50 other fiber artists. Here is the picture.

"What is your Dream?" life-sized doorway