From My Studio At Paradise Cove

Irish Oats

2011-11-06T16:57:00.000-08:00

I've been playing in my fiber studio!

Irish Oats colorway ... felted hat and scarf.

Enjoy!

Earthly Joys and Natural Wonders....

2010-10-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

I am still finding myself drawn to fiber art...and combining it in with my jewelry to make a statement...

Enjoy!

Deb

Thowing Some Wool Around...

2010-09-20T20:55:00.000-07:00

My First Wet Felted Scarf ...merino and mohair...

"Harvest Dance"

Enjoy!

Deb

"Fossils" Big Hole Bead Pendant...

2010-04-20T12:11:00.000-07:00

Did you ever let a gallery have a piece of your art work to sell and then really hope that it didn't? This was one for me...I'm glad to have it back ...

Enjoy!

Deb

A new jewelry photo...

2010-04-09T09:09:00.000-07:00

A wrap around ring with garnet cabochon and Keum Boo accent...

Enjoy!

Deb

Ammonite Earrings...

2010-04-08T09:30:00.001-07:00

I thought I would post a photo of these...I made them last fall, but never got a good photo of them before...

I layered a small molded silver ammonite over a slice of a real ammonite fossil and a textured silver circle and made a pair of sterling silver earwires to hold it all together....

Here's a photo of the back of one of them so you can see how the earwires are shaped.

Enjoy!

Deb

Adventures in Color...Tints, Tones and Shades....

2010-02-04T12:22:00.000-08:00

Tints are a pure color mixed with white (or diluted with water for our dyeing purposes). Tones are color mixed with gray and shades are color mixed with black. By mixing the colors with gray or black I achieved the earthier, muted colors that I am interested in working with.

I made many mixtures of warm blue-violet with water, gray (10% black and 90% water) and black dye.

After making many yarn test samples I came up with mixtures that gave me the colors I was looking for.

I made test dye samples for several more colors, added them to my color wheels with notes on the porportions of color, water and black dye.....

….and then it was play time!!

"Moss"

Blue Faced Leicester wool, Mulberry silk and firestar

"Blueberries"

Merino wool, Mulberry silk and angelina

"Boysenberries"

Merino, angora, silk and angelina

I am very happy with the batts I made with the fiber from my first hand mixed dye experiments. The "Boysenberries" colorway is exactly what I wanted for a shawl that I have been planning for myself. I'm going to have to dye up a large batch of fiber and I know I can match the color again ... I have the recipes on my color wheel cards! Then I'm going to spin it up and crochet myself a lovely shawl...and I'm already thinking of designs for the shawl pin I'll make to go with it...something with silver and amethyst I think....

Enjoy!

Deb

Adventures in Color...Making the Color Wheels...

2010-02-02T12:21:00.000-08:00

Now for the fun part! It's time to dye some fiber samples...

My dyeing set up

I cut 1 to 2 yard lengths of an undyed wool yarn and soaked them in a mixture of water with a few drops of Synthrapol (a wtting agent - it allows the wool to soak up the water) and a small sprinkle of citric acid (you can use white vinegar instead – I don't like the smell).

I placed a piece of the yarn on a small square of plastic wrap and added enough dye to completely wet it.

I wrapped up the plastic wrap around the yarn and placed it in a small canning jar which I had previously numbered from 1 to 10 with a Sharpie marker.

I kept track of which color went into which jar in my dyeing journal.

I put the 10 canning jars on the turntable of my old microwave (IMPORTANT! Keep a separate set of utensils, pots, jars, etc. for dyeing...NEVER use them again for food preparation).

I microwaved the jars with the wrapped yarn for 3 minutes. There was a lot of popping sounds (like making microwave popcorn) as the plastic wrap expanded with the heat.

I let the wrapped yarn cool (they were VERY hot!) and then removed the plastic wrap and rinsed any excess dye out in clean water.

To keep my colors from getting mixed up while they were drying I punched holes in a piece of cardstock and labeled the holes for each color.

When the yarns were all dry I made up color wheels; one each for the warm and the cool palettes. I cut 1 ½ by 5 ½ pieces of card stock, punched a hole in one end and labeled it with the color.

I taped one end of the yarn to the cardstock and then wrapped the yarn around it 6 or 7 times, pulled the end of the yarn under the wraps and secured it with a half hitch knot. I repeated this for all of the yarns and placed then on metal rings (hardware store...usually near where the make keys).

And here are the two color wheels (or fans)...

Coming soon...tints, tones and shades...

Enjoy!

Deb

Adventures in Color...Tertiaries

2010-01-31T12:20:00.000-08:00

The Tertiary Colors are combinations of one primary color and one secondary color:
Yellow-Orange
Red-Orange
Red-Violet
Blue-Violet
Blue-Green
Yellow-Green

I mixed 150 ml (½ cup) of the primary and secondary colors for both the warm and cool palettes, giving me 12 more colors to work with.

