Olson-Larsen Gallery Exhibit & Quilt Walk

Friends, I will be one of four contemporary fiber artists featured in an exhibit at Olson-Larsen Gallery in West Des Moines, Iowa. Probably Iowa's premier gallery for two dimensional works (paintings, original prints and mixed media), Olson-Larsen is participating in the Quilt Walk in conjunction with the AQS show in Des Moines. The Opening and Quilt Walk for this show takes place from 4-8pm on October 29. The show runs until November 28, 2009. Other fiber artists include Priscilla Sage, Linda Andeberg and Debra Smith. If you're in the area, stop by!

Book Review, 40 years late... and so new!

Oh Yay, old textile printing books! Taught a class entitled Paint it! Stamp it!, which gave me the chance to delve into several books bequeathed to me after the University of Iowa's Fiber Art program was shut down in 1991. Fabric Printing by Lotti Lauterburg (Reinhold Publishing, New York, 1959) covers potatoes, rubber blocks, linocuts and batik, with various "projects" in a setting that looks like it could come from a current modernist shelter magazine. I haven't found this volume for sale, but you might find it deep in a library collection or fiber artists' yard sale.

My favorite is a small square shaped book by Nora Proud, Textile Printing and Dyeing, (BT Batsford, London 1965), still available used online. She does a lot of potato printing overlaid on tie-dyed cloth. Also explored: string relief blocks, linocuts, resists. Design considerations and discussions are useful. Interesting example of natural objects and the prints that resulted from drawings made from them. Extremely interesting discussion of printing projects for children and disabled young people, both individual and group projects. Stencils with screens, reduction stencils (print, tear away, print some more, tear more away etc.)

Block Printing on Textiles by Janet Erickson is by an artist with an interesting Wikipedia page. Her book is expensive, but a glance through it will give you views of the artist spreading out her fabric on the floor and using her feet to stamp the wood block prints. She uses a lot of relief print techniques.

And lastly, there's Richard M. Procter and Jennifer F. Lew's Surface Design for Fabric (University of Washington Press, 1984), also available used online. The newest of the four books, it nonetheless has variations on techniques we use a great deal now, but fresh approaches. Good design considerations. Lots of written resource information, including sewing techniques.

What to do with leftover dye...

I like to mix thickened dyes and refrigerate them until ready for use. This eliminates some of the potential exposure to dry dye particles. Activator, which is used to make the dye react chemically with the fiber on the molecular level, is added just before use. Thickened dye that's been stored doesn't last forever, and sometimes I'm left with a batch and also a lack of focus on other painting possibilities. The solution: paint stripes! Paint doodle pillow fabrics! Don't underestimate the power of color-- endorphins awake! No need to discard...

empty dye containers, intense colors even when diluted by a pint of water.
In this expended form, there is little impact on water systems, according to various books I've read.

Doodle pillow fabrics

Karl Etoffe & Max Tessuti, a fine couture shop in lovely Freiburg

Karl Etoffe & Max Tessuti is a clothing design shop featuring the work of Gudrun von Kalckreuth. This charming shop recently celebrated its 25th anniversary and has two locations. Freiburg, Germany, a truly lovely city, is where I discovered it. I was charmed by this shop: exquisite designs in layered silks and other fabrics, often with mixed patterns but oh, so well done. It's interesting to see the aesthetic taste of another country. Take a look at these pictures, and then visit the store website, where you'll find many kinds of fabrics by choosing the "Stoffe" button, and many kinds of designs, by choosing the "Modelle" button. If you're visiting Freiburg, stop by the shop at Marienstrasse 14 in the old part of the city.

bicycles are everywhere in this city, which is also home to a large university

The website asks if we love fabric. A rough translation:
"Our philosophy: outstanding quality, beautiful fabrics, interesting structures, fantasy-full designs, all put together in a color coordinated way, and as clothing designs that work together. We appeal to creative women but also men... Our model: (designs) for living.

Customers can look down a half flight, into the work space. Shown in back: patterns

One of the staff members looks through a sample book at the front desk.

This section of Freiburg contains many small boutique-type shops and is home to a number of museums. Gerberau and Fischerau are streets dating to the 1300s and are next to this channel of water from the Dreisam River; in earlier times, this water was used for leather tanning and fisheries.

