Quiet Time

This poor blog is so neglected right now! It's not going to change any time soon either. We are leaving Saturday for the Black Forest and after that onto Cologne, then Agen, the pyrenees and into Spain. I will try to stop in but it's very doubtful. We will be without internet most of the time. I cant wait to leave, we have so many fun things planned. The first night we are camping! I am really looking forward to seeing the Lorelei rock. I have heard it is a beautiful place and much good food and drink.

This last week I have spent mainly with my son but also hand rolling the hems on several scarves. I also cut out some big square scarves that I will unravel the edges after I dye and hand tie the fringe on them. We received our t-shirts we ordered and he immediately dried up on ideas for them. SO I am sitting here now trying to think up things I can do with them. One pattern he would like I am not sure how to do. which is similar to the spirals I did before but just one wide stripe of blue and red with a thin line of white in between like this :

I have a few ideas how to do this but if anyone knows for sure I would like to get it right the first time!

I am doing some shibori tyeing on one of them. I cant resist :p I might even do a few more like that one. I finished up mixing te dyes so all I need to do now is plan out what Im doing for each shirt and possibly dye tomorrow. We have to hurry because the family is arriving on Friday!

If I get a chance I will post results before we take off...if I dont I may not be back here till after August 12th. Hope you are all having a great summer!

Tie Dye fun

I told my son before he came over to pack a few white t-shirts in his bag. I thought we could have some tie dye fun! I havent really done a lot of tie dye before.
I thought ths would be a good opportunity to explore the art a little more. I am highly interested in shibori and it is an extension of that art so..why not? We did four shirts. The first was an old stained shirt that D had worn working in the vineyards.


I liked the design that was on it and since it was the type that wont take dye I thought I might be able to save it.


I was so thrilled when it came out so well. I think this was the best of all four shirts. It didn't involve any tyeing though...maybe thats why LOL. This type of dyeing I am already familiar with ;)


I then tried a few different spiral designs both incorporating a 'spider' in the design.


The Hot Pink spider came out bright and well defined. I was quite happy with this one.


The Rasta Spider is not as defined or as colorful. I see I need to work harder to make sure the dye penetrates the folds well. I also will probably chose another green over 'bright green' in the future. This one seems much paler on cotton than on my velvets.




The last one I was very unhappy with. The guitar is a more difficut tie I admit but I expected better results.


I realize now that I didnt take the time with it I should of and also didnt use enough color on the guitar itself. Again the bright green was less than what I wanted.


The back turned out great though! I have retied this poor thing and will redye the guitar and bring the color up closer to the guitar itself also...instead of having it float among a sea of white and yellow.


I had a lot of fun with this experiment and I want to do more with t's. I ordered 10 more shirts and hope they arrive soon...The son and I have some more dyeing to do!

New Scarf Experiments

I meant to post this before I got so busy with class and such...but these things happen. I have decided to make scarves and have a lot of different ideas that I want to try. I stocked up on a pile of silk charmeuse, silk gauze, cotton gauze and another shipment of silk velvet. I am not in a big rush with these. I will do a little at a time and find what I like doing best. Since I am not buying scarf blanks anything I do must be hemmed by hand which is a long process. I like doing it that way though as I can decide what sizes I want to do as I go. Also planning on doing some lined velvet pieces..maybe some velvet scarves with silk charmeuse lining. Those would be so yummi and lux!


So these are my first two tries. I wanted to make a couple of long slinky fun scarves. I haven't seamed these yet but they will be simple long skinny scarves just folded over so the velvet is all around.


I think they turned out perfect. So full of color and fun. I might not be able to part with them...my all time favorite scarf is a long black tube just like these will be when finished. What do you think?

French

So finally, I took my test. It has taken so long to get here. Two moves, lost files, delayed classes and more but finally it's over. Such a relief. The test itself was relatively simple. It took forever. The sound system was unbearably loud. The teachers treated us like bad children. It was not a hard test though. The worst part of the whole experience, and the part that still has me cringing is the interview. After the written part of the test, each student has to have a 15 minute interview with one of the teachers where they ask you several questions, have you point out items on pictures and tell you the names of them, where they are (right, left,up,down) and other simple things like that. My problem? My nose started bleeding about 2 minutes into the interview...and DID NOT STOP the entire interview. It was stressful and embarassing. It flustered me beyond belief and probably caused me to make more than one mistake. I havent heard what my results were...and cant say I want to. As long as I passed...thats all that matters to me.
Want to hear the crazy part? I am actually considering taking the second level course. It's free and it will be my own choice. No pressure. No "you have to do this or you wont get to keep your carte de sojour" crap. I think I might enjoy it and learn more if it doesnt have all the pressure included. We will see.
And now I have time once again to create...and have fun with my son :)