Silkscreen Mask using Plastic

    Each screening mask can produce different results. You can use torn paper, wax, tape, contact paper- all sorts of things. One of my favorites is to use simple 4 ml painter’s plastic tarp. This technique creates durable silkscreen masks.

            To start, remove wrinkles for a less creased plastic, place in dryer BRIEFLY- do not walk away- for 30 seconds or so.

            

I cut the plastic slightly larger than the size of the screen when laying on it's back. Mark where your well is with permanent marker. The well is the section of screen masked by tape. You can create your designs on the same size paper then lay the plastic over this and trace. Cut out with craft knife or scissors. 

Hint- Use a magazine image to trace around.

            To print- Lay the plastic on a piece of test fabric, place screen on top and place your thicken dye or fabric paint in the well. 

Firmly squeegee at a 45 degree angle in one or 2 passes. Too much force can blur your design; too little force won’t get the paint though. 

Here’s the magic. The paint sticks the plastic to the back of your screen, no tape needed!

Use 2 colors to make a blend. I usually just keep adding paint and get some really cool blends. You can wipe off at any time too. I always wipe onto a piece of cloth instead of using a paper towel or washing all that delicious color down the drain. The wipe cloths are often very cool themselves.

Hint- As you print, if you print over any wet surfaces, plastic will stick there too. If you do this, make sure as you lift, the plastic comes up with the screen.

Text- Adding text is a snap. Trace your paper design by placing the plastic on top. Make sure you create bridges- for example-  so the center of the e doesn't fall out. And be sure to print with the letters wrong side to you.

Art and Passion

In your light I learn how to love.

In your beauty, how to make poems.

You dance inside my chest,

where no one sees you,

but sometimes I do,

and that sight becomes this art.

Jelaludin Rumi (13th century

Whispers of the Positive  2010    Wen Redmond

Invitation to my Studio

I am so pleased to announce my studio is currently being featured in Cloth Paper Scissors Studio Magazine Fall 2010, available now.

Here

I’ve included a few more shots of the studio for you. I usually have visitors during annual Open Studio events around Thanksgiving and Mothers day and during workshops. Here’s a peek just for you.

It was a delight to work again with Cate Coulacos Prato, Editor at Studios and Barbara Delaney, Assistant Editor. They took the article and really made a great 4 page spread. I hope you will take a break and come my studio!

Reconnecting

Unburdened for a day

that stretches out before me,

like some red carpet gauntlet.

Choosing my desires carefully,

weighting pro’s and con’s.

Outside beckons,

I walk out the door

with just my coffee.

The Thermal Facts Workshop Image Preparation

A quick tutorial to prepare a 4 image file for the Thermal Fax Silkscreen Workshop. 

Prepare Images in one file

             1 Convert 4 of your images to a Black and White Photos- no gray scale at all!  
Use the tools to brighten or lighten the image, then use the contrast slider to help remove all gray areas.  The best screens come from photos that are only black and white.

                                See info here

             2 Each of the photos should be sized to about 4x5” or ¼ each of a letter size paper with a 1/4-1/2" border.

             3 Make a new 8x11 letter size file in Photoshop, other photo programs or even word using 'insert'.
Copy and paste your images onto it, moving into position with your move tool or format in word.  Remember each photo should have a 1/4-1/2” border.

             4  Email the file to me with Thermal Fax in the subject line- check your supply list for more directions.  

OR if the above process is difficult for you...
1 Print your ink jet images in black and white, cut and glue (stick) to letter size paper 
OR
2  You can also cut out images from numerous sources- like newspapers or magazines and glue to a letter size paper.
Remember to leave a border around your pictures. 

Take a photo and Email that photo file to me with Thermal Fax in the subject line.
3 Or take your image sheet to copy store, get a carbon based copy and send to me viva snail mail. Address is on your supply list and additional directions.  
How to...

Image IS everything when creating for a excellent result with Thermal Fax silkscreens.

1 Start with a high contrast image or simple uncomplicated image. Convert to black and white.

 Suggestions

If needed, using your erase tool, erase away the gray 
OR use your stamp tool to convert to pure contrast Black and White image 
OR use your contrast slider to develop a high contrast image 
OR just cut out all but the black areas on your printed image if you are gluing.

2 Make a new 8x11 or letter size file in Photoshop or on a Word Doc. Copy or insert your images onto it. Move images into position with your move tool.

Or print and paste manually.

Continue in this manner until you have 4 images on 1 letter size sheet.

