Beautiful Day

It was a beautiful day at the Spring Garden Festival this year, this is quickly becoming a favorite show for me. What's not to love, being surrounded by luscious plants for the day, and many faithful returning customers. A very fast paced busy day, with just enough breaks to get a quick look around(buy a few plants), and peak into the Corvallis Art Center

On a side note I am trying to return contact with an anonymous commenter, Blogger email is no-reply. So if you recently commented and was trying to reach me check the comments where you posted please ( Marcie I left my contact info for you) Hope you find this :)

Spring Garden Festival

Previous years pictures at the Spring Garden Festival



Fern

Pile of Rasps

One by one , heat, bent, shape, grind....

My biggest fear, I hope it doesn't turn out like a Christmas tree!

I just couldn't help myself. After I was all finished shaping the fern, I had to make a Rust print! 

 

Yeah it turned out!

So let me know if it looks like a Fern, please don't tell me if you think it looks like a Christmas tree :)

 

Spring Garden Festival Time in Corvallis

Spring Garden Festival

Come see me on Sunday May 1st

Grandpa Kenny "Green"

Growing up we had a color called "Grandpa Kenny Green". OK, it is really just green . But when I was young my Grandpa Kenny bought a 50 gallon barrel of green paint at a surplus auction. I remember many of Grandpa's inventions being painted with that paint, many vehicles, tractors and other welded shop creations. Well recently he cleaned out his shop and gave me some scrap metal, including this old shop stove, which you guessed it, was painted with the infamous green paint.

Well I was thinking about just sending it to the scrap pile, but as you know if anything sits here for very long a bright idea will pop into my mind. I started wondering if that green paint would survive the cutting and grinding and welding process. If I cut big enough pieces it preserved some of the paint in the center, it is very chalky and rubs off on my gloves, but we will see....

After refilling the Oxygen cutting torch tank twice( it is small), and many days of practicing my cutting skills. This is the perfect kind of work that doesn't matter, to practice on. I finally have a big enough pile to start using.

Next hours....days of grinding and cleaning the edges.

                                     

I get to put the puzzle pieces back together. I used a giant stainless steel bowl for a form and start tacking the pieces together, easy to start with, and little trickier as the open spaces got smaller, I had to grind a few custom pieces to fit.

                      
                                                 

YEP!, Turned out just how I wanted it to. Thanks Grandpa for the old green stove.

 

Time to fire it Up

 I am gearing up for a Spring of Welding , These are some "piles" that inspire me, some of  this stuff will never end up in a piece of art. But I just cant get rid of these things, they are so cool. They give me "ideas" even if they are left out of the final piece.

But this little face is destined to be used, he is so cute.

My Harlan Valley Quilters Challenge

Challenge fabric! So Juicy, It took me many months to finally decide what to make. I knew I wanted to use my new textile paints. I looked at many different ideas over the months;  flowers, journals, or a 3-dimensional project. But I had a suspicion that one of my "challenge mates" was making some flowers( ha ha I was right!, click here to check it out)

Here is another link to the Harlan Valley Quilters a slide show of our challenge presentation and holiday lunch.

Painting

So here is my Inspiration. I wanted to try out these 3-D houses, I had seen on this blog , and I already like "houses" see my rustic houses previously posted, Hmmmm with some photo transfers threw in the mix, my new textile paints, the great background fabric, and some other mixed media supplies (hand cut stamps, painted dryer sheets, Arizona ice tea can).

It was soooo fun to paint this whole cloth, I did lightly outline the freezer paper templates I had made for the house, so important parts of the painting would be placed properly

Construction

I left strips of the painting in between the cut out pieces to use later for the binding.

Here are the walls of the house.

Next I fused the pieces to the heaviest double-sided fusible interfacing I could find, I found Peltex 

Next photo transfer with gel medium

Spread a thin layer of gel on the cutout photo, press onto the fabric and let dry.

 After the gel drys you will peel and rub layers of the paper off, dampen rub, let dry, repeat, when it drys if it looks whiteish that means there are still paper fibers, rub some more. I use a old battery powered tooth brush to blast the last bits off ( don't go to crazy the transfer will start peeling) 

     

Another tip for this transfer process is be aware it is transparent so you will see what is behind the picture. Also I always do some tests with different kind of printer paper and ink, if the kind you use first doesn't work try a different paper. I have to use a heavyweight matte presentation paper (Epson), with my printer.

Strips layed out ready to trim and fuse

           

                

Remember the strips I saved between the cutout walls, I  fused them and trimmed to match up with the branch's on the walls. I did use a sheet of parchment to protect the iron and painting.

This is the inside with photo transfer, fused and reinforcement strips .

The window cut outs will allow the photos to be viewed.

 Next the roofing -












I used a flour paste resist to crackle and paint the roof.

Love it!!!

                   

I get to use my new wavy cutter for the roof edges.

Top stitched  and thread painted the binding strips to blend the branches  

This small travel iron worked great to fuse the last wall joint.

Inside

Glued the roof on with gel medium and a heavy book to keep tight while it drys.

Finished house