Something About Nothing

 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. 

During the pandemic my in person Art Cloth Mastery program with Jane Dunnewold was moved to zoom meetings. During one of the lessons we were learning about dyeing with primary colors, and how overdyeing those colors affects other colors. It was fascinating and I had a lot of fun creating my pieces. I had decided to manipulate my fabrics using a folded Shibori technique: a double fan fold, and then rubber banding them together to create little bundles.  By doing this there were areas of the fabric that the dye didn't reach (resisted) and so when I overdyed them the dye was overdyeing the dyed and not dyed fabric. I ended up creating a plaid-like design. I had been very good at labeling everything and taking photos of my samples which were long strips of fabric.  Two of my 15 sets of overdyed fabrics. A few years later I was going to teach a few Shibori techniques to my local quilt guild, Quilters Holladay, and I thought I could use some parts of my samples to create a quilt to...

 Since I finished "Murder in the Garden" way before the deadline, I thought I would work on a second piece to enter at Quilt National. The piece of hand dyed fabric was talking to me and we decided it needed a lone tree. I made a template, and then painted the tree on using Posca paint markers.  Trying out various threads for the quilting. The quilting is meant to emulate clouds and mountains far off in the distant.  The mountains are semi visible in this photo. After applying a facing, the quilt was ready to be photographed at  Atelier AFA . I finished the hand quilting, and the photography but I didn't know what I should name the quilt. Without a name I didn't have an artist statement, and I wasn't able to name the photos to enter. I thought, and thought about it but nothing was speaking to me. Eventually the quilt did not get entered.  The day after the deadline I discovered Bob Dylan's poem, "And death shall have not dominion." I felt like this p...