League of New Hampshire Crafts Fair

This is a very old but excellent quality Crafts Fair!
I'll be there the first 4 days, August 7-10 in Booth 616.

more info here- http://www.nhcrafts.org/craftsmens_fair/fair_home.html
My Booth!

My prayers are my Art

Art is praising the Earth.

My heart expands and tips over,

This food for my soul.

Art is my religion.

This is what rejoins my heart to

my body.

Rising, Rising, Rising-

like ocean waves,

This welcome tide.

Art Quilts Lowell 2010

ART QUILTS LOWELL 2010 AT THE BRUSH GALLERY & ARTISTS STUDIOS, LOWELL, MASS. 

AN OVERVIEW OF THE FINEST ART QUILTS BEING PRODUCED BY ARTISTS FROM ACROSS THE UNITED STATES.



Exhibition Features Contemporary Quilts by Artists Throughout the United States


LOWELL, Mass. (June 30, 2010) – Sophisticated art and handmade tradition fuse seamlessly as art quilters from across the United States showcase their work at The Brush Gallery & Artists Studios,256 Market St., Lowell, Mass., Aug 10 to Sept 11, 2010.  The exhibition is a venue of the 2010 Lowell Quilt Festival


Moving from beds to the walls of collectors, galleries and museums, art quilts have beautifully and forever blurred the boundaries between art and craft. Art quilters are modern alchemists who transform functional domestic textiles into objects of exquisite depth and intensity.


Rather than create their quilts from set patterns, art quilters typically design from interpretive experiences, imagery and concepts. This approach makes for work that draws upon techniques and traditions of the past, but with a very contemporary and original result. 


New Hampshire artist, Wen Redmond is know for innovative treatments of fiber, is exhibiting a new piece called Swamp Edge.This is an example of her series in Digital Fiber, which uses a photograph of nearby swamp, and layers her painted fabric in photo shop and is fused digitally. She prints with an Epson 2400 onto cotton canvas and mounted the photograph in free sections onto black felt and creatively stitched. The piece is held together with hand tied dyed pearl cotton and sealed with medium and paint. 38x23

The exhibition is free to the public and will showcase the delicate art quilting techniques of painting, dyeing, stamping, piecing, collage, printing, appliqué and other textile processes. 

The quilts of the exhibition were selected from among many striking entries by jurors Jeanne Williamson Ostroff and Linda Levin. 
The artists included in this exhibition are from all over the United States.

The Brush Gallery & Artists Studios
256 Market St., Lowell, MA 01852
978-459-7819
information@thebrush.org
www.thebrush.org

Hours:
Tues-Sat 11am-4pm, Sun 12pm-4pm

Flow

“I go to my table

Filled with my thoughts and

My cloth palette.

Cutting through the fabric,

Layers in my mind.

Foundation-

Opening me,

Spirit finds me-

Flow Begins!

Standing back,

I see a new thing-

                                                                   Collaboration!”

I use this poem as an introduction to my workshop "Piecing in the Flow", a curved piecing technique. I first was introduced to this technique by Nancy Crow. I learned to do it and then down the years, changed it to meet the way I work. One of my first pieces using this technique was called " Stepping Into Crow's Feet". It also addressed the changes that come with aging.

I don't use this technique as much anymore but flow is very important to my work. The best work comes when you step out of the way, work and respond to the work. The act of act is a dialogue, a communication with your inner core. I make art because I must, my medium is fiber.

Layered Collage, an Innovation?

 The start

OK, Nothing is ever new. I'll be sailing along making my art and come up with an idea and think Yes! This is ever so cool!  ONLY later to read in some book or magazine and find

out others have done this very thing. We are a talented and inventive group of artists.

    Here's my recent 'invention'  From the bottom up, layer backing, batting, collage materials and dyed or painted org. Stitch. Done! 

Anything can be collage material! These will be visible just under the organza. You can use scraps, thread, candy wrappings, tea bags, old digital print outs, old book- anything. And the best part is, you will look at everything with new eyes. 


Add a golden circle.

Hmmm,

Are those 5 figures?

Finished!

I like to leave the organza edges raw. I like the look of the wonky, free edges.

Quotes, Poems and Remembering

I love to read short inspirational quotes. They return one's senses to the real reality and core of one's being. Different quotes will hit you in different places and at different levels each time you read them. I have journaled for years and feel this is a way of honoring one's inner self and keeping in 'touch'. This is part of my process of art making. The two go hand and hand. "Remember Wen" is a quip from an old song but also a personal mantra for remembering to do just this.

