Love, Lydia - Notes from a geeky, plus sized artist.: October 2014

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Inkodyed Onesies

Hey friends!

So, over the last week I finally got to use the Inkodye that I received in my September Pigment + Palette box.  I'd been itching to use it from the start, but having trouble coming up with ideas for the magenta dye.  Then one of my best friends told me she was having a little girl, so I had the perfect excuse to use the dye!  I got some 100% cotton onesies, just the basic kind, nothing fancy.  And here's how I made the designs.

First off I looked at the instructions and ideas at http://lumi.co/guides/shadow knowing I'd want to try making shadow prints.  Inkodye works a lot like photographic emulsion, so I instinctively knew how I wanted to use the dye, but wanted to get it right the first time since the onesies were a gift.  Out of the 4 I made I think 3 were very successful and the 4th just so-so.  Tell me what you think:


So to make things like these I used some really simply methods and supplies other than the dye and Inkowash (a rinse that essentially removes the active agent in the dye making it light safe).  Things I used:
Painters tape (yep the kind for painting walls, one inch width)
Packing tape
Stencils
A round foam brush
A mini ironing board (any board or easy to move flat surface to lay items on while prepping and setting in the sun)
Some cardboard scraps (put inside the onesies to give a flat surface & prevent dye bleed through)
Scissors
Some old stickers I had
The onesies
A washing machine (hand washing would work too)

The instructions for shadow printing are basically this, put ink on the part of the shirt you want color, the block off the inked section with items that will become your design, or use something like a stencil to guide ink into just the areas you want it.  To facilitate this I used painters tape to tape down the stencils and used the round brush to put on the dye.  Here's a shot before the dye:

 

The stencils are from http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/.  They have some great designs, I recently picked up some of the more versatile ones to use in my collages and other projects:
 


For the heart design I took some old stickers and cut out a heart, put the heart on the shirt then added the dye over it with the brush, to save dye.

Finally for the last and toughest design I cut two portions of film strip to a size that would just overlap my tape box, put down a layer of dye, then used the clear packing tape to fasten the strips down.  This is the only onesie I feel failed, but only because the images in the strip are too hard to make out.  According to the Lumi site film is one the the harder things to print from because it can vary so much, and not be thick enough to black out light where it needs to most.  I also found that the knit of the fabric made the image more obscured as well.  On a silk scarf or other item with a very fine weave it might have worked better.  Since Inkodye works on any natural fabric I may give silk a try in the future, as well as other fabrics too.


As you can see in the second shot the color comes up slowly once the prepped pieces are brought out into the sunlight since the dye in UV reactive.  So here's what the shirts looked like when I first set them out VS 20 minutes later when they were ready to wash.



The final washed versions were given to my friend Saturday at her baby shower.  Here's what they look like close up:


Look for another post soon, I have some art shots, travel reviews, and more on the way!

Love,
Lydia

Thursday, October 23, 2014

National Park Adventure Part 1

Over the past couple months I've managed to have two great encounters with park locations.  Here's a quick write up of the first adventure!

So back on Labor day weekend I was itching to do something as my husband and I visited my family in Richmond, Virginia.  No one was feeling like going too far, so I took Bryan and my dad out to the Maggie L. Walker historic site for a tour.  My mom and I had visited a couple years ago and were highly impressed.  My husband and dad agreed with this opinion once they saw the importance this site has.

Maggie L. Walker was the first female, African American bank founder, and the bank was the longest continuously running African American operated bank in the US, 1903-2009.  Plus she did amazing things in her community through the Order of St. Luke and her connections with other prominent individuals during her lifetime.  The site includes her home as well as several nearby buildings, and her house is a gem among them.  She presented a completely modern, elegant face to the world through her home, which had electricity, indoor plumbing, and eventually an elevator, all before 1930!  It's heartbreaking that Walker isn't better known to the world considering this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to all she did during her lifetime.

This picture is from the NPS site

There's a fantastic virtual tour you can see here at the NPS website, but I recommend a visit in person if you're able!

Next up, I cover some some stretches of the Blue Ridge Parkway I've never visited here in North Carolina.  Plus a blog about some interests that lie closer to home, and updates on art.  Til next time!

Love,
Lydia