Recent Dye Art Projects; Also Free-form Three-Dimensional Beadweaving

I’ve been chomping at the bit to share the projects below. I made some of them quite a few months ago, and can finally post them. They won’t shown in my Etsy shop.

 My physical therapist gave me this blouse, unadorned, asking me to paint it for her. I trade art for physical therapy, since my insurance no longer covers it. Don’t you love our medical system? I am grateful for my amazing physical therapist, who helps me so much.

I am kinda new to these paints (Jacquard Products Lumiere) and haven’t done much painting on cotton T-shirt material. It was also the first time I tried to give a Henley a peasant look, which is what my physical therapist asked for. So I kept the design simple. With all that, I was worried it wouldn’t turn out well. But I am happy with the result. And simple works soooooo often. Lumiere is a paint, but it acts like a dye in that it soaks in very well, leaving just a bit of tactile feel.

This is a God box. (If you never heard of a God box: When you have a concern, you can write it down and put it in the box, as a way of giving it into God’s care.) I used Jacquard Products Pearl Ex mixed with varnish to coat an old funky metal file-card box. I had created a beaded leaf (my design, far as I can remember) ages ago, but couldn’t find the right use for it until I glued it onto my God box. The lace is a scrap from a white vintage place mat that I dyed green with Dye-na-Flow (yes, I am a Jacquard Products freak). Then I mixed Pearl Ex colors with Colorless Extender, to paint the scrap with a bit of decoration. Next, I glued pretty material to the top, scrunching up the material as I glued. The final step was adding bones. Two are from little critters who got trapped in an outhouse and died. Um, the bones have been cleaned. I found the third bone in my back yard. A bit of my property is wooded, and there was a deer skeleton there! I think the former owner of this house must have dropped the carcass there after a hunt. It is not that I live on some huge wooded property. In the country, folks often made personal dumping grounds just out back of their house, and still do a bit. 

 I know the combo of femmy décor with bones is weird, but I wanted that because I think the combo is pretty. Also, life is a combo of femmy, bones, and everything else, which seemed perfect for a God box.

I may have made this as far back as late 2010, but I have to share it. I painted a black-t for a friend who was down in the dumps. She hung it on her wall, which made me feel really good. It also spurred me on to frame two of my paintings myself, which was a big step in self-acknowledgement.

I don’t do much intricate, free-form, three-dimensional one-of-a-kind beadweaving anymore. But I designed this piece in exchange for the copyedit of my soon-to-be-book. I used two bones from the aforementioned outhouse. Yeah, it’s a weird necklace. But the women for whom I made it loves bones as much as I do. My goal was a design that spoke of nature’s green, and trees, and bones. Like my woods out back. I also think the necklace is a little humorous; the person for whom I made it likes a joke.

 If you would like an intricate, free-form, three-dimensional one-of-a-kind beadweaving designed especially for you, do contact me. The same goes for painting a T-shirt for you.

Thanks for looking at these!!!