A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Freezer

Well, the mad marbler is at it again!! After three days, I was totally exhausted and had a good long nap the following day (the kitties were keeping me awake at night as well). I did manage to pour the leftover methocel into my tray at home and as I was passing by yesterday, decided it was time to do the leftover socks that I had "alum-ed" for the class.

I have decided one of the main differences between the class conditions and my home marbling is the size of the tray! At home, I use a tray that can easily fit a fat quarter while I was using a tray about 14 x 18" in class. I do think that made quite a bit of difference. I did two pairs of socks yesterday as well as four prints and didn't have to use any surfactant at all. In fact, I used some of the slower paints to slow down some of the speedier ones. I didn't have any yellow left in my stash here so mixed up some using my white and the Pro Chem liquid pigments -- worked great! Looks like I will be able to finally use up a lot of my old stuff.

Of course I felt compelled to alum all the remaining socks I had! So there will be a lot of marbled socks in my future!

These are three of the four prints I did after they dried and were sitting on my car! The fourth print was a "ghost" print which is the second print taken from the same marbling tray without adding any paint.

A Goodbye Wave to Elin!

No, this is not a marbled piece, but is a picture of the bottom of the tray and the elusive color that sits there immobile and worthless, although one woman in the class used paper towels to sop up some of hers!!

These are some of the socks that we marbled today -- what fun!! I didn't do that last summer during the class but was bound to do them this time!

These are my nice new marbled socks which I have decide whether to keep or gift to my youngest daughter! I may make some more SOON!

This is Elin who has just finished marbling one of the many fun things people brought in to marble!! There were also two bras, a few pairs of sneakers, scarves and many pairs of socks -- we will be a very colorful bunch of women and the folks of downtown Webster must have been very curious about what was going on as we had everything hanging outside today!

So we send Elin off to her next teaching assignment with a "Noble" wave doing the tango and being in the present! It is a treat and an honor to spend any time with this wonderful, intelligent, wise teacher!! She is the best for any of you who want to learn about dyeing of any kind or marbling fabric or paper! You won't regret taking a class from her!

Mother's Day Marbling!

What better way to spend a cold Mother's Day in Rochester than marbling with a group of like minded women! The weather was chilly but almost everyone brought in one of those indoor hanging racks so there was plenty of space to hang our pieces. Elin cracked the whip today and pushed us through our paces -- no letting up even even for such an important national holiday (especially for us new grandmothers)!

These pieces on the side were what I did yesterday. My size and I were not communicating well and I was using paints that are not my favorite -- not a good combination. It is obvious that you need to relax and be reflective to do this well. Today went a bit better but I am playing trying to push myself a little.




These two pieces were from today and the one on the left was a complete surprise! I had just let the paints float around where they wanted to at lunch and obviously some stuff came up from the bottom and the commotion in the room made it circular in nature. Double click to see better. I managed two pieces like this -- very different from anything I have gotten before (although the colors and softness were not). I learned today that I dip way too much to get the methocel out of the pieces!

This is Elin trying to make sure we understand how this all works. We spent some time today analyzing various issues and successes people were having. We are all having an absolute ball! She is such a knowledgable and sharing teacher!!
These were pieces from someone else in the group.
Here is Sarah who arranged for this wonderful class with her pieces in the background. Sarah also was having problems yesterday (as I was) and we decided it was stress about meeting people's expectations about the class and facility.


In the evening, Julie invited us all out to her magnificent house on Lake Ontario with views to die for!! Off in the distance (of course), I saw birds and think this is a common merganser (which I haven't seen before up on the lake). Warren saw a lot of loons when he was kayaking the other day.

This is the view from any of the rooms in the back of the house!!

Julie's husband is a general practice physician who somehow finds time to do stained glass as well. This is one of many windows, decorative elements and lamps he has done. He is obviously as talented as his lovely wife!!

Marbling - Come Rain or Shine

Well, my nervousness about the space I found for our marbling class with Elin Noble was for naught! The space is wonderful, with a lot of tables and four deep sinks and direct access to the outside. We started a little late but we kind of mellowed out as it was beautiful in Webster this spring day .

Here the ladies are preparing their trays and having their first up close and personal conversations with their size. Some of our talks were more successful than others! Mine was not one of the more successful ones....

Here a small crowd is getting their paints to be used in the first day's marbling -- note the sun is still out....

Here is the classmate who won the prize for longest distance travelled as she had flown up from DC when she heard Elin was teaching here in Webster. She never thought she would visit Rochester! She is working on marbling paper instead of fabric which is what most of us are marbling.


These were some of Pat's first day's effort and I think quite successful!

This was done on a piece of printed fabric -- double click and you can probably see the detail. It works really well with the marbling, I think.

There were some very interesting pieces on this exhibit!

This is the backroom where we had to hang up our pieces as just as we were ready to hang things outside, the rain came pouring down of course clearing later in the afternoon but very unpredictable weather today.


This was the group at the wonderful dinner at a local Thai restaurant -- Phuket Thai. The food was excellent!

Of course, I forgot to take pictures of the pieces that I did!! They are drying downstairs. The first batch of size I had was awful and I suspect it was the plastic bags I used to cover the tray. When I first put the size in, white foam came up the side, something I had never seen before. I didn't think they had an deodorizer in them but the second batch using one of Elin's bags worked much better and more what I am used to. Well, as Scarlett said, "Tomorrow is another day."

Preparing for the Ruth McDowell Class

Well, I am only two weeks away from going to Massachusetts to spend 5 days with Ruth McDowell taking her Designing from Nature class. This is a class I have wanted to take for awhile but not enough to fly to California! She now offers it several times a year near her home in west central Massachusetts. From my previous post, you can see there was some prep work. Today I took it a couple of steps further.

