Hi and welcome to the first blog post on my new website. Back in April, my website was hacked and I had to rebuild it from scratch. Talk about a JOB! It has taken working on it everyday to get the main website and my teaching platform the Surface Design Academy rebuilt. And this time I’ve ramped up the security so hopefully I won’t have to do this again.
Rust & Color Shibori
After spending months working on the site, I had to take a break so last week and over the weekend I spent time in the studio playing and experimenting. I took time to explore an idea that been running around in my head for a while. Instead of working with indigo and dye with rust I wanted to see if I could get similar results using fluid paints with rust. I really liked working with indigo, but it does take a lot of time to keep a vat going and I didn’t want to spend the time.
It took some time getting the viscosity of the paint just right so that it would be thin enough that id didn’t make the fabric stiff, but not so thin that the color looked wimpy. This is the first piece I considered successful.
This piece has more rust than color but I think it comes closest to the look of indigo. What I like best is that each side is different, so you can choose which side to use.
This blue is brighter, I didn’t add as much gray to it. Looks less like indigo and I don’t like it as much.
The final one still scrunched on the pole. This time I wanted to try a teal color to see how it went with the rust. I do plan to add more rust to this, I think it need to be stronger. I really do like the teal color so I plan on doing more of this.
What’s Your Favorite
I can’t decide which is my favorite, #1 or #3. The second one is a little too bright for my taste, so I need to play with that paint mixture.
Do you have a favorite? If so let me know in the comments which one you like best and why.
Thanks for stopping by today, and until next time, have a beautiful day.
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Honestly, Angie, I like them all. I like all the colors and am not uncomfortable with the ‘not quite indigo’ blue one. It just has a different purpose and place. Most of all, i like that you are using paint to achieve these effects. I’ll try that with the paints i have as well.
Thank you Janice, I am really liking working with the paints. I usually just mix by eye, but one day I will be a little more scientific about it and try to come up with a recipe.