Goodbye from Wil Opio Oguta

My days will not start anymore with checking what is posted on the FIRE blog. A habit of years has to change :-(. I am honored that I have been a member of this creative group. And yes, sometimes it was difficult to find another idea to write about, as a lot has been handled during the years. Although I have to admit I knew what I wanted to talk about next year (grin).
I wish you all the best - fellow FIRE members and readers - and no doubt we will meet again, either in cyber space or in real life.
During January and February of this year Kelly and I talked about our e-book: Playing with Fire. We are working on our next book, which hopefully will be completed by the end of the year. If you want to be kept informed about our plans, please send an email to: info@what-if-textiles.com.

Wil Opio Oguta

Variety of Techniques - Week 4

As many of you know, Wil Opio Oguta and I get together once every year to experiment in the studio. On one of the trips we attended a local art exposition in the Minneapolis Arts District. At that time we saw a beautiful artistic effect done on paper/canvas. Further inquiry revealed that the technique used was gunpowder. Of course, our first reaction the minute we left the showroom was “What if we used gunpowder on fabric?”  After much research and experimentation, and tons of fun, we decided to write a book to share this textile surface technique. That book is now completed and ready to present to the world!

We could think of no better place to reveal this technique that on the FIRE blog! Knowing this is not a “commercial” blog, we asked permission to present the technique, give away our e-book as a prize and after that to just let you know our website to find out how to acquire your copy. At the moment the website is not operational, but you can contact us, if you are interested in the book. It will be mentioned only in the posts this week when we reveal the technique and at the end when we give away the e-book as a prize. We want to thank the FIRE group for granting us this limited opportunity and in return give our assurance that after February, any discussion and contact regarding our book will be handled on our website.

Now to show you the culmination of our adventure in what else….setting something on fire!

SURFACE DESIGN WITH GUNPOWDER

Safety might be the first thought that come to your mind. Actually, we as adventurous textile artists work with chemicals and techniques all the time that require at least a common sense adherence to rules to keep us safe and unharmed. This technique is no different and no more dangerous than any of these other concepts that we have learned to embrace and enjoy.  Follow the safety rules and you should have no problem.  We haven’t burned anything down yet!  Although the word is gunpowder, there is no BANG or anything….just one second of WHOOSH and it is all over. Believe me, the results are worth it!

Supplies are simple except for the gunpowder. However, we found it available at most large sporting goods stores and many gun shops. Admittedly….we did get a few strange looks when we started asking for it.  They weren’t quite sure what to make of us. They asked us what we wanted it for and when we told them we are artists the response was always “Oh!”  Like that explains everything!  LOL!!

The rest of the supplies are probably something you have around your house already.

Yes it is an outdoor procedure, but I happen to know from experience (even up here in the frozen tundra) that it can be done outside even in the winter!  You just do it really quickly!

After setting it on fire, the next part is to turn your amazing surface designed fabrics into wonderful works of art! You have already seen one of mine perhaps.  It is entitled Beautiful Boundary and was inspired by the Great Barrier Reef. The Reef under the water was created by gunpowder on previously sunprinted dupioni silk.

We have the book ready if you are interested. Please contact either Wil or myself and we will give you the particulars.  We are in process of setting up the website but it is not quite ready for publication as yet.

Kelly@KellyLHendrickson.com

wil@wilopiooguta.com

In the meantime, everyone posting a guess on the Friday Mystery techniques will be entered in a drawing at the end of February for a free download of the e-book!

We hope you are intrigued and excited about giving this technique a try.

REVEAL OF WINNER FROM FRIDAY

Since no one guessed the technique, and I loved all the ideas, I just put all the names in a hat and picked one!  And the winner is........

SUZTATS!!!

Please send me your mailing information and I will mail out the overlapping leaves to you!

Send the information to    Kelly@KellyLHendrickson.com

Thanks you guys for playing! And I hope this technique intrigued you!

Variety of Techniques - Mystery Technique 3

Ahhhhhh it is Friday again already!!

And our mystery technique for this Friday is below.

Post your guess in the comments below this post and the winner will be drawn from the correct answers....or if no correct answers...then the most creative guess will win!  Subjective I know but
hey.

So are you ready to give this one a whirl???

Here it is....

I anxiously await your creative guesses!!  The winner will be announced on Monday along with the technique explanation.  See you then!!

Have an amazing weekend!

Kelly L Hendrickson

Variety of Techniques - Mystery Technique 1

Ready???

Here we go!

Each Friday we will be posting a photo of a particular technique.  Your adventure is to guess
what technique we used to create these pieces. Enter your guess in the comment section below the photo.

The first correct entry will be the winner!!
The weekly winner and the reveal of the technique will be the following Monday

Every guess will be entered in the final drawing at the end of February.  The prize you ask????
I'll share more about that next week because it has to do with a particular technique we will be
presenting at that time.

MYSTERY  WEEK  ONE

So I'll see you Monday with the reveal of the technique and announcement of this week's winner!!

Kelly Hendrickson

Variety of Techniques Combined - some old and some new! - Week 1

HAPPY  NEW  YEAR!!

A new year begins...a year of discovery...a year of experimentation...a year of FIRE!!!!!

Since so many of you might still be partying or resting up from the holidays, I will make the first post just an introduction to the months of January and February.

This summer, when Wil was visiting, we thought up a plan to do this "tag-team" approach. The reason is that we have been working together on something very exciting and new which we will be
telling you about in a few days! We requested this format and had it approved to introduce this new
thing to our most adventurous and daring friends at FIRE!  Where else after all??? More about that later.

We were thinking that so many of the techniques on FIRE are so much fun and so exciting...how much fun would it be to combine them and so a series on surface design using more than one technique! Some have done bits of this as examples on their presentations. This will just be a whole two months of combining techniques and see where they take us!

So we will be spending these two months switching off weeks. Wil is going to be doing the first installment Wednesday, January 4. I will be posting a Mystery Technique on Friday, January 6. After that, we will be doing techniques on Monday and Wednesday. Then on Friday there will be a Mystery Technique. This will be a contest where the idea is to guess what the technique is...or what tools were used. The answer will be revealed on the following Monday. And there WILL be a prize!

So until Wednesday....take some time to breathe, shake off the cobwebs of the old year and break through to new beginnings and transitions. I can hardly wait to begin this adventure with all of you!

Kelly Hendrickson