Something About Nothing

 The Utah Division of Arts and Museums Creative Aging Program in collaboration with South Salt Lake City Arts Council and Saltgrass Printmakers offered a Collograph Printmaking Class to people 55 and older. The class was being taught by one of my favorite printmakers, Stefanie Dykes , so I signed up immediately. It was six weeks of joyful making that flew by. We ended the class with a show at the Columbus center in South Salt Lake City. Stefanie Dykes Hi! It's me! Collograph is a process of printmaking where a textured plate is inked up and put through a printing press.  One of my first plates, created with paper and tape. It was inspired by the painting below. The bumpy packing paper I used for the circles. It came in a package my daughter-in-law received. My first print on a piece of shibori dyed raw silk I carved a stamp of hands sewing for my piece. I applied dry wall paste to a piece of book board and then pressed the stamp in to the paste. It held the image perfectly. I...

 My friend, Sylvia , drove up from her home in southern Utah for her granddaughter's birthday. Since she was in town, and we are both fully vaccinated, we decided to have a dye party together. It's been at least 2 years since we've seen each other in person! I think we spent more time talking than dyeing, but that's okay, it was time well spent. I taught Sylvia how to create resists by pinching the fabric, and adding rubber bands. We used small hair rubber bands to create a resist. This is similar to Kanoko Shibori. A one yard piece tied up with rubber bands before dyeing. Sylvia swirled and tied up her one yard piece. We did a little parfait dyeing too. Only appropriate that we do it in ice cream containers! All of our tied, twisted and clamped pieces after adding dye. Sylvia took her pieces home in a bucket, and we both ended up letting them stew in their juices for 48 hours before rinsing, washing and drying. Here are my completed pieces: Tiny hair rubber bands on pi...

*I am attempting to catch up on my blog this month by posting everyday.  I will be back dating the posts, but they will be done at least once a day through the month of December.  Heber, Utah The Utah Surface Design Group brought Ana Lisa Hedstrom in to teach Shibori dyeing.  I was so excited for this class as I found out about the class just shortly after I purchased all of Ana Lisa's DVDs ! Ana Lisa wrapping a pole  I learned a lot from the DVDs but there is nothing like taking a class in person.  So many more tips and hints in person! Pole Painting Debbi Sigg , always having fun!  We learned Arashi (aka - pole wrapping), as well as Itajime (fabric folding with wrapping and sewing). After the first couple of days I started to feel off; Extra tired, and weak. I stuck it out for another day or two, I can't recall now, but then decided it was the extra altitude that was getting to me. Sadly, I ended up missin...