I made the front page of Etsy!

A set of my juggling balls was included in a circus themed treasury on the Etsy shop. That treasury made the front page of Etsy. I made the front page!!! Yes, I'm excited. This is the first time that has happened for me.




I am so doing the Happy Artist Dance over here! (That involves lots of silly jumping around, wiggles, and squees of joy.)

Silk ties: using Setasilk instead of Dye-na-flow

Back in May, I made an attempt to hand paint a silk tie from Dharma Trading Company. I used their Dye-na-flow silk paints, and was only somewhat pleased with the result.

I was going for the dramatic organic shapes that I had been getting on my silk scarves, but this type of silk paint didn't seem to react as well to the salt technique. So, the next time I ordered scarf blanks I decided to try out a different type of silk paint. It came in, and today I've been giving it a try.

Here is the Setasilk that I decided to try, as well as the tie blank, the silk salt, and my sumi brush and watercolor tray.

For this try, I first spritzed down the back of the tie with water, so the colors would run together. Then I painted the back of the tie.

When I flipped the tie over to do the front, some of the dye from the back had run around the edges.

I spritzed the front with water, and painted it. Since the Dye-na-flow gave disappointing results with the silk salt, I really salted this one down. I also noticed that there were some lines where the dye from the back had come around front, so I added more salt to those parts to try to blend them in.

Boy, does this dye react with the salt!! Much more so than I expected. Kind of a cool effect, but a little over the top.

Also, those lines at the edge of the tie never blended in. Hmmm...

So, I tried it again. This time I spritzed the front of the tie with water before doing the back, so the paint wouldn't hit a dry edge as it came around. I also used much less salt.

The results were much, much better. I ironed the tie to heat set the paint by sandwiching the tie between a pressing cloth. Each section was ironed for 3 minutes.

Ah ha! That was the result I was going for!! Vivid colors, blending together, with the salt pulling the paint into interesting, organic shapes. I'd call this a success...but...

...there is still a problem. Even after ironing the heck out if it, the tie won't lie down flat. The edges have gone wavy. I'm suspecting that the issue is that interfacing didn't like getting soaked in the painting process.

So, attempt #4 is going to involve deconstructing the tie before the painting process, and then sewing it back together again afterward.


I'll get this yet! Has anyone else experimented with painting silk ties with the salt technique? Any pointers? Am I on the right track?

EDIT: Taking it apart, dying, ironing, and re-sewing seems to work. I'll make another blog post on that once I see how this tie fares at the dry cleaners.

EDIT 2: Dry cleaning the ties seems to solve the wavy issues I was having, without having to deconstruct the tie. Success!

Silk Scarves, Etsy, and planning the next project.

There! All of the hand painted silk scarves I've been working on recently have been made, photographed, listed (http://tangibledaydreams.etsy.com), and packaged away until they can find good homes to go to. In the process, I finally stocked the Etsy shop with over 100 hand made items. Go me! I read early on that 100 items is supposed to be some sort of 'magic number', where you start showing up better in the search engines and such. Supposedly, sales tend to pick up once you reach that milestone. So I set that as a goal for myself quite awhile ago, and have finally reached it. Imagine me doing the Artist's Happy Dance over here. The sales would be nice, but what is really cool is to finally reach the goal. That was a lot of work!

So, now the scarf project is done for awhile. What is next? Hmmm...

I have a half a dozen silk tie blanks, and a new type of silk dye to experiment with. This one is heat set instead of steam set, because the ties are dry clean only.

I have a new type of yarn to try on my triangle loom. I'm still searching for just the perfect blend of thickness, softness, and affordability for shawl yarn. Maybe this time I've got it?

I've got a stash of sock yarn that needs to be cranked up on the antique sock knitting machine.

I'm thinking of weaving up some cotton napkin sets. I want to wind the warp chains, then do some space dyeing like I did for the shawls awhile back. (A few of the shawls are left, so you can peek at one of them here to see the effect I'm thinking of: http://www.etsy.com/listing/26536037/lantana-blossom-hand-dyed-and-woven)

I've got a couple of Viking wire woven necklaces part way done. Two of them need clasps, and one is still in the weaving stage.

I've got a whole shed full of gourds, and have already bought accent pieces and waxed linen for the teneriffe weaving.

There is a stash of soft, cuddly wool roving waiting for me to spin it into something useful.

I've been thinking of making another felt rug. I made one for the Estrella arts competition a few years back, and have it on the floor of my studio. The dogs and cats consistently jockey for sprawling room on it.

So...what should I start next??

Washing and Ironing Hand Painted Silk Scarves

I was busy today doing the washing and the ironing. Sounds awfully domestic, doesn't it? Except, what I was doing was the finishing work on the batch of hand painted silk scarves that I've been working on. They've been pre-washed, then dyed, then steamed. One last bit of work, and they are all set to go.

When the scarves come out of the steamer, they are kind of cracky-crinkly (Yes, that is the technical term. At least it is now.), and still have bits of salt on them. They're pretty, but don't have that lovely flowing and shining texture that you expect from silk.

So, the next step is to wash the scarves. I put them into lingerie bags to keep them from tangling too badly in the wash. (I learned that one the hard way.) I don't put more than 3 or 4 scarves in a bag, and try to put like colors together on the off chance that the dyes run into each other.

This stuff helps keep the excess dyes from transferring to the silk. You can also use Synthropol. I put in about 1/4 cup for the wash load. The washer is on hot, and is set to the delicate cycle.

