Just in Time for Halloween

The Rust-Tex Indoor Dye Studio is in the same condition as the last picture I posted. As I have been busy doing other things. Like baking these finger cookies for DH to take to work tomorrow.
It was really his idea and the past two years he made them mostly by himself. This year I shaped all of them. He put the "knuckle" marks and the fingernail on them.

You can find many recipes with lots of variations on the web. Just use "finger cookies" for your search argument. Our personal variation is to put a bread sitck in the cookie. We make the bread stick almost as long as the cookie and leave it hanging out the end like a broken bone. The change in texture from sugar cookie to bread stick adds a terrifying dimension to eating one of our cookies. That texture change makes you think of brittle bones.

wahhhh-hahahahaha

Just in Time!!!

I got the Rust-Tex studio into the garage just in time as the first snow of the season descended upon us.Don't be fooled, this picture is from February 18, 2008

Today it was 40F and the snow melted as soon as it hit the ground. Temperatures in the 60sF are predicted for the week-end.

Click here to see how the Rusty Naked Dancing Woman woman is coming along.

Bad News/Good News

The bad news is, no more beautiful summer days for any of us in the Midwest area of the USA. But for me it meant packing up the Rust-Tex dye studio on the deck...sigh...here is a picture of how it looked after the last load was removed to the garage for winter storage. The good new is, I am going to carve out a tiny corner of the basement to create an indoor rust dye studio. Although I will still be in my cold and damp WI basement studio, it won't be all bad. If fact here are a couple of things I am looking forward to:

ONE

I can be as messy as I want to be. I won't have to be careful not to get water on the floor and flakes of rust all over the place. There is a floor drain and I won't be using the laundry room sink

TWO

There is a hook where I can hang up my Rust-Tex lab coat. You know, the one with the Rust-Tex logo over the pocket

Here is a picture of it already hanging there waiting for me put it on when I try to carve out a place for a table from this area of the basement, which is just outside the bathroom.

I know just what you are thinking,

"GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!!!"

I will post pictures of how it turns out.

Naked Dancing Woman

Someone ordered the Rust-Tex Instructional CD today through the store on Rust-Tex.Com and this is what she is planning to do:

"Am really excited...have been doing a little rusting on my own as I want to make a piece of a rusty old naked dancing woman to celebrate my 65th birthday...think my joints are getting rusty so rusty fabric seems the way to go to express my joy at making it to age 65."

Good thing she lives in FL where the rust dyeing season never ends.

Here, in WI, the season is drawing to a close...sigh...I am planning to pack up the rest of the Rust-Tex dye studio this week-end. The good news is I am thinking of setting up a Rust-Tex dye studio in a corner of the basement so I can rust dye fabric in the winter. It won't be as much fun as rust dyeing outside on the deck. I won't be able to "be as messy as I want to be". I will have to be careful not to get water on the floor and flakes of rust all over the place.
When your rust dyes studio starts to look like this EVERYDAY you know it is time to pack it up.

Still Another Question

This question arrived by emailed today:

"Does the tannin have a short shelf life, once it's mixed with hot water? I have a silk shawl that is not accepting the tannin. The tannin was mixed with hot water several days ago and has worked well on other cotton and silk pieces, but it is now cool and several days old. Do you think if it is heated again it will dye better—or should I just dump it and mix a fresh batch?"

When tannin is mixed with iron oxide you get black.

It is available at the store at Rust-Tex.Com

I have not noticed tannin going bad in 2 or 3 days!!! I put it in a bottle and let it sit on the deck until it grows moldy. That is a sure sign to toss it. My experience is that it works best, (read as fastest) in hot weather. If you are doing this outside in cold weather it will take longer to work. Try letting it sit longer than overnight.

Prairie Treasures Quilt Show

I will be vending at the Prairie Star Quilters Guild show this week-end. Come and see Rust-Tex fabric in the cloth, because it is so much better then on the internet. Follow this link for more information:

http://www.prairiestar.net/quiltshow.html

I will bring the same rust dyeing supplies that I carry in the store at Rust-Tex.com and MORE!!! If you let me know you are a Rust-Tex.blogspot.com reader, I will give you a free gift.

(There is no picture of the day as my hard drive failed and EVERYTHING has to be reinstalled...sigh...)

Another Question

To answer the comment left on the last post, "Is there something you can do to the tannin effect so that it doesn't wash out if you want to overdye it? I tried soaking my tannined piece and it started to soften around the edges. Any advice?"

Tannin is used in natural dyeing as a premordant so I am surprised that it is washing out. Rust dyeing is sensitive to ph levels. If you are soaking it in soda ash in preparation for procion dyeing that might be what is causing it to "soften around the edges."

