Category: Fiber

After Bath…

I have been trying to figure out how to age/distress wool pieces. I was pretty sure that cold wax would be the solution, but an interesting thing happened. I removed the felt that I had stitched onto the back of a piece to find casemaking moths living in a crease near the bottom.

That was it, nothing left to lose. I filled the bath with water and sodium bicarb. Tossed in the piece and left it overnight.

Piece in Bath

The next morning I applied a solution of peroxide, white vinegar, and salt.

Piece After Bath

Then wrapped the piece in plastic, a bit of a brief fuming. When I unwrapped the piece sometime in the afternoon, much of the metal had oxidized. I took the piece outside and sprayed it down with the garden hose. The piece was left outside to air dry and catch some sun.

My hope is a soak overnight in salt water, saturation with a metal oxidizer, a drenching with water, and some sun would break the moth cycle.

This is how the piece looks tonight.

Piece With Rust

Tomorrow I plan to give the piece an application of shellac. Yep, bug goo. I have been testing some oxides mixed with denatured alcohol, then added to shellac.

Eventually, it will be time to build a frame/box most likely out of cedar.

Moths, Conservation, Cold Wax…

I am still fighting case making moths. Last night I opened a jar of small pieces that I made for testing, to find moths living amongst them. I hate killing things, but I am getting quite frustrated with not knowing where or when I will find critters. I am pretty sure that I brought them into the house in hay for the bunnies.

On the Conservation Center site I found this information about a moth infestation of a Tibetan Ladahki Headdress. I had originally read that the only way to kill the moth cycle was heat. Not a good solution, since I previously used wax on some of my pieces. This is the method used–

…frozen to prevent contamination of the other objects in the lab and to kill moth activity, including all adults, larvae and eggs. After remaining in a freezer at -20˚C for one and a half months…

I have been reading a bit about artifacts and conservation looking for information as to how to age/distress components added to artifacts. Thought perhaps some interesting materials or methods to use them might be appropriate for some of my work.

I feel like I am constantly learning new things about, well just about everything. I don’t want to alter the color of the wool pieces too much, but I do need to distress them. Perhaps the solution for future pieces is to distress the wool before I use it, or not use it at all. When I have used hot wax on wool the result is a rather plastic appearance.

I ordered a variety of waxes and am attempting to use cold wax processes. I am liking d-limonene with white and amber microcrystalline, but I do not like that my studio has the odor of orange oil.

White Microcrystalline Wax with d-Limonene

Waxed Pieces

Displaying the finished wool pieces is another problem that I have been thinking about. I was planning to build boxes/crates to house/display the pieces, but then how to keep the pieces in place? I generally opt for nails straight through with a head that I like.

This would be a great option–

Mounting Headdress

Mounting Headdress. Image from the Conservation Center Site

Finished Conservation of Headdress

Finished Conservation of Headdress. Image from the Conservation Center Site

Penny Piece Yet Again

Last night I completed the verticals and 4 horizontal rows. I have an additional 9 horizontal rows and 2 borders before I can “age” the piece.

Aging can be the most exciting part of the process because it can be somewhat destructive. It takes the “newness” edge off of the work while integrating the materials and giving the work a sense of history.

Verticals CU

This was prior to completing the verticals and beginning the horizontals.

Horizontals

First Horizontals

This weekend I am planning to test patina and wax techniques. I also need to decide how to hang the piece. Box it or not. I do love boxes and have a tendency to want to box up everything.

My love for boxes started with the empty box as the piece.

Adele

Adele is part of my Avian Headbox series

Anzen

The box element of my Tools for Rent or dagger series was for protection, storage, and presentation.

Wholly Luck

I opened up the box for Wholly Luck which is part of my Make Your Own Luck series

My website is GirlArtist.com. Nancy Scarry Girl Artist is my take on Wile E. Coyote Super Genius.

See A Penny Continuation

Been busy making apps, so little studio time in the past couple of weeks. Finally some studio time this weekend.

When you are not able to have consistent studio time, sometimes going back to a project means reacquainting yourself with it.

Current

Decided to add wrapped rope to emphasize the grid, to cover the edges of the blocks, and to give more of a quilt-like feel.

I have found that often cotton rope has a synthetic core. I didn’t know however, that cotton Venetian Blind cord is made with a synthetic core as well. And that synthetic isn’t listed on the label. The fellow working in the store said that if it wasn’t on the label it wasn’t in the rope or cord.

I purchased two types, the Venetian Blind cord for the grid and the thicker clothesline rope for the border.

Continuation 1

I cut lengths of sash cord to use for the verticals, then removed the core.

Continuation 2

The main reason that I do not want a synthetic core is because I am planning to use a hot process on the piece. Nylon melts. The removed nylon can be cut up and used in other processes.

I wrapped the lengths of sash cord by first inserting one end of the cotton twine through the sash cord.

Continuation 3

Yep, my fingernails are a bit green. I spent a couple of hours pruning my Brugs and Datura.

Datura

Wrapping was done by simply rotating the Venetian Blind cord. When nearly wrapped, I cut the cotton cord, slipped on a needle, and inserted the tail up through and out.

Continuation 4

Before and After Wrapping

Continuation 6

I have a couple of verticals to finish before starting the horizontals, and then adding a border. The wrapped cord needs to be added to the left of the penny blocks.

Continuation 8

Clearing Out and Rust Dyeing

A couple of nights back, 31 August, I decided to give rust dyeing a go. I was clearing out my closets and found some tees that could not have been donated because they had seen studio time and/or bunny teeth.

I placed metal items that I found interesting directly on the shirt, misted with full strength vinegar and sprinkled with kosher salt. I have liked using the larger salt crystals in the past.

There is a double layer of plastic inside the tee.

