January's a Great Month for the Studio

Dandelions and Clover can be pretty, right? Here is what I've been doing this January - painting with dyes. This Kootenay Wildflower series is new for me this year.

January is quiet and a perfect time for experimenting. This landscape was one I had done quite sometime ago. I decided to try dye painting on top with darker colours.  As I often make Textile Cards I divided it up into 6 sections across and 2 high.

Here is what it looks like after painting but before curing and rinsing. This piece will be cut up for Textile Cards. I like to embellish each one with a bit of free motion black thread stitching.

Here is a close up of 3 of the painted 5 X 7" areas. The plastic is on top so the moisture is retained as it cures.

This is a piece of cotton lawn fabric and I dye painted it with dye concentrates that weren't thickened. There are 4 layers of skies with a bit of foreground. Working with the dyes this way reminds me of working with watercolour paints.

After curing overnight I painted images on top. 

The fabrics are getting rinsed. I painted these chickadees after returning from a walk where the birds were flitting around on the snow laden branches. The whole scene was GORGEOUS.

Each type of fabric needs to be treated a little differently I find. If you are painting on rayon, one better be sure to give some extra long soaking and rinsing or the red dye will continue to bleed into the adjoining area. Sometimes though, that gives a very lovely watercolour look. That is just what happened to the red Columbine in the first photo after it was rinsed. With all this new fabric it is time to get the sewing machine out. 

Have you been enjoying January as much as I have?