More Crystals

It seems I am fated to grow crystals this week in the Rust-Tex Dye Studio. All day yesterday there was a strong dry wind blowing and it was HOT. We finally had our first 90F day of the summer. I was out to the studio (read: deck) every hour to rehydrate fabrics. I was getting frustrated until I remembered there is a way to utilize those weather conditions by making what I call "Copper Hills" fabric. I have not used the copper solution since last fall and it was STRONG!!! These little crystals formed at the top of all the ridges. Most the copper color rinsed out and the fabric was less than spectacular.The best thing to come out of the Rust-Tex studio yesterday was the picture of the crystals.

Blue and Gold

In the bright sunlight and hot weather on Labor Day, I exposed a maple leaf from the yard to blueprint fabric. Today I wanted to see what would happen if I tried to rust dye veins on to it.

Two things I was totally unprepared for happened.

First, some organic matter fell out of the tree overhead, a seed pod of some sort, which caused a stain on the fabric. Keep your eye on the circled area to see how that developed over time.

Second, the salt traveled to the edges of the fabric and started forming into crystals!!! Remember how we use to grow crystals by mixing bluing, and some other household chemicals together and putting it on coal?

(Oh, dear, did I just give away how very old I am?)

Anyway...this picture shows how the piece looked after I removed the wire. I wanted a record of it in case all that nice blue color washed out.
But it didn't!!!

I found I can combine rust dyeing and the wonderful colors of cyanotype.

The thin wires didn't rust at all. That wire must have had some kind of coating on it. Don't worry I can add them with free motion quilting or "thread painting" as it is being called now.

I like the glow the salt and/or iron oxide made as it discharged the blueprinting chemical. Click here to link to directions for growing crystals with bluing

Labor Day Already?

Can you believe it is Labor Day already? Where did the summer go? If this is September 1st, Quilt Expo in Madison, WI must be right around the corner. I will not have a booth there this year as my quilt, Ground Zero and I are going to be featured at the Mendota, IL quilt show that Saturday. However I will be presenting a 1 hour lecture for Quilt Expo on Thursday at 2:30 called, "Capturing Memories on Cloth". It is how I took paintsticks with me on vacation to capture names of cities and textures of various cultures on a pre-hemmed silk scarf so I came home with a finished product, not another UFO.

You can register for this lecture by clicking here.

You can see all the lectures click here. They are alphabetical by lecturer's last name.

Polyester Double Knit Re-Purposed

This past winter I bought a chunk of polyester double knit at Savers. The previous year I had rust dyed a polyester scarf and thought the way the water flowed through the fabric, called "wicking", was interesting. The scarf already had large graceful curves woven into it.

Yesterday I tried the double knit and Pow...Zap...Zowie...

I was struck by the results!!!

This piece is really flat. I didn't bunch it up for the picture. Those wonderful troughs and highlights formed as the rust dye wicked through the fabric. I have another piece out there without the little wire guy in the middle.

I wonder if I can get quilters to accept the idea of using this kind of fabric in their art quilts? Polyester double knit is indestructible and never needs to be ironed. Back in the 1970's everyone's grandmother had a pants suit made of this fabric. It was also the fabric of choice for leisure suits with wide lapels that were worn by guys with bad reputations.

Forget bamboo fabric, I am looking for polyester double knit at the next garage sale.

Strange Bottle Results

The picture today is the results of the bottle wrap I did on that strange bottle from a garage sale pictured in the last post.

It is not at all how I expected it to turn out.

Perhaps I should not buy eerily shaped bottles any more. This bottle must have had a demon trapped in it.

Can't see it?

Can you see him now? (A face formed because I folded the piece in half so it would fit on the bottle better.)

Who is using the Rust-Tex Studio...

...not me. I have been busy with my sick friend and lots of other things that unfortunately keep me out of the rust dye studio. I did venture out there the other day to mourn the loss of my creative time and I saw that spiders have been using the piles of rusty stuff to support their webs! Yipes! "Yipes!", not because I am afraid of spiders but, "Yipes!", because I think I should be the one using that rusty stuff. So today I did a bottle wrap using this bottle and some copper wire I found at a garage sale this past week-end. Any one know what this bottle is from?
I will post a picture of the finished piece as soon as I can.

Hanging-out with Friends

Saturday was the prefect day for rust dyeing and I was planning on doing that after lunch. The morning was reserved for the UFO Club workday. Seeing that I am the Queen of the UFO's, I thought it was important to for me to make an appearance, since I have not been there in several months. My phone rang while I was getting ready, and I ended up spending the entire day here.Mostly it was spend in this room.

And finally, when my friend was admitted to the hospital, this was the view from her window. You can see the what a beautiful day is was...sigh...

The up side is she REALLY NEEDED to go to the hospital, she is on the mend, and will be released on Monday. Friday night I went with a carload of friends, from the Madison Contemporary Fiber Artists, to the opening of our show in Plymouth, WI.

