waiting to rinse!

all tied up and ready to dye

now it's all about waiting....

New scarves

larger flate crepe silk scarves!

If you build it...

I couldn't quite find the right tabletop fixture for my scarves....so I'm making them myself! Here's my latest project!

They aren't quite finished yet. The wood portions need a couple coats of paint. They will end up being all black. I think I might actually be happy when they are done!

New website

I'm working on a new website, finally getting things switched over and working. It's still rough and probably will be for a while. It's www.sarahmerideth.com and I have some images of new work up and ready to view!

Prairie Day

Look for me at Prairie Day this next weekend in Dardenne Prairie, MO!
See more info on the event here.

I'll have a few dozen new scarves and some wall hanging as well.

silk surprise

I randomly found a bag of scrap PFD fabric. There's some rayon (I love rayon!) and a few different kinds of silk. It was like Christmas!

I also realized I ordered a different type of silk scarves this last time. I guess I will have to go ahead and order more!

on the chopping block

I'm repurposing artwork. In other works, I'm cutting it up! I've been hesitating to do this for more than a week, but it has to be done!

Scarves are getting a facelift

I'm adding new elements to my silk scarves. All will be dyed, but they will also have an added element, either marbling, discharged designs, or printed designs so far.

I have a few new ones at the gallery already, plan to have many more over the next few weeks.

Upcoming Exhibit: Transposed

trans·pose   [v. trans-pohz; n. trans-pohz]

1. to change the relative position, order, or sequence of; cause to change places; interchange

This idea encapsulates my love of fabric and it's possibilities. Not only can you add to the surface, but you can always reverse or remove color and design through different bleaching and discharging techniques. Sometimes the adding and subtracting happens in so many layered steps, I lose track of the journey. One recent piece (still not finished)

steps: dyed, dyed, discharged, dyed, discharged, varnish (not including all rinses and washes in between!

Upcoming exhibit opening Sept 9 at Framations

In Progress for upcoming show...

Because most of what I do has to be done in stages, I usually have several projects going at one time. These are all pics from one day with several pieces in progress, showing a variety of printing and discharging on a selection of dyed cottons.

A larger piece being discharged

A New screen I haven't tried yet!

Another in progress discharged piece.

lots of screen printing and text

A collection of fabrics just hanging around waiting to be used

pics of new marbling

Couldn't wait to take pics. I made a huge mess tonight. A very slippery mess with the marbling fluid (carrageanan solution) ALL OVER MY LAUNDRY ROOM. But it's better now. I ended up with a few "oops" pieces, but other than that, I liked the results. Most will have an over dye added of at least one color to give a more finished look to the fabric before it is actually used.

lots of small pieces of fabric. Most, if not all, will be over-dyed

These are silk scarves I'm adding some marbling to. The white scarves will be over-dyed, especially since the marbling in only on about one quarter of the surface, so it will blend in and out.

simple designs are fun

I know this just looks like mold, but it's very simple and will look really nice when overdyed

Publish Post

one of my favorites, pic came out blurry, will also be fun to overdye

Marbling

It's been a messy night, but I played with marbling fabric again. First time in a while. Pics coming soon after the fabric is dried and ironed. Or maybe after it's also dyed....

Working on new pieces for my show coming up in Sept....trying some new techniques, styles, and presentations for finished work. Should be an adventure.

working on and planning ahead

I just finished a piece I'm really excited about and I'm gearing up for a show in September. I'm looking back at sketches from a few years ago, things I had in the very rough stages with no real plan of attack. Now I'm ready to attack them!

scarves, scarves, scarves

I should be getting a box of goodies (including more scarves!) delivered tomorrow!
Check in at Framations in a week or so to see more new scarves. And hopefully some new bookmarks

samples

Fiber Bookmarks now available!

I now have Fiber Bookmarks available at Framations.

They are all made from hand-dyed fabrics. Some are discharged or printed as well, finished off with sewn edges in matching thread colors. Because of the variations in dyes, even if two are cut from the same piece of fabric, each is original! A very inexpensive touch of art, only 2.00 each!

fun with bleach

I tried somthing new this week. I've never enjoyed working with bleach*, never liked the fumes or what it can do on those occassions where things go awry. But I do like the interesting affects it can create when used to lighten darker fabrics.

*I should note, I'm oviously not using straight bleach. I found another dyer online who offered a recipe for mixing a bleach solution and then a separate bleach-stop solution. I know there's several ways of doing this, please do your own research and ALWAYS be careful with bleach. Work outside or our proper ventilation!

Bleach Bath #1:

This piece began with a very deep fuschia color, one that was intended to be closer to maroon at first attempt, but I was a little too eager to get started and went with too much a a deep pink. So then I rushed to overdye with a deep moss green. I kept going until it was so dark that I couldn't decide what to do next. It was at that point where I decided I needed to lighten the fabric overall and see what the results would be. That's when I tried the "bleach bath" for the first time. I overestimated the time it would take to lighten, b/c it's really hard to tell while it's still immersed in the released dyes and obvously darkened in color just from being wet. When it was lighter that I intended ( I should note that I don't generally work with very light colors!) I overdyed again with a another dark green. What is interesting about the affects of the bleach is that when it lightens the colors, it almost seems to softenthe overall dye patterns, so you see very subtle fades of color into each other.

Bleach Bath #2:
Same sort of deal here. two or three dyes in, I went too dark and decided to revert the colors abit with the bleach bath. I never can stop with just one dye, I alwsy feel the color needs more depth and variation, so I keep going, usually using two or three dyes to achieve the color range I'm looking for.