Rust Dye Process Image 1

Since the shirt has a bit of a mesh texture, I placed a piece of cling wrap over the salted metal bits, then weighted it with a binder of past sketches.

Rust Dye Process Image 2

Rust Dye Process Image 3

Every evening I misted the metal bits then returned the cling wrap and binder.

Tonight when I removed the binder and the cling wrap I noticed there was some salt residue where the edge of the cling wrap had been.

The rust result excited the heck out of me. And not thinking I stacked up the rusty bits on the shirt. I was so excited to see the build of rust on the fabric I forgot that the metal bits were still rusty.

Rust Dye Results 1

The result is beautiful, but how much will remain after washing?

I followed the general comments about using 1 tablespoon of salt to 1 gallon of water to set the rust dye.

Rust Dye Results 2

Here is what I was thinking–

A couple of years back, I found reference to a peroxide patina to “age” metal. The formula is simple and the result is quick. What if you use this on the metal bits and then place them on fabric?

16 ounces of Hydrogen Peroxide
2 ounces of White Vinegar
1/2 teaspoon of salt

I needed an oxidized metal hook for a piece and since I didn’t have one I gave the peroxide/vinegar/salt a go.

First Attempt Peroxide

Result Peroxide Patina

Honestly I do not remember a source for the formula. I saw reference to it several places. When I went looking for the formula this evening to give credit, I found instructions on Instructables.com.

Rust Dyeing and Stained by the Past

Last night I was reading through a few blogs that I subscribe to, and ran across reference to rust dyeing. I snagged loads of oxidized bits from my Dad’s shop that might work nicely.

metal bits

Of course I would want to place the items so the images left behind make coded messages.

It is interesting that the techniques mentioned are not all that different from some techniques used to apply patina to metal. One site suggested placing the wet fabric wrapped around metal in a plastic bag. Sounds a bit like fuming to me.

I wonder why I hadn’t thought of using patination techniques as a transfer method. I have rusted metal bits that remained in pieces. They were either rusted first or after they were bound into the piece.

Stained Detail

Detail of a work in progress–Stained by the Past

A few highlights of what I found–

Vinegar is used straight or as a 50/50 with water, bath or in a mist bottle

Contact time can be a day to 5 days. Variables would include the color and type of the fabric used, and the type of rust applied, amount of saturation of fabric. Misted fabric would dry quicker than fabric that has been saturated and placed in a plastic bag or container to keep fabric damp.

Neutralizing the rust process requires saturating the rusted on fabric with a saline solution, and a washing. The saline solution can be as weak as 1 tablespoon to a gallon of water.

On The Natural Dye Notebook I found a technique for making a rust solution that can be applied with a brush to fabric.

Mix a small amount natural rust with water, I generally use one teaspoon rust to one cup liquid, or with soy milk…

Green Willow Studio

Artstitches

Hobbyfarms.com

Penny, Penny…

There is progress, but it is taking so long to complete the project. I haven’t had loads of time for studio work. I was away because of family stuff and I have been working on several app projects. Can only manage a couple of studio hours in the evening.

The blocks are tacked in place and now I am stitching them onto the background. Pretty sure that I will not be happy with the stitching until it is more substantial. Perhaps a knot at every hole–3 on each side, would mean 12 knots for each of the 252 blocks or 3,024 knots.

Binding

I haven’t yet decided how I will “age” the piece. Currently leaning toward wax with heat or flame. I do love to torch things. I will need to make some test pieces to see how the materials behave.

There is also the possibility of using asphaltum, which is somewhat consistent with roofing felt and tree wrap. In the past when I used asphaltum I willy-nilly mixed it with shellac and applied it with a brush.

Or sugar. Sugar has been used as a stiffener for crochet work. I gave it a go several years back. Made a cotton open weave vessel.

Sugar Stiffener

6″ x 5.5″ x 6″
1 part water with 2 parts Sugar (I used a raw sugar so it did change the color of the cord)
Heated to dissolve, but didn’t boil. This takes a little time.

Sugar Stiffener Detail

I left the hot sugar in the pot and tossed in the piece to saturate the cord.
Blocked it over a jar covered with foil and placed a piece of plastic under. This is pretty drippy stuff.

The vessel has maintained its form, and has not attracted ants.

See a Penny Blocks Attached…

The blocks have been tacked on. Need to let the piece rest. Then a check to make sure the code is correct
Blocks Attached

I noticed that a couple of the blocks representing dots have the binding vertical rather than horizontal.
Detail
Will need to correct that. It is important that the texture of the tree wrap and binding be horizontal for proper alignment with the blocks representing dashes and spacers.

See A Penny Continued Again…

The edge of hardware cloth can be sharp enough to wound. Bound on a rope to act as an edging.

See Penny Edge.jpg

Then filled in the border with a couple of stitches.

Completed_Background

Completed Background

Completed_Background_Detail

Detail of Completed Background

I am considering binding pennies onto the border with a message in Tap code. In Tap code the letters of the alphabet are laid out in a 5×5 grid.

Tap Code Grid

The code for E is 1,5. The code for the letter K is the same as the letter C.

Often when I refer to Tap code I actually use a grid of 11, 5 spaces for the row and 5 spaces for the column with a space between. I fill in the empty spaces with a filler component; and add three spacers at the start of words, in between words, and at the end of words. This is a quick example of how I start laying out text in code–

See in Tap Code

The word see in my altered version of Tap code.

I am pretty sure that I am going to give the background an application of liquid starch before binding the blocks to it. The starch will prevent fraying and any knots from coming undone. Usually the “fabric” will feel quite like canvas.

Or I might decide to age the hardware cloth which will alter the appearance of the fiber. The appearance of weeping stain might occur.

Stained

An example of oxidized metal that stained the fiber.