Stargazer

Stargazer was appliqued with commercial and hand dyed fabrics. It is hand embroidered. I see her as lying in the grass "star dreaming", floating in the universe with the stars, the roots keeping her grounded with the earth.

Create Your Own Digital Stamps

I am just learning to use photoshop and must say it has intimidated me for a long time. Many probably already know how to do this but it is my first effort. I found the tutorial from Gillian Allen on the art-e-zine website. It is too lengthy to post here but if you go to her website or the art-e-zine website you can pull up the instructions. This is a way to make any image into a stamp you save on your computer. Then they can be printed out on fabric or paper.

The one I posted here was made from a photo I took of dried poppy heads in my garden. Im still refining the technique.

Oil Pastel on Fabric

This was really fun and my first attempt at water soluble oil pastels on fabric. I found some shiny, silky fabric in my stash I wanted to use. I put the fabric over a antique wooden cookie press and did the rubbing with the water soluble oil pastels. Next I put the fabric between a piece of cloth and parchment paper and heat set it with a hot, dry iron. It is interesting to see how the colors begin to blend as it is heat set. Now I am thinking of all sorts of things to use for fabric rubbings. Man hole covers you see in the street come to mind. Some have beautiful scroll work---just watch for cars! I think anything with a raised, firm design would work. The true, intense colors don't show well on this photo but the idea is there.