SO- "In the photo by the bed, my mother is perpetually smiling on me. I guess I have forgiven us both although sometimes in the night my dreams will take me back to the sadness and

I have to wake up and forgive us again." Sue Monk Kidd

Sue is one of my favorite authors, I first read her book, Dance of the Dissident Daughter and later, When the Heart Waits, before I read her fiction, both of those books were exacting right for that time in my life.

and

"I said to my soul, be still and wait...So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing." T.S.Eliot

Deconstructed Digital Imagery

OK, I'm washing out my thermal fax silkscreen after using it-

usually I squeegee out remaining paint onto a cloth whilst, ( don't cha love that word!),

spraying with water- a good start for another piece of art

cloth.

I was in a hurry and therefore was soaping it up to wash out in the sink.

AND it look goreous! The bubbles were so textural and the colors melted

together so beautifully that I ran to get my camera and shot some pix!!

I do take photo's of work in process, sometimes thats just the element I need and I can print it out or make a silkscreen- etc!!

AND to enjoy here with you all.

Geez, do I have a screw loose or have you all had similar moments that just

disappeared down

the

drain?

Paste Up Collage Exhibition

My piece Moon Fog was juried into Paste-Up 2010. This is a juried exhibition of small format collages, and each year they have some fabulous collages on display. Paste-Up 2010

ALL Arts Gallery

Lowell, Massachusetts

June 26, 2010 - July 18, 2010

Does it Matter?

Does it Matter?

Does it Matter to you,

that the wind blows,

gently?

At night, when the owls come out,

do you hear their call?

The slow movement of heron wings

sound like a million butterflies.

Can you see the sparkle of the sun

on morning waters,

reflecting,

waking you

from the inside out.

Making her Mark

Making her Mark

posted from Fosters, article can be found here

Sunday, June 13, 2010 by Bea Lewis bwheel@metrocast.net

Wen Redmond's journey as an artist began when she started making her own clothes as a teenager. 

Redmond went on to graduate from Mansfield State College in Pennsylvania with a degree in home economics. After retiring from teaching to marry and raise a family of three, she concedes she got "antsy" as her children grew and started making "artistic clothing." From there she evolved into making art quilts and now describes herself as a fiber artist.

"I've always been doing stuff even back in high school. I made my own clothes and prom dresses and just kept going. I love textiles," she said.

The League of New Hampshire Craftsmen has since juried Redmond in both stitchery and surface design. She has mastered a number of quilting and silk screening techniques. Along the way she said she still uses some of them as she creates a variety of wall-hangings and other pieces saying, "Because I know the rules now I can break them." 

Today, she combines painting and digital media into one-of-a-kind art pieces.

To make her holographic scenes, Redmond drapes silk organza — a transparent fabric — over photos of rocks, tree, utility poles and even her own shadow, giving the images a dreamy feel.

The elaborate surface designs that characterize Redmond's work are not serendipitous, but a deliberate effort to devise unique mark-making techniques.

She often takes her inspiration from nature but puts a unique twist on her digital photography, explaining she enjoys manipulating her photographs using Adobe PhotoShop. A photo of a rocky coastline on Deer Isle, Maine has been enlarged 10 fold and the lichen-covered rocks are now bathed in yellow instead of blue-green.

Explaining that she keeps an art journal, Redmond said she cuts potential ideas out of magazines and when looking at a mixed pile spread out on the floor waiting to be incorporated, she photographed "the pile of trash," and used the image to create the foundation for one of her pieces.

Dedicated to the creative process as a way of being, Redmond is attracted to the tactile quality of fabric and finds it ideal for rending a variety of subjects, including the natural world. As a fiber artist she is constantly challenging herself to do something she hasn't done before. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but she says the fun is in the doing and the learning. 

She is quick to point out, however, that mastery of a technique is not immediate, and that within every perceived failure are the seeds of future success.

She was just recently selected to teach at the Surface Design Association in Minneapolis in 2011 and was also tapped to teach fabric painting at "ProChem," a company that produces surface design material for painting textile crafts.

"What I enjoy most is the unexpected, just jumping in and seeing what happens," she said. "Now I'm manipulating photos in PhotoShop. With my holographic pieces I layer photos with fabric and it creates a whole different effect. I enjoy the exploration."

She will be demonstrating a variety of fabric painting techniques at the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen Shop in Meredith on Saturday, June 19 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Her work can be found at the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen stores in Meredith, Concord, North Conway, Nashua and Hanover. More of her work can also be viewed at www.wenredmond.com.

