Dyeing in Process

Posted on March 12, 2011 by Rebecca Fox

Arranging fabric on pulley system in preparation for dyeing.  Yup, pulley works.  Yay!

Fabric being dyed main color: teal blue that doesn’t really look teal.

Under-dyeing with ombre technique using teal blue.

About an hour later: Over-dyeing in bronze using ombre technique.  Pulley system still works.  Yes, that IS a pot of dye precariously perched on four jars: an accident waiting to happen.

Process nearly complete.  I need to carefully rinse the fabric in cold water and then throw it in the washing machine.

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New teapot

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Lisa Yarost

I can’t help myself. This is the inaugural pot of tea in my new Bodum teapot. The glass strainer in my last teapot broke after about a year’s use, leaving me to make individual cups of tea. This is quite inconvenient, since I make tea for two on a nightly (and daily) basis. Cleaning two teacups, lids, and strainers twice a day is drudgery.
This particular pot of tea is Teavana zingiber Ginger coconut tea, our current caffeine free tea. Yum!

Posted in Food | 6 Comments

Swatch Me Ombre

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Rebecca Fox

Ah, more dyeing adventures and another work in progress….Just to complicate the dyeing process of a silk dress-in-the-works, I’ve decided that I would give ombre dyeing a shot.  It didn’t go too badly with these small strips of silk.

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Monster 2

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Lisa Yarost

So, here is another monster drawing. I like that the child’s relationship to the monster is ambiguous. Is the monster a protector, a pet, or both?
Five points to the person who guesses what real live animal inspired this particular monster.

Posted in Art | 3 Comments

Rethinking a concept

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Lisa Yarost

Sometimes things just don’t seem to come together the way I want. Take the painting I was working on yesterday, for instance. I liked the idea, but the execution was escaping me. Today, however, it seems to be coming together, albeit on a completely new surface.

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Work in progress

Posted on March 6, 2011 by Lisa Yarost

Here’s one of my works in progress. Farther along today.

Posted in Art, painting | 1 Comment

Works in progress

Posted on March 5, 2011 by Lisa Yarost

Here are three of the many pieces I’m working on for ArtScene, which is a city-wide Art show hosted twice a year in Rockford. Spring ArtScene is April 15 & 16.

Posted in Art, studio | 6 Comments

Swatching!

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Rebecca Fox

I recently purchased twelve yards of stretch silk charmeuse with the intention of making an infinity dress.  Usually I bravely dive into the dyeing process in such a way that no sane person would: throwing the careful measured process of coloration to the wind.     I’m always game for surprises.  I can’t say that I dyed these swatches  with absolute consideration to weights and measures, but I did do it and will have some idea of the outcome of the ombre dyeing process.  My next task is to choose amongst these seven gorgeous colors.

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Bucking the System with Horse Haiku

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Rebecca Fox

Yay!  I managed to get two pieces ready for a show in one week.  At least graduate school has me well-practiced at getting no sleep.  So…my latest quandary?  I can’t figure out how to hang these things.  Clearly the Asian scroll method used on Horse Haiku is not going to work.  It looks like a house: horse house.

Part of my grand scheme to buck the system is to manipulate “them” into hanging it in a particular way.  I’ve yet to see any gallery that actually knows how to professionally hang a picture (No, just banging whatever sharp metal apparatus that’s handy into the wall is not how it’s done.).  I also have this terrible history of being hung in the world’s worst places: usually the bathroom.  At least I have a captive audience for a few minutes, right?  It’s not that I feel my work is inferior.  It’s just that my  bold, black woodcuts in their handmade, cherry-wood frames stick out like a sore thumb amongst the glossy black metal frames and colorfully glazed landscapes.

This oddly shaped, impossible-to-hang latest work is sure to get me a spot in an out-of-the-way corner or the bathroom but at least I know this ahead of time.

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Glam needlework from the fifties

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Lisa Yarost

If I could look half as fabulous as these ladies do while wearing these sweaters, I would learn to knit well enough to make them. These are from a 1954(?) McCall’s Needlework Annual. They’re gorgeous. And so are the ladies wearing them.

Too beautiful!

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