You can see how quickly the excess dye that didn't bond to the silk ends up in the wash water.

I wash the scarves twice for good measure. However, this is the same point in the wash cycle as the previous picture. You can see that there is almost no excess dye in the water--which means no dye coming off onto your skin. This is a good thing!

This is why I put the scarves in the bags. They still managed to tangle themselves up! But untangling 3 or 4 scarves is simple compared to trying to figure out a wound up ball of 12. Trust me on this.

I want to avoid wrinkles setting themselves in the silk while I'm getting ready to do the ironing, so I hang up each scarf.

While the scarves are damp but not soaking wet, I iron them dry. You can see what a difference that makes!

The beautiful sheen and flowing hand of the silk finally shines through.

I'm in the process of taking pictures of the scarves, so I can get them listed in the Etsy shop. I tried it today, but only got through a half dozen scarves before I gave up. These are lovely, light weight scarves that dance and billow in the slightest breath of a breeze...and today was windy. Boy, it was hard to get pictures when the danged scarves wouldn't stay put!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/75523547/hand-painted-silk-scarf-blue-green

http://www.etsy.com/listing/75524777/hand-painted-silk-scarf-brown-black-rust

http://www.etsy.com/listing/75525954/hand-painted-silk-scarf-black-grey-with

http://www.etsy.com/listing/75534638/hand-painted-silk-scarf-sea-and-olive

http://www.etsy.com/listing/75534996/hand-painted-silk-scarf-pink-orange

From here on out, I hand wash the scarves in cool water, and iron them dry again.

You can see the earlier parts of this project in these two posts:

Painting: http://tangibledaydreams.blogspot.com/2011/03/tutorial-silk-scarf-painting.html

Steaming: http://tangibledaydreams.blogspot.com/2011/03/tutorial-steaming-silk-scarves.html

Two useful links, and pictures from around Arizona

First, I wanted to share a couple of cool links I found. The first one is to a pattern generator for inkle weaving. I'll be using this next time I plan a band!

http://www.carolingianrealm.info/PatternGenerator.php

The second link is to a site to help with practicing your figure drawing when you don't have access to a model. I'm usually the one up on the stand modeling, so it is nice to have this gadget so I can get behind the easel for awhile.

http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/figuredrawing.php

And now, pictures! It was our 22nd wedding anniversary this weekend, so Eric & I took off just the two of us for some time to reconnect. We spent part of our time wandering around the area between Phoenix and Flagstaff, Arizona. Of course, I had to take pictures. Here's a sampling. It doesn't look like the stereotypical desert Arizona scene, does it? Not a cactus in sight.

Wildflowers by Lake Mary:

Ashurst Lake:

Oak Creek Canyon:

Oak Creek:

Steaming silk scarves, and smart alec family and friends

I've been painting silk scarves over the past few weeks. This afternoon I had just enough time to roll them up and steam them before I left for work. So, I got to work, laying them out in the craft paper.

I managed to roll up all 24 scarves, and still beat the 6" diameter limit. Any bigger around than 6", and I'm told the steam can't penetrate well.

So I hung them up in my hand made steamer (turkey fryer and stove pipe), and made a mental note to come back in three hours to turn the steamer off. Yes, I check it frequently also, to make sure it hasn't run dry. But I knew I'd be a bit distracted getting ready for modeling for a life drawing class tonight, so I wanted to make sure to turn it off.

I'm pretty much on FaceBook all the time, both personally and for the crafting side of my life. (That one is http://www.facebook.com/TangibleDaydreams -- feel free to drop on by.) So, I mentioned on my personal FaceBook that I had the scarves going, and that I needed to remember to take them off in a few hours.

Silly me.

2 minutes later, my 16 year old son trots down the stairs, and reminds me to turn the steamer off in three hours. Smart alec son. This amuses me, so I dash off a comment to my original FaceBook post.

Silly, silly me. I not only have a smart alec son, but my friends and the rest of my family are just as bad.

Countless FaceBook comments and wall posts, phone calls, text messages, emails, in person reminders, post-it notes, and the creation of a FaceBook Event later, I did in fact remember to turn off the steamer before I left for work. I lost track of how many people got in on the silliness.

Don't tell any of them...but I'm glad I'm surrounded with people who know how to have light-spirited fun!

Inkle bands, silk painting, and hospital visits

It has been a bit of a crazy time here the past week. My husband ended up back in the hospital for a spell, to zap some various infections. So my focus has been a little scattered. However, I did manage to finish up the band I had on the inkle loom. If you recall, this was woven of leftover hand dyed sock yarn. I lined up the color repeats on the loom, so the band shifted from one color to the next with a nice feathering. The result is quite a bit different from the usual rigid patterns that you get with inkle weaving. I've got another band on the loom right now, but I wasn't really paying attention with that one and the width of the band varies. (I did much of it with me in the hospital.) I really need to practice even tension more, so I can get even selvedges without thinking about it. Anyway, here's how the first one turned out.



I've also managed to get 2 dozen silk scarves dyed over the past two weeks.




The last one is currently drying on the frame. I need to let them sit and cure at least 24 hours, so hopefully I can get to steam setting them on Friday. Then I'll let them sit and cure again over the weekend. I'll probably get to washing and ironing them on Monday. That means I can take pictures and list them for the Etsy shop (tangibledaydreams.etsy.com) over the course of next week.

Assuming nobody else ends up in the hospital.

Ahem. And nobody will end up in the hospital. Right? Right. Glad we cleared that up.