Dorothy Caldwell

Oh! To be in Toronto right now to see Dorothy Caldwell's exhibit at David Kaye Gallery.

 

screen shot from David Kaye Gallery web site

To see more of Dorothy's work, click on David Kaye Gallery link above, 

then click on Dorothy's name to the right. Enjoy!

Brown vs bleach

Along with the two black t-shirts and a couple yards of black cotton, the other thing to get discharged yesterday was a brown t-shirt that I'd been thinking about doing something to. It had a small stain right in the middle, like where food had been dropped...yep, I'm clumsy...which just refused to budge to any laundry chemical. Discharging it yesterday was a spur of the moment decision, but one that I am very glad to have made.

The top shot is of the front, bottom is the back. Haven't decided what color was dyed over, but there's a bit of olive green and very pale mauve/gray/lilac-ish something along with the glorious deep purple. Knowing as little as I do about the chemical make-up of commerical dyes, all those colors could go into making brown for all I know. This really is one case where ignorance is bliss because this shirt made my morning yesterday.

In case you're wondering what else has been happening in the studio, maybe this shot will give you an idea.

Bleach vs black

Why is it that whenever you accidentally get even the tiniest little splash of bleach on what you're wearing, that spot immediately turns the brightest, purest white? The kind of white that can be spotted from miles away? You know what I mean. There's bound to be a law of nature that governs the whole thing and I would have liked that law of nature to have been on my side this morning.

Well...now that I think about it, maybe the problem this morning is that I wasn't wearing either of the black t-shirts that were being discharged...on purpose actually, not accidentally.

You see, I'd have loved for either of these shirts to have discharged to white so that my closet would have a bit more variation than rust/orange artsy shirts. They're currently in the washing machine having a good soak...along with a brown t-shirt that made my morning. Photos of that soon!

Signed, Sealed & Delivered

Silvermine Arts Center will be holding its annual fundraiser, Signed, Sealed & Delivered,  at the end October. The pieces above (4" x 6") are my donations. I really like the little dudes. May have to do a few more to keep.

In the studio

Who knew 8 yards of cotton could be folded, twisted, tied and wrapped into a small bunch of funny shapes?

Tomorrow's forecast is for an absolutely gorgeous day. What better way to use the time that the girls are in preschool tomorrow morning than to break out the discharging paraphernalia and...well...discharge some black cotton?

Last week

Mother Nature graced us with a week of perfect spring weather last week. You know what I mean - cool nights made for sleeping with the windows open, warm days filled with bright blue skies and gentle breezes carrying the scent of newly bloomed flowers. Ahhhh....it was splendid. It was also great weather for working outside.

Inspired by all the discharged pieces hanging on the line, I intended to work on another large piece of black cotton. This time, the plan was to discharge with a bleach pen as well as by immersion in bleach. Combine free form and control. Ha! Seems the cosmos had other ideas for how my time should be spent and nothing seemed to go as planned. Really. It was one of those weeks.

So it came as a great surprise to me this morning while photographing more rusted cotton, to realize that I actually had managed to work on a few things last week after all. And not all of them involved putting stuff in a baggie and forgetting about it.

On Friday, I played with discharging and bees wax.

 And this morning, I opened bags of rusting cotton.

The first two rusted pieces really are different pieces. #2 was rusted in 2 days by dipping the fabric in vinegar first. #1 was vinegar-less. #3 was wrapped around a plumb bob. #4 is the one from yesterday's post that got rained on. Night time worked it's magic and produced way more rust than was there when I went to bed. All in all, not a bad week's work.

Discharged

After soaking in vinegar for 24 hours, I finally decided to hang the discharged fabrics outside to let Mother Nature have a go at them.

Yesterday was the first time I'd seen all the fabrics hung together - those that had been discharged in 2006 with the more controlled discharges done with a bleach pen. Actually, I'm quite excited to work with them now. Need to write down all the ideas.

Since our weather this week calls for lots of sun with slight breezes, I think a kinetic art installation of sorts in the back yard is the perfect way to celebrate Spring's arrival, don't you?

Help!

I have a problem. It's a smelly one at that.

After taking Dorothy Caldwell's workshop, A Book of Marks, at Peters Valley Craft Center in 2006, I spent a good portion of that summer outside discharging black cotton with bleach. I've dabbled with this on and off since then, mostly using a bleach pen.

Because I couldn't figure out what to do with the discharged fabric, it has been in a plastic bin in my studio closet. Before going into storage, the cotton was washed and dried (via washing machine and dryer). At that time, I thought all was well.

Fast forward to Wednesday when the muse finally struck. The bin came out of the closet. The lid was removed. I breathed in and sort of choked on the fumes. A thought that is not suitable for public consumption ran through my mind. The gist was that this fabric just cannot be used for art unless the smell can be removed. 

To make this story shorter, I washed and dried the cotton twice yesterday all to no avail. Today, I tried soaking it in a mixture of vinegar and water for...hmmm...about 4 hours. Rinsed it and it still smells.

Help! Please! Is there something to be done? I'm off to the grocery to buy more vinegar to try a straight vinegar bath, but am open to other suggestions.