Some time ago I did this piece during a class with Nancy Murty. We used her technique of appliqueing and creating the designs. This was a design from two different photos that I took of Birds of Paradise. I always like most of the composition but always wanted to do it using Ruth McDowell techniques. So today I took my original drawing, cropped it down so the composition was better and started setting it up for piecing rather than applique. The original is about 25 x 36 and I would like it quite a bit bigger as well. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be! I haven't done all the numbering and lettering yet but that is pretty rote after organizing of the image.

I also managed to trace several others which are candidates for the class as well. Two are of pelicans, one of a Great Blue heron and a couple of flower ones.

This is the tracing I did where I have marked off large areas. My theory is that I will print this on 8 1/2 x 11 " paper and then get it blown up at Staples where they can go up to 36" wide and as long as you need with their architectural copier. Hope this works.

I really was interrupting a class that Priscilla Kibbee was teaching on jackets. There was enough room so that I could go and enjoy the company. Another fellow RAFAian joined us as well -- another refugee from the last jacket class. She has hers all finished! This is Caris Burton with the jacket she is making out of silk -- some that she purchased from Elin Noble this summer. It is stunning and Caris looks fantastic in it.

This is Caris from the front. Doesn't she look like a model?
This was the back of Nancy Hick's jacket that she made in the last class.


This was Mrs. Whitetail who was grazing in the side pasture while we were working away inside the studio. Can you imagine an more awesome place to work? She hightailed it out of there with her fawn when I went to take the picture so it is a little fuzzy! I had seen her and her two offsprings a couple of weeks ago right before I reached Marcia's house.

This is the early part of Liz's jacket. She added green around the top and down the sides and it is just beautiful! She had it almost done by the time we left. Can't wait to see it finished. Priscilla's graduates should be able to do their own fashion show!


This was a new face for the group - Varda who is modelling her new jacket. She had decided to do some fancy fabric work to embellish the red background.




Priscilla was cracking the whip on our own Donna and she was almost done with her jacket as well. She is also using fabric purchased from Elin Noble at QBL.
This is Marcia with her new apron that she made for the Clothesline Art Show. This was hands down the fastest I have ever seen Marcia complete a garment -- Priscilla's firm stand probably has affected us all! Marcia used the techniques we learned in Priscilla's jacket classes for put the apron together!

Jacket Class - Day 3 - The End is Near

Suki and I still have not negotiated a peace around the use of MY chair in the morning. She seems to still think it is her place to sit!

Well there is a reason for the blog to be named as it is -- we decided that overall the tame nature of all our garments would lend themselves best to a funeral -- I even elicited a pledge that if I died soon, that they would all wear these very appropriate jackets.

This is the first of our funereal garments -- Pat Berardi's jacket back!

This is Janet modelling her toned down, very staid funeral costume!

And here is Mary Payne showing off the back and front of her garment -- the lime green looks downright conservative next to some of the other choices in the class!




Here is Claire working on her jacket. She got to try it on right before we finished for the day and it is still too big despite reducing it by about 10 inches already! It is a gorgeous jacket and Claire says it WILL be ready for her upcoming trip back to Germany. She hasn't been there since she left under less than ideal circumstances when she was a very young child. She told us some wonderful stories of what has transpired that should make this trip a joy and help erase the horrible circumstances that precipitated her family's move to the US.

This is Nancy Hicks' jacket which now has a Seminole bracket on the front. The pictures hardly do it justice!
This is the first iteration of the back of my garment which hadn't changed since Day 1 until ....

Here is the front of the garment all trimmed up. I am definitely liking it and thinking it is a wonderful use of my Elin Noble fabric!


This is the final iteration of my back as I removed one of the molas and then it was three. You forget with garments that you don't see the side sections as we don't normally walk around with our arms held out from our sides like the letter "T". When I had tried on the jacket, the molas all disappeared! I really had fun yet again with this class and know more of Elin's fabric will end up in jackets in the future!

Thanks Priscilla! For more on Priscilla's wearables and classes, see my links and then go to her website from there!

Jacket Class - Day 1

Well, this is my third class with Priscilla working on jackets. I always learn something new and am beginning to feel more at home with the process -- should after three times - yathink!

I took two jackets to work on. One is another version of the Rag Merchant pattern which I used for my "Las Vegas" jacket and the other is using the "butterfly" jacket which is an old vest pattern long since out of publication with Vogue. I made a "jacket" from this last winter and just loved having it and wearing it. It seemed ideal for the beautiful Elin Noble fabric that I bought while in her class -- I bought far more than I should have but already have two people who want to meet with me should I find the need to give any of it up!! It is just too beautiful and perfect for clothing.


This is the beginnings of the front of my jacket. I am using the Elin Noble Fabric interspersed with my own hand-dyeds and some random molas and other textiles purchased from Priscilla.

This is the back of the jacket which I really wanted to highlight Elin's fabric as it was so beautiful. I am also going to couch on some yarns I found last night.
This is the beginnings of Claire Welch's jacket. She started with a jacket that two of her could fit into but Priscilla convinced her to go smaller.


This is Priscilla and Nancy HIcks beginning to work on Nancy's back. Nancy works so fast, the back is almost finished now!

This is Pat Berardi working on her brightly colored jacket. Note the Seminole work sitting on the side of her brand new sewing machine.


This is the beginnings of Marcia's jacket which is really nice.

This is the beginning of the back of Mary's jacket -- she is making the same one I am but with obviously different fabrics.
This was the first iteration of Janet's jacket back but she is giving up on this one. I know Janet's will turn out wonderfully as she does such beautiful work!