Coming soon...dyeing and making a sample color wheel.

Enjoy!

Deb

Whoo Hooo!

2010-01-29T12:23:00.000-08:00

by Deb Fitz...that would be me :)

Adventures in Color...Primaries and Secondaries

2010-01-20T12:18:00.000-08:00

I decided to use Jacquard Acid Dyes for my wool dyeing needs. They are readily available, easy to use and produce beautiful, brilliant colors. By choosing to mix my own colors from the primaries (blue, yellow and red) and then use black to create tones and shades of the pure colors, I only have to purchase 6 colors of dye to produce an almost unlimited palette of colors for my dyeing needs.

Supplies:

Jacquard Acid Dyes - 2 half ounce containers of Yellow Sun-601; 1 half ounce container each of Cherry Red-617, Turquoise-624, Brilliant Blue-623, Fire Red-618, Jet Black - 639
Containers for dye: 6 - 32 ounce, 6 - 16 ounce, 12 - 8 ounce
(I recommend the plastic ones from Dharma Trading)
Particle mask
Rubber Gloves
Notebook and Pencil
Puppy Training Pads (really!)
Glass Measuring Cups
Small Plastic Bathroom Cups
Plastic Funnel
Gram Scale and/or Plastic Measuring Spoons
Sharpie Marker
Labels
Bamboo Skewers for mixing (inexpensive, disposable and planet friendly)
Old Clothes to wear while mixing and dyeing

Safety Precautions:
Always wear a particle mask when handling the dry dye powder.
Wear rubber gloves while hadling powders and liquid dye.

Jacquard produces two sets of primary colors; one to make "warm" colors and the other to make "cool" colors.

The Warm Palette consists of:
Yellow Sun
Cherry Red
Turquoise

The Cool Palette consists of:
Yellow Sun
Fire Red
Brilliant Blue

I use the metric system (grams and milliliters) to measure my water and dyes. You can use teaspoons and ounces if you like, the amounts are close enough for dyeing purposes.

Mixing the Primary Colors:

I cover my work are with a puppy training pad, absorbant side up. It absorbs liquid spills and makes it easy to take care of any spilled dye powder.

To make a 1% dye solution of the primary colors measure 10 grams (4 tsp) dye powder into a small plastic bathroom cup (wear a particle mask and rubber gloves while handling the dye powders).

Transfer the dye powder into a small glass measuring cup. Put 500 ml (2 cups) of water into a larger glass measuring cup and microwave on high for 3 minutes. Add about 100 ml (1/4 cup) hot water to the dye powder and stir until the powder dissolves (the yellow dye powder is diffucult to get into solution; it helps to use boiling water and keep stirring until no clumps remain).

Use the plastic funnel to transfer the dissolved dye to a 32 ounce container. Rinse the remaining dye in the small measuring cup with more hot water from the large cup and transfer to the large dye container. Add the rest of the hot water to the dye container. Microwave another 500 ml (2 cups) of water and add to the dye container. Mix well (I use a long bamboo skewer), cap and lable.

Hint: Using the puppy training pads make it easy to handle spilled dye powder...

Just wet it down with a wet paper towel and allow to dry...

Mixing the Secondary Colors:

The secondary colors (green, violet and orange) are made by mixing two of the primary colors.
For the Warm Palette secondaries:
Warm Green = Yellow Sun + Turquoise
Warm Orange = Yellow Sun + Cherry Red
Warm Violet = Cherry Red + Turquoise

For the Cool Palette secondaries:
Cool Green = Yellow Sun + Brilliant Blue
Cool Orange = Yellow Sun + Fire Red
Cool Violet = Fire Red + Brilliant Blue

To make 500 ml (2 cups) of the secondaries use 250 ml (1 cup) of each of the primaries.

Hint: It is not good for the environment to put the dyes down a drain. I use a bucket about half full of water to rinse the cups and spoons as I use them, rinsing each piece as used in the same water again and again in the same bucket of water and then giving a final rinse in the sink after almost all of the dye has been washed off in the bucket. It is easy to recover the dye from the bucket later with some scrap woolen fiber.

Coming soon....Mixing the Tertiary Colors.

Enjoy!

Deb

Fiber Art...

2009-12-29T12:26:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm a happy camper...Mike gave me a spinning wheel for Christmas!

Taffy was closely inspecting the alpaca fibers in my basket...

I spent an evening with the spinning group at the Allyn Knit and Spin Shop and was surprised at how quickly they were able to teach me how to spin my own yarn! Working with fiber is something I can do that is fairly easy on my hands and knees...I crochet using a very large hook...it's a very relaxing pastime for a winter night.

Here is a photo of my first finished work using yarn that I spun myself...

I spun the yarn for the top part of the crocheted hat from merino and silk fiber. The rolled brim of the hat was spun from rambouillet wool from here in Washington : ). I felted the nuno scarf with the same merino and silk that I used in the hat. I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out...they are so soft and warm!

Enjoy!

Deb