A TECHNIQUE DRIVEN Blog dedicated to mastery of surface design techniques. First we dye, overdye, paint, stitch, resist, tie, fold, silk screen, stamp, thermofax, batik, bejewel, stretch, shrink, sprinkle, Smooch, fuse, slice, dice, AND then we set it on fire using a variety of heat tools.

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Tapping into the Magic of Fire and Smoke to Make Marks

Given the title of this article and the name of our blog, I was intrigued when the email from Cloth Paper and Scissors hit my inbox.  It is an interesting article but I will warn you that the artist is talking about paper.  But, as we all know, fiber artists steal paper techniques all the time!

The article reminded me of one of the prettiest fabrics I have made.  I got apple peels from an orchard that was making cider. I put them in a pot along with a little water and some white fabric.  Well, I did not pay close enough attention till the apple peels were burned to the bottom of the pan. But the smoke from the peels left a wonderful variegated light grey smoke on the now off white fabric.  I think it was the only piece of fabric I ever took to a Nancy Crow workshop that she liked.  LOL



Judith

6 comments:

  1. Always nice to hear how mistakes and little accidents create beautiful and unexpected fabrics. Thank you for sharing this nice piece...

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  2. Judith, were you trying to link to the Cloth Paper Scissors article? When I click on it, I get a log-in screen for Fast-mail...

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  3. ah! Bring on the fire, I mean smoke!

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  4. I think that you would struggle to get this subtlety any other way, love it.

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  5. That definitely sparks my interest! (pun intended) I will have to check out that article. I couldn't find it online but there is a blog post about it here: http://www.clothpaperscissors.com/blogs/clothpaperscissorstoday/archive/2015/01/09/mark-making-ideas-fire-smoke-mixed-media.aspx

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