Tradition, for a change

I have made a lot of samples of my own fabric designs and printed them through Spoonflower....the question is: what the heck should I do with them? Not enough to make something to wear, they don't work together for an art quilt. I matched them up to some solids and solidish batiks. My orange/pink/yellow paisley worked well with an orange batik, and also with a thermofax screenprint of a tulip, orange on yellow. Here are pix of my recent experiments. (color is a little off, thanks to my tempermental scanner and lack of finess in photoshop)

Typography, Calligraphy and Fonts

I chose the theme of Typography for my atc group exchange this month since I love fonts, calligraphy and graphic design. I used famous signatures/symbols (John Hancock, Ben Franklin, Gandhi and Vermeer) along with part of the font from Tazo Tea. I created an aged look with watercolor in shades of ochre and brown, then added gold paint and Pearlex Powder, with a gloss finish.

Thermofax Prints and Marker Watercolor

My last few art days have been experimental: testing the colors and designs on my newly arrived thermofax screens (designed by me and made by FibraArtysta at Esty)Screens worked well, any problems were due to me being sloppy and rushing or being stingy with the paint.

I plan to try printing on gingham and maybe stripes...something more interesting than white broadcloth, but they came out pretty well for a first try.

My second experiment was with Sharpie Markers directly on cotton. I drew flowers and abstract shapes, then added alcohol and let it bleed. Kind of like doing watercolor, but the bleeding takes longer. Colors dried nice and bright though, unlike watercolor which usually dries softer. And thank you to Janice Paine-Dawes who introduced me to this technique!

Painted Peltex Experiments

This is a piece I have been puttering with...I finally got sick of it and decided to call it done. I painted directly on Peltex with water soluble oil pastels, a very wet and messy process that took forever to dry. I decided to enhance some of the lines with stitching, but my rotator cuff gave out, so I couldn't do the needlework I envisioned. It was drawn freehand, with no plan, just a random design that came out of my head. Pretty much typical of what I doodle, but bigger and in color. It is about 20" wide x 10" high.