Feb custom 2 - butterfly garden

my much overdue 2nd custom for last month is still a work in progress.
Here is the butterfly, needs outline and antennas. Some flowers will be along the bottom of the shirt. Hand painted with artist quality acrylics and hand dyed with two tones of pink fibre reactive dyes.
The