Linda Gass: Seeing Green

My friend Linda Gass combines two passions in her career arc: fiber art and sustainability. Gass paints complex "birds' eye" view silk art quilts that explore themes of land use and policy.

Gass recently sent several announcements of interest: "Three of my new quilted paintings on silk are included in Seeing Green: Visions of a Changing Planet at the Visions Gallery, San Diego through August 16, 2009. Inspired by work I did with my local environmental organization, I decided to get personal and dirty in these new artworks. Seeing Green is an environmentally inspired exhibition, curated by Quilt Visions, featuring artwork by 10 different artists that comment about the current state of our natural environment. The work includes reflections about water quality, the impact of urban sprawl on landscape and wildlife, biodiversity, and nature. For more information, visit the Visions Gallery website.

Refined?, 30x30" (Above) and Sanitary? 30 x 30" (top)

In addition, if you're in the San Diego area, she includes information about her special presentation there, Saturday July 18, 2009 from 7 - 8 pm. "If you're in the San Diego area, please join me for this special event featuring presentations by yours truly and San Diego Coastkeeper followed by a reception in the Visions Gallery where you can view the "Seeing Green" exhibit. I'll be giving an entertaining and educational presentation on how I use my artwork to raise awareness about water issues in California and the American West. Representatives from San Diego Coastkeepers will present about local clean water issues and activities. The event is on July 18, 2009 from 7-8 pm at the NTC Command Center in Liberty Station, right next to the gallery at 2825 Dewey Road, CA. $15 general admission, $10 for Quilt Visions and Coastkeeper members. There is plenty of free parking across the street at the corner of Dewey and Historic Decator Road.

Painting & screenprinting at Home Ec Workshop

In May, I started introducing fiber reactive dyes to our local fabric enthusiasts here in Iowa City. The venue where I've been teaching is Home Ec Workshop, a charming fabric & yarn shop/knitting circle/coffee shop and space for classes and equipment rentals, owned and operated tirelessly by two young women, Alissa Weinstein and Codi Josephson. Alissa is shown in the second picture below- she's the one with the fabulous fiber-ous hair. In the second group of pictures, Codi and I team teach screenprinting and handpainting, with screenprinting one session and handpainting the screenprinted fabrics a second session. Codi has extensive experience teaching all age groups, having worked at UAY (United Action for Youth) here in Iowa City for a number of years. In watching Codi and Alissa, I recall the intense, never-ending amount of energy that running a new business entails. They seem to have the magic formula. Their clientele is a marketers' dream, with many young people, families, and a host of us older ones, all attending knitting breakfasts or buying lively printed fabrics or taking classes. If stores are magical because they give us an environment to immerse ourselves in, then they have found that magic.

But back to classes: I will continue teaching basic dyeing and printing classes one or two times a month. And I'll also be doing powerpoint presentations on my work to quilt guilds in the coming year.

Codi setting up a screen for exposure.

Washing out (above) and printing. We're using fabric pigments, which do not drip and are very forgiving for novices.

Another Kind of Surface Design

Sometimes you just have to visit the beach.

The Iowa River's treacherous flooding from one year ago caused water to cross over the Coralville Dam's spillway for only the second time in its history. (The first time was during the floods of 1993.) Before that first flooding, this hillside was like any other in the area- tree covered ravines with plenty of deer and poison ivy. In just a few days, that first flood exposed a swath of Devonian-era limestone that seemingly should have taken decades to accomplish. Scientists were fascinated to see the array of sea life (crinoids, coral, shells and fish) from several epochs, all in fossil form.looking towards the dam

On this beautiful day following a spell of muggy, intense heat, we ventured to the Fossil Gorge, as it's become known, to view the interpretative display designed by Will Thomson of Armadillo Arts and commissioned by the Army Corps of Engineers and local volunteers, . Will is joined by visitor George Stanley, a paleontologist at the University of Montana, and family members Michael Burt and Nancy Westvig, owners of our local Fired Up! paint your own ceramics place. What's really wonderful about this site is its open-air museum quality, where families and hikers can touch the strata of rock formations, experiencing it first hand in an outdoor setting.

This coral fossil was found in the ledge outcropping shown in the photo above.

George Stanley photographing crinoids. These are just the stems of a long "sea flower" with a wide base, like a kelp bed, only these are from the animal kingdom.