Five Layers of Texture

Combining crocheted hemp, a digital print on cheesecloth skin and 3 digital prints on lutradur this piece will be assembled using beads and silk yarn.  The print is the same, although there are differences in the printing of the different surfaces.  The bottom layer of the piece will be crocheted hemp and the other 4 layers will be assembled using beads as spacers to separate and add depth to the layers.  Once the top layers of lutradur are completely assembled with the cheesecloth and hemp a heat gun will be used to melt out other sections of the lutradur.  This allows the cheesecloth skin to show through and changes the configuration of the lutradur texture.

Textures on Digital Overprinted Skin

The textures for this digital overprint on a skin came from both the skin that had elements added when it was created and the digital image printed on the skin.  This skin is constructed with pieces of leaves and thread that are imbedded in the gel medium of the skin.  Clear Matte Precoat from inkAID is used for the precoat before printing.

Skin base

Digitally printed skin

Details of the skin print- some of the texture is from the texture of the printed image.  The rest of the texture is from the leaves and thread.

Art Fest 2011-Layered 3d Collage

On April 8, 2011 I will be at ArtFest  teaching - Layered 3D Collage.  This workshop will be full of all sorts of ideas on building layers and 3D elements.  One of the way I use little pieces of layers, textures, 3D elements and the like are in my journals.  This is an example of a journal that has been in the works for awhile and I have just finished the cover by finally putting it all together.  I love these things because they have all sorts of neat, fun pieces in them.  The journal is a little thick, but it always seems I like it that way.

You can get more information about my workshop Layered 3D Collage and also another one I will be teaching- Printing Alternative Surfaces by visiting the links above.  Click on the workshop titles in this post.

Some of the materials used are- digital prints on recycled beverage cans, cheesecloth skins,
an assortment of papers, buttons, beads, applique, what ever digital prints I found in my studio scraps and more.

Textured Lutradur in Melted Layers

As my work exhibits more and more textures, some of the surfaces, that are my favorites to print, evolve as I use them.  This section of lutradur has a watercolor paper base and the lutradur has been melted with a heat gun.  Two different pieces of lutradur have been used for the effect.  Then beads have been strung on 6 strands of embroidery thread and crocheted into short pieces that weave in and out of the melted lutradur.
Beads are also used as spacers to separate the layers of lutradur.  The lutradur section appears first in the pictures, followed by the finished piece.

Melted lutradur, embroidery thread, beads

Detail

Materials 

Digital prints on canvas, lutradur, wire mesh, beverage cans, watercolor paper and vellum

Encaustic, dyed burlap, dyed canvas, metalic thread, crochet hemp, beads

Materials

Digital prints on lutradur, watercolor paper, vellum and crinkle paper

beads, embroidery thread, metalic thread

Texture with Digital Prints on Beverage Cans

One of my favorite elements to work with are pieces of beverage cans that have been digitally printed.
The surface is beautiful when printed and after cutting the surface and weaving pieces together it has a inviting textural look.  Handling the work has the feeling of chain mail to me.  This piece is small at 29" x 14".

The yarn in the picture is the beginning of the bottom layer.  This layer will be crocheted with the depicted dyed silk yarn.  Yummy stuff this yarn, it's from RedFish DyeWorks.  These girls are great and have beautiful Yarns and fiber.  I met them at the Handweavers Guild of America in Albuquerque this July.  Once this piece is finished, there will be more places in my work to use their fiber. Even thinking of adding some of the silk yarn to the encaustic layers as I experiment with that medium.  See my Encaustic and Digitals post on my KathyAnne Art Blog.

Forest Surfaces 17, 29" x 14"

Digital prints of beverage cans, digital prints on metal mesh,

waxed linen, crocheted fine silk yarn 

Sensual Surfaces

Currently I have some work in a fiber show at the Phoenix Airport Museum. The show is in Terminal 4 and my work is at both ends of the terminal. While these may not be the pieces in the exhibition, they are from the same series. The top layer of the pieces are digital prints on alternative surfaces. The layers underneath are textural in nature and there are around 5 layers stacked throughout the pieces. Once the pieces are stacked they are sewn together with large stitches of embroidery thread. They layers are attached to metal screen for hanging.

These pieces were the beginnings of my foray into digital printing on alternative surfaces.












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Crochet as a Main Textural Element

Crochet is something that appears in my work often.  When I was 7 my mother taught me to make my first ripple afghan.  While the ripples were not exactly in the same place in every row,  it was a great learning experience.  Of course now I know the experience taught me to stay away from patterns and ideas that were measured and you could visually see the mess ups. but when I was 7 it was frustrating and I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get it right.

These textural surface were created with alternative digital prints that have been cut and then crochet has been used.  The first piece (above) has digitally printed beverage cans, strung on thin hemp and randomly crocheted with a double crochet stitch.  The piece measures 5" x 9".

This piece is created with a base of crocheted paper wrapped wire. There is an added element of a cutout of digitally printed watercolor paper with hemp crocheted encasing the cutout.  It measures 4" x 8".

The other part of the watercolor paper cutout from the proceeding piece, was encased in crochet of heavy hemp and mounted on painted board, with a digitally printed cutout on watercolor paper.
It measures 4" x 6".

Digitally Printed Cheesecloth Skins

Last weekend I taught a workshop "Expanding the Digital Print on Uncommon Surfaces", at HGA's Convergence 2010 in Albuquerque New Mexico.  It was a great group and even in the constraints of the short time of the workshop, the class produced some awesome results.  One of my favorites is always the cheesecloth skins.  The spontaneity of the cheesecloth grid creates a wonderful textural surface.

 Cheesecloth skin ready to print

Detail of printed skin

Printed cheesecloth skin

Cheesecloth skins, created to be thin and have the look of it falling apart

Nature's Textures

Texture from nature.  Do you ever stand with nature and look at what is growing around you and marvel at the visual components? And each plant grows with it's colors and pattern and all it's elements time after time.  Amazing!

Randomly Pieced Canvas

As my work grew to embracing more texture, it was enjoyable to use a beefy canvas that was dyed, cut in random strips and sew the strips back together.  This gave me a new fabric to work with that created a more interesting textural surface.  Once the fabric was back together, it was recut and spontaneously sewn into a new composition with raw edges and random shapes.  This piece has been constructed in that fashion, but is not in its final incarnation yet.

Hand dyed canvas attached to canvas with large random stitching