Fiber artist Wen Redmond discusses some of the techniques she used to create this piece on display at her Rollingsford studio. She will be demonstrating a host of fabric painting techniques at the Meredith League of New Hampshire Craftsmen shop on Saturday, June 19 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Bea Lewis/Citizen Photo

Colors on Cloth

I love to experiment with surface design, using all kinds of processes to see what they do and how things will work out. Heres a few of these...

painted cotton using diluted acrylics with a thermal fax silkscreen
simple sunprint on silk noil using buttons as a resist
painted masa paper highlighted with inked brayer
dyed antique kimono silk with 2 different thermal silkscreens
painted cotton with created foam stamps, and medium with small squares of gold stirred in

I started taking pictures of just the fabrics because I enjoyed how they looked. Just for fun. Nice.

Look for my fabric painting demo at the Meredith NH League of NH Crafts Sat - 6/19, 1100-200.

Solo at the 'Bean'

Come see my solo show at the Black Bean, a local cafe in Rollinsford NH, just North of Portsmouth NH. It's a delightful cafe with homemade foods that will sure titillate the palette.

It will be up until June 28th.



info-www.blackbeancafe.com

LESLIE AVON MILLER artist

I find myself returning again and again to the work of Leslie Avon Miller. Her work and the reflections in her blog bring me back- especially when I don't get to the studio. She takes me to a serene place where I remember I am a artist. Her art is zen, centering, calming- a meditation. Links to her blogs at the bottom of this post. I invite you to stop in and relax into her amazing work.


"Do you remember the very first time you purchased an original work of art? It’s 1981. My Mom and I are spending a day together including shopping at a mall in a larger town than ours. Artists of all kinds have set up displays up and down the corridors of the mall. Mom and I look at all the art, occasionally engaging in short conversations with the artists who are all there showing their work. I’m still in my 20’s and I don’t have money for art. Mom values art, she knows about design and she has a good eye. We stroll, and look and talk about the art we are seeing. Mom points out work that really grabs her eye. Eventually we circle back to the booth of j.krogh colwell. She is small, has long dark hair and is a quiet kind of person. She doesn’t use capital letters when she writes, which is kind of arty in itself. The three of us talk about art. She tells us about her art including where she gets her inspiration and about her medium. It’s an easy kind of conversation, relaxed and comfortable. My Mom offers to purchase a painting of my choice as a gift to me. Exciting! I walk around the entire display and choose “thru the dunes.” It’s a very soft water color of some dunes, grasses, the ocean and a bird in flight. The painting is serene. I love the subject matter of an ocean beach. I love the painting for its subdued blues, creams and sandy colors. I love it for its shapes, the sense of flow, and the way it is tastefully matted and framed. I love it for the way I see it adding beauty into my life. I don’t remember anything else from that day. I don’t remember what car we drove, or where we had lunch, or any other purchases that may have occurred. That painting has become part of my life and I have displayed it in seven homes. It’s part of my life story, of a day with my Mom and a generous gift of art. We can’t know how our art becomes part of someone’s life story, but it does. We can’t know how someone may remember an interaction with us. If the artist in my story had been focused on negative feelings about “marketing” her art, the exchange might have been much different, and perhaps the purchase would have been else where."

from LESLIE AVON MILLER's blog
"I am a mixed media artist and a life coach working with creative people. I create with a variety of water media and collage." blogs here and here.

Digital Collage Printing

I use a lot of ink jet prepared fabrics for my work. I purchase this in large rolls from inkjet fabrics.com (here). This way, I can cut the yardage to the desired size to print. This works out very economically and is less expensive than buying sheets. I do end up with a variety of different size scraps though. I have figured out a couple ways of using these bits.

You can fuse them to paper or cloth and print this as a collage that is ready to work on.

Or you can temporarily tape bits to a carrier sheet, remove and fuse these to a work in progress.

Carrier sheets can be as simple as a sheet of paper, freezer paper or even a flexible cutting board.

Try different things to see what you and your printer like best.

I like the effect of combining the different fabric textures in a single work.

I used this technique on Coming Back, now at the PSAQA's ARTQUILTS Illuminations exhibit in Durham, NC. It can be found on my website in the Digital Fiber Art Gallery.

Open Studios

Please join with me for the annual OPEN STUDIOS!

May 8th 2010 Studio #336

SATURDAY 11-5

Southern NH and ME- for directions WWW.millartists.com

Also- This was just included with the latest email from Quilting Arts Magazine. Pokey's favorite issue is the issue I published my article!- Holographic Memories, May 2007!

You can get a CD of my technique- here- item# DVD Item Number: 08QM18

Thank YOU Pokey!!

click here