...all about stars

I am producing a new Rust-Tex Starter Kit.

This one is for the Image Transfer Technique.

Here is a picture of the kit:

Here is a picture of what is in the kit:

Here is a picture of a wallhanging I made with the steel stars in the kit. I added a lot of commercial fabrics, mostly batiks.

Here is a picture of what I do with the industrial waste from the kit:

The kit will soon be available for purchase at Rust-Tex.Com

No Rust Dyeing Today

Today I was busy getting ready to teach a class on paintstiks at Mill House Quilts in Waunakee, WI. That means I didn't do any rust dyeing today, not that I didn't handle any rust dyed fabric. On the contrary I had to move it from one place in my studio to another to get to the paintstiks supplies. Actually I found I had piles of Rust-Tex all ready to sell in several place around my studio. So now they are all in one place. And I know what new labels I will have my youngest daughter (YD) work on next. She designed the Rust-Tex logo two years ago so I don't think I will be wasting my money sending her to The Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design.

Look What I Got!!!

If you are a regular Rust-Tex.blogspot.com reader you will know I have been whining about a wonderfully rusty cookie sheet that is rapidly deteriorating. On Sunday, June 10, 2007 I said I would post a picture of the results of the set up pictured there. Well here it is:

Boring!!!

There is no white line around a heart, there is hardly a heart, and the red barely made it to pale pink. Armed with the knowledge of what didn't work but still wanting to use that cookie sheet. I tried the same set up but used green tea instead of quebracho red. I also didn't put any tea on area of the napkin that was not bunched up.

Here is the second attempt:

Notice how the "heart" is staying white. On point that white area reminded me of a big white cloud floating over water so...

Third time is a charm!!!

Looks like I made a Stormy Seas fabric instead of my usual Stormy Skies.

I wish you a successful creative experience, cause mine was way fun!!!!

WHEW!!!

I got that commission done by machine quilting thirty minutes at a time three times a day. The binding took 3 movies, one each day for three days. Thank God for ibuprofen!!!

Our youngest daughter graduated from high school on Sunday so now I think I am going to have time to get back to regularly posting my adventures in rust dyeing.

This year I find that I can't wait until fall when the sumac trees are full of tannin to get black dye. So I have been experimenting with different forms of tannin. I am having great success with tea. My formula is one cup loose tea and however much water it takes to fill a one quart measure. The tea swells up quite a bit as you can see in this picture.

After it cools down, I drain it with a colander, squeeze any liquid out of the leaves, put the leaves on the compost pile and put the tea into the spray bottle. Any left over tea is marked "For Dyeing Only" and is kept in the refrigerator. The brand of tea I am using must be available world wide as the label is printed in four languages.

English / Chinese / French / Arabic

Cookie Sheet Revival

I was able to make another heart on the cookie sheet that collapsed last week. Here is the set up. By being very careful I was able to make one the biggest rust flakes into a heart shape. I raised it up from the rest of the cookie sheet by putting it on a small piece of wood. Hopefully this will create a white line around the heart. The red is from quebracho red, a South American tree that is high in tannin. I have been experimenting with it to try and get more colors into my rust dyed fabrics. I will post the results tomorrow.

Right now IT IS almost tomorrow. I have to go to bed so I can get a lot of rust dyeing done tomorrow.

Today is Beautiful

RUST-TEX REPORT FOR TODAY

FIRST THE GOOD NEWS

The storm I posted about on Wednesday totally missed Madison!!!

THEN THE BAD NEWS

It came through northern Wisconsin with a vengeance. 5 tornadoes touched down and baseball sized hail did a lot of damage. No one died. A canoe was jammed into a tree.

MORE BAD NEWS

Today is a perfect day for rust dyeing but I have too much to do to take advantage of it. My youngest daughter is graduating from high school on June 17, so we went to some graduation parties today and will go to some more tomorrow. I am also working hard to finish up a commission t-shirt quilt for someone graduating that same day. I have had the t-shirts since January so the parents won't be happy if it is not done in time. I will be putting the binding on tonight, even though all the quilting isn't done. I can only quilt about 30 minutes a day before my shoulder starts to hurt. And I can only hand sew the binding about an hour a day before that starts to cause pain so...

I gotta go get to work.

No More Hearts from this Cookie Sheet

It looks like a squirrel ran across this cookie sheet and "done it in". I guess I won't be able to get any more hearts from it and no dinosaurs either, just a bunch of rust flakes.
The weather around here has not been cooperating with the Rust-Tex production schedule!!! Most of this week has been too wet to work. Tomorrow evening we are expecting a mighty storm with strong winds to blow through here. My DH wants me to REALLY batter down the hatches. I don't mind putting it away, but getting everything set up and running again takes too much of my daily energy, not leaving very much for the fun stuff.

The Rust-Tex Report for Today

What I have to report today is that I have just spent several hours adding to the scarf gallery at Rust-Tex.Com. You should go take a look because I am too computered out to post anything here.