Silk Dye Painting what I'm working on

The background of the raccoon and possum silk cushion cover is done. It's waiting to be steam set. The "African animals" silk cushion cover just needs the background dye painted.

For some reason I have had the urge to create my own version of stylized African animals -- basically creatures I made up -- and it's been so much fun. I may challenge myself by doing another one using ONLY black and yellow dyes. I tried keeping to black and brown dyes, but as you can see, it was difficult to resist the urge to sneak in the other colors.

These animal pieces are a prelude to a larger "tapestry" piece out of silk that may come in the near future. I feel "pregnant" with it and will probably be giving birth to it soon......

WIP possum and raccoon cushion cover

I finished the peony cushion, and now painting this possum and raccoon silk cushion cover for myself. The background hasn't been done yet.

I'm testing water based gutta resist, and therefore the lines are WIDE. Thin lines of the water based resist just don't hold the dye as well as the rubber based gutta. Testing it for some of my students who can't use the solvent based rubber gutta resist.

WIP another peony pillow

After trying to get my email, my website, my computer to fix for hours I gave up, ate dinner, and worked on this piece to de-stress. It's almost done, just the background needs dye. It's a 14"x14" tiny little pillow cushion. I've been painting it for maybe over 4 hours. That's not including the time I spent applying the gutta resist. Hmmm.....these take a long time, but it was so much fun. Much more fun than trying to get my computer to work.

Classes started and Instructor's Show

Classes at Chastain Arts Center have begun and I am teaching two silk dye painting classes this time. I am seeing some really nice work coming from my students and feel like a proud "mother!" I also have two pieces in the Chastain Instructor's Show in the Gallery at Chastain Arts Center, so if you have a moment this weekend (Oct 17-18), come by and see my pieces and enjoy the other instructors' art.

I am having the "advance" students try their hand at shading on some star lily designs. It's time consuming but they are doing great with their petal shading. The picture is a demo piece I used to show them how to do shading. We will be using other techniques to put in the details later.

White Squares and Crow paintings

Two paintings in acrylic. One 12"x24" and the Crow 8"x10"

The Crow is silk fused on canvas board with acrylic paints.

Building an ark...

......not really.......but Atlanta has been experiencing unbelievable amounts of rainfall recently. We've had a nice few sunny days, but the rains are returning again. It's starting to feel like a rainforest and I've given up fighting the weeds until next Spring.

We took down the Fiber Art Fusion show today where I had my sea creature pieces and scarf and now I am preparing two silk pieces for a show outside the Washington DC area for silk painters.

I will also have 3 pieces in the Instructor's Show at Chastain Arts Center in Atlanta in a few weeks. One of the pieces that will be there is the Wisteria Kimono.

Fall Classes in Silk Dye Painting will start in early October for a long 9-10 weeks depending on the day. It's just the right amount of time to immerse onself in learning how to silk dye. There are way too many techniques to cover it all in 10 weeks, though. For classes please go to www.ocaatlanta.com or call the Chastain Arts Center at (404) 252-2927.

What I'm working on...

black and white and wax resist