RUA Rusting Day #2

Here are the early morning results from yesterday's rusting. Can you see the difference from just overnight? Can't wait for the results.

RUAQuilter Rusting

Today it is the RUAQuilters visiting Gypsy Studios to spend a morning rusting fabrics. Here is a group photo of the members at work preparing their fabric for the rusting process and the next photo is of the fabrics drying. We can't wait to see how they turn out! Stay tuned...

This horseshoe will be most interesting because LaVon did not just wrap the muslin around the horseshoe, she added coarse grade (#3) steel wool during the wrapping process and then used uncoated copper wire to wrap the muslin-coated horseshoe. This should make for a very interesting end result.

Notice the wine bottles sitting upright on the black plastic. What kind of pattern differences will we see between the upright wine bottles and the ones laid on their sides.

Anticipation....

Art Glitter Tattoos and Luggage Tags

Today Audrey (age 8) and Lindsey (age 6) made Art Glitter Tattoos and Luggage Tags so they could find their own luggage on the carousel at the Indianapolis International Airport when they arrive home this weekend.

Maritime Museum in San Diego

We thoroughly enjoyed the Maritime Museum on the harbor in San Diego. Enjoy these photos.

San Diego Zoo Visit

The world famous San Diego Zoo was a wonderful place to spend a sunny spring day.

Sea World San Diego

Today we are visiting Sea World San Diego with our son's family from Indianapolis. The rides, the whales, the dolphins, the weather all made for a beautiful visit. 

Paper Bag Dyeing

Today Diane Hansen and I are dyeing paper bags at Gypsy Studios. We are involved in a paper exchange in mid-April through our mixed media group and Diane has seen a chapter on paper bag dyeing by Jill Eudaly in the latest issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors (March/April 2012). The project requires brown paper bags to be cut into pieces and hand-dyed using Rit Powdered Dye.

The bags absorb the color and here in the Arizona sun they dry quickly into multi-colored pieces of wonder. Diane brought a package of 150 paper lunch sacks, and yes, we dyed them all in a variety of colors and sizes. Just for fun, we also dyed a yard of muslin fabric cut into quarters. We used the liquid form of the dye and no scientific method at all. Just poured boiling water from pots on the the stove into plastic bins outside to soak up the dye. (Nothing measured, nothing poured.) The magazine does give specific instructions if you need guidelines to follow, but I'm an experienced dyer of cloth and Diane was willing to go along for the ride.

We did think that we might have gotten better results if the paper bags had been heavier (like shopping bag quality). They might have held up better in the hot water bath. These bags came out "distressed", shall we say, but we wanted unique hand-made papers and we got them. They could have used a shorter bath time, but dried quickly laid out on a drop cloth in the sun. Heavier paper bags would have held up better or using water that was not yet truly boiling just really hot. I'd say it depends on what paper bags you start with.


It's really quite entertaining to be out in the bright sun making colorful papers. We have a total of ten gals in the exchange with 12 papers per bundle. Diane is well on her way to a successful paper exchange after today. We'll be sure to post details of the swap.

This photo includes the pieces of fabric as well. Can't be a quilter without fabric and Diane and I both have very strong backgrounds in quilting.

This is Diane. Doesn't she look thrilled with her results? She's busily calling a friend on her Iphone to share the results.

Lime Art Glitter Doodle

Here is another Art Glitter piece. It is a doodle quilt that I enhanced. It began with a watercolor wash on muslin (Prang watercolors). Next, I freely doodled with Prismacolor Premiere pens in Apple Green and True Blue and PITT Artist Pen by Faber Castell in Light Green. Last, I embellished with South Seas, Orange Crush, Flax and Key Lime Ultrafine Transparents, and Kelly, South Seas and Royale Ultrafine Opagues. I used the Art Glitter Dries Clear Fabric Adhesive to adhere the Art Glitter to the doodles.

Don't you agree that this will make a lovely little piece for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Association, which to date has collected over $679,000 for Alzheimer's research. AAQI just awarded it's tenth grant, a $30,000 research grant, to the University of Michigan through these quit donations.

Art Institute Glitter

I visited the Art Institute Glitter, Inc in Cottonwood, AZ, a couple of weekends ago and to my amazement, I saw wonderfully embellished quilts featuring Art Glitter.

Who knew? This was my first experience with Art Glitter. It has been a well-kept (from me anyway) secret, buh AHA! I have discovered it. (Yes, that's my vehicle, strategically parked right in front of the building so you can't see it either.)

The creator of Art Glitter, Barbara Trombley herself was there, gave me a tour of her facility, and today I played. For more information on the Art Glitter institute, go to www.artglitter.com and check it out. I added Flax Transparent Ultrafine (flower petals), Kelly Ultrafine Opaque (green for leaves) and South Seas Ultrafine Opaque (the turquoise around the lower button and the stitching surrounding the upper button) to the sunshine mixed media piece I thought I had finished earlier. I put glitter over some of the black stitching (see in the earlier post the burlap and button near the top) to somewhat minimize it. It adds the element of color and integrates the stitching more fully.

And then I added Art Glitter to one of my small quilts for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (art quilt/Art Glitter, see the connection?) If you're a frequent reader of my blog, you will know I often audition new techniques, giving the resulting piece to AAQI in memory of my grandmother and father, both of whom suffered from Alzheimer's. For more information on the auction, go to www.alzquilts.org. This piece is 8" x 10", the small size is required by AAQI for auction pieces. It began with watercolor on muslin, then Pigma Micron pen in black and a Mitsubishi UM-153 white Gel pen added before the Purple Passion Ultrafine Opague Art Glitter embellishment. I'll probably go back in and add some "big stitch" (hand stitching) in white perle cotton for contrast before facing it and sending it off to the auction.

P.S. When hubby came in from work tonight, he said "Oh, honey, you're kind of sparkly tonight" (and I thought "It's about time after 35 years that he noticed my personality".) And then he went on to say, "I see you've been playing with your Art Glitter."

Play Day

My friend Lynnita Knoch rusting fabric at my patio studio.

Rusty Ole Ingrid Vient working on rusting a gauzy fabric.

My collaborative friend and partner in all things rust, Sherry Drzal, inspecting our previous efforts as they sun dry.

Today was a fun play day as we rusted, felted, doodled, zentangled, created silk paper, and basically shared our mutual interests in anything artsy. Sherry showed us her rusted papers and laces, Lynnita had fabulous Zentangles and brought her mother as a guest, Diane brought a supply of Zentangle books to share, I shared silk paper, felting supplies, decorated papers and bagels, and Ingrid brought her journaling pages for everyone to see.