Something About Nothing

 I flew up to Seattle Washington to visit my family, but first I spent a few days with my friend Liz Kettle . We took a Photo Emulsion Screen Printing class with Dana Harris Seeger at Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network (BARN). Liz and I The light source we used to expose our screens. Liz getting up and close and personal with the light. Rinsing off the screens Drying off the screens after washing them out. Dana showing us how to pull a print. All of our prints were pulled on to fabric. Liz's beautiful branch prints My wild and crazy prints. Liz's yard is so gorgeous! Morning sunshine coming through the Japanese Maple tree. Waterfall in Liz's yard Creek flowing away from waterfall. Burned wood sculpture made by a previous owner.

 The Risograph is a digital screen printing machine. A stencil screen is created in the machine and then prints are made. The machine we used does one color at a time. Multiple color prints must go through the machine multiple times, each color requiring a new screen. It's not a commonly used machine these days. Many schools have these treasures sitting away in a corner somewhere. The University of Utah Book Arts Program ran a training session on their machine. Now I'm able to schedule time on the machine and print whatever I would like to.  Risograph Machines We were paired in to groups and given black and white images to put together to make a two color print during our training. I traded prints with a couple of other groups. Unfortunately I didn't write down the name of two who made this image. They were an author and artist if I remember correctly. The Bearded Jeweler ,  Ben Cosner , and his wife, Rebecca Stuhff, created this image. This is the print my partner, Phoeb...

These handsome birds joined me at the local cemetery while I searched for leaves to use in Roxanne Vigos ' Botanical Leaf Printing Class on October 12 & 26. Our first experiments were arranged on long stips of cotton fabric.  The fabric had been dipped in a mordant of iron solution, or alum, then rolled up on wooden chop sticks and tied tightly. One of my leaf "corn dogs" The bundles were then steamed for about an hour. Steamed "corn dog" The color changes always amaze me. We also created some leaf printed pages of paper. Both pieces started with an alum soak and an hour of steaming. Small strip on left was dipped in a quick iron bath after steaming. During the second session pieces were printed on silk. Page from our USDG newsletter

I finished piecing together my top of overdyed fabrics. It fits my bed nicely. Now to figure out who I want it quilted. I think I have enough fabrics left to make a baby quilt, or maybe a lap quilt? Maybe a twin quilt? Who knows. I'll keep piecing them together until the fabric is gone.