Friday, April 22, 2011

a most excellent adventure

                                                                                  a piece by artist Bob Adams
I have been immersed in a five day class on how to use chemicals to create designs on textiles -- otherwise known as discharging -- taught by artist Bob Adams at my favorite store, The Quilters' Studio, in Newbury Park.

The idea is to create multiple layers of design, using thiox, monagum, formusol, bleach, and anti-chlor as agents to selectively remove color from fabric. In Bob's piece, pictured above, the grids, freeform lines, and white squares were created by separate processes. 

I tried several different chemicals on one design (a seated female), testing to see how the black cotton discharged:


 Here's a closeup of one:


Another image had a distinctly urban feel, a new style for me, and I ended up liking this the best.


Here is another image, printed on gray canvas:

We all had to wear respirators when we worked with the chemicals, a necessary precaution. As the days passed, we became expert at decoding the muffled sounds of each others' respirator-speak. Just that aspect worked our brains a-plenty (a good thing as we age, eh), and that was an extra added benefit of Bob Adams' most excellent class.
 

2 comments:

Judy Rys said...

I hope you bring your samples to FV tomorrow. The respirator is the main reason I didn't take the workshop. Just can't shake that phobia!

Pamela Price Klebaum said...

Unfortunately, a nasty cold/flu has its grip on me.

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