Sangria

That's the name of this new piece I finished. It's painted with acrylics on a birch wood panel. The darkest color is actually a deep blackberry but my camera shows it as being more black. I've been playing around with this image and I think it makes a pretty groovy fabric pattern. I'm already invisioning pillows and curtains. We shall see. Hope you like it? Karin

Mark your calender!

I am happy to annouce that I will at the upcoming Patchwork Fair in Santa Ana. This is one of my favorite Indie arts and crafts shows and I'm looking forward to participating in it again this year. You definitely don't want to miss this one. Chalked full of artists, live music and incredible people watching. Actually, I think the people watching is my favorite part.

You can click on the image for all the details.

Finally...........right?

Didn't I say I was going to add these to my Etsy shop like a month ago? I can't believe how long it's taken me but they're finally making their way. They're trickling in as I speak and I'll be adding a few each day this week. Hope you enjoy them.

Also, I wanted to thank all of you who made it to Art and Souls anniversary party and checked out my larger paintings on display there. I loved hearing from you and really wished I could have been there.

Trial and Error-Fabric class cont'd

After dyeing our fabric last week, today was all about trying different printing techniques. We decided pretty fast which ones we liked and which ones we didn't. I ended up distroying my hand cut stencil when my bleach pen ate it up, warping it beyond repair. My stencil was too thin so I had to switch to some thicker manufactured ones I had. I found that that stenciling with a soft bodied white paint gave me the clean crisp lines I was looking for. Francesca liked the blurryness of the bleach pen and Carol did a great job stenciling with wax and dipping her fabric in a darker dye. The only method we didn't try yet was block printing with the hand carved blocks we made.

A Perfect Day!

Here are just a few pictures I took of my friends wedding. Doesn't she look so pretty?
The weather was perfect and the evening was absolutely magical with twinkling lights, glowing lanterns and candles burning everywhere. I have to say that this was one of the most entertaining weddings I've been to in a long time. Such a great group of people and I made a lot of new friends that I'll definitely be keeping in touch with. I wish I had more pictures to share. We'll see as the week progresses.
It took me about three naps today to recover enough to get my house back in order. The backyard is another story.

Pure heaven in a bottle

I just finished bottling my first batch of reed diffuser oils. They are amazingly fragrant and will be available in the shop very soon. Now you can enjoy the scents of my candles without lighting a match. These babies are 100% pure fragrance...... not dilluted like many you find in the stores.
available in:
-Hawaiian Gardenia
-Lotus
-Grapefruit Tangerine
-Lemon Cream

Tomorrow, I'll be picking up all the flowers to arrange for Saturdays wedding. Lots of pictures coming soon!

Today in Class

My monday class decided to do something different and give block printing on fabric a try. We'll be testing a few different techniques to see which effects we like best. Last week was spent carving patterns out of linoleum blocks and cutting various stencil designs from acetate. Today was all about giving the fabrics a base color using different Rit fabric dyes. They didn't turn out exactly how we expected, but they're pretty. The blue was supposed to be turquoise and the pink should've been a cherry red.
The first thing we did was cut up three different wieght fabrics: a soft cotton, some gauzy fabric, and a thicker canvas wieght cotton which was just a lonely curtain panels I had sitting around. Using some color formulas I found online, we made our hot water dye baths. We then pre-soaked our fabric and dipped them into the different colors for about 10 minutes. Lastly, they were hung on the clothesline and rinsed with cold water.

It was so beautiful hanging them all on the line with the golden glow of the sun shining through. They looked tye dyed, but it's actually just the shadows from the palm trees. Tye dye would not make me happy.
We felt like farm girls hanging fabric on the line while the chickens waddled around our feet. Would farm girls dye fabric in these colors? Maybe we were more like farm girls from India making pretty saris.

Next week, we will try stamping them with our blocks, and stenciling with either paint or a bleach pen. Then we'll have to figure out what to make with them. Bags, aprons, sarongs? Any suggestions?