The above piece is by Wendy Butler Burns

The show is called, "Hanging by a Thread". All the pieces were about social issues. My piece was called, "Tire Reef Disaster". It is about an artificial coral reef made of tires that was sunk in the 1970. It never became a coral reef. It has actually caused great damage to the ocean floor. The cables holding the tires together have broken and tires are washing up on beaches in FL.

Yuck!!! What were they thinking!!!

Here is my piece, which is made of all rust dyed fabric. I printed the Associated Press article on fabric. It is in those two boxes below the ocean scene.

The picture of the day is what I wore to our eldest daughter's wedding. Many of my friends left comments on the Pirate and the Princess post, requesting to see what I wore. I call it my Rust-Tex Floater and wear it on special occassions.

The Pirate and the Princess

The marriage of our eldest daughter was on August 2nd. It was a themed wedding held outdoors. The theme was, The Pirate and the Princess. Here is the logo that was used on the invitation and...everywhere else, as you will see later in this post.

The groom rented a pirate costume instead of a tux and the bride wore a dress that made her feel like a princess. Here is a picture of the happy couple.

The cake was in the shape of a castle decorated with trailing vines and a meander quilting pattern in the icing.

Yes it is leaning. It was in the upper 80'sF that day and the poor cake had spent an hour being transported by car to the site of the wedding.

Our youngest daughter made these truly unique "cake toppers".

This picture shows how a pirate cuts a wedding cake.

This one shows how a well bred princess cuts a cake.And this one show how working together a wedding cake can be properly cut by a pirate and a princess.

I baked the cake on what turned out to be the hottest day of summer so far. But my sister-in-law the professional cake decorator, is the real hero in this story. She drove from Waukegan, IL to Madison, WI after she got off work on Friday night to decorate the cake. She arrived in Madison about 7:15 and the cake was done about 12:30.

During transport one of the turrets fell off before the cake was one block from the house. SIL has done enough wedding cakes that she knew to bring along a repair kit. I have no idea what all is in a cake repair kit, but my SIL knew and she had it with her so the cake looked fabulous all day. When I went to take one more picture before we cut it one of the turrets fell off. I took that as a sign that it was definitely time to cut the cake.

Thank you Carol!!!

It was an amazing cake!!!

Theresa Finally Meets her Namesake

My good friend Theresa from Washington, DC, is here for our eldest daughter's wedding. So she and my studio companion, who was named after her finally meet. And the picture of the day proves it.

Another Question about Rust Dyeing

Someone email me this question today:

"When you're working at home...do you use plastic bags? I couldn't decide whether it was right...it keeps in the water, but would restrict the air."

I am home all day so I can keep the rust dyed pieces hydrated when necessary. I love checking on them, it gets me out of my cold, damp basement studio into the beautiful summer day, which is one of the main reasons I took up rust dyeing.

Using plastic bags just sends more things to the landfill so I try not to use them. Wrapping your rust dyed piece tightly with plastic will restrict the oxygen available. I had an interesting talk with a chemist at Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Show. He said iron oxide formed with less air is black, iron oxide formed with a lot of air is reddish. This might open up a whole world of experimentation for someone.

Would that be you?

Question and Answer about Rust Dyeing

Today I got an email from someone asking me the longevity of rusted fabric. She wanted to know if it will last 1 year or 5 years? And can it be treated just like you would procion dyed fabric, with ironing and washing, etc? She said, "It seems like it's been pounded into our heads the preservation of quilts, photographs and etc for archival reasons. Was wondering, is there special handling in the preserving of rusted fabrics?"
Here is my reply to her:
Quilts that were made in the late 1800 contained fabric that was dyed with natural dyes. Iron was one of the mordants used in natural dyeing. When combined with natural dyes it "saddened" the colors, meaning it makes them darker. Many black and drak brown fabrics were created by combining iron oxide and tannin. In quilts from that era we sometimes see those black fabrics have rotted away. But those quilts are 100+ years old, have seen hard wear and been washed many times .
I do not recommend that people use any fabric that is dye with iron oxide in a bed quilt. But I think it is fine for wall hangings that might get vacuumed a few times in their life. I also sell rust dyed wearables and figure that the buyer will get tired of wearing that scarf before it develops any holes.
I am expecting my rust dye fabric to out last me and I am 55 years old. I think the archival thing is overblown. If you enjoy making and using rust dyed fabric are you going to let some "archivists" scare you off?
I hope this information will free YOU up to try rust dyeing.

Finished Commission

I finally finished that commission I started back in January.

The person this was made for came to pick it up and she was thrilled!!!

I was glad she was so delighted with it.

She and her mom said the most complimentary thing, "You will never get tired of this wallhanging. Every time you look at it you will see something different."

It made me feel validated as an artist.

Cause that is what I always try to buy in something to hang on my walls.

July 4th, 2008

Here is how I decorate the fence that lines one side of our property,and here is the Rust-Tex fabric I rinsed out that day drying in the shade. Happy 4th of July!!!
Two days late but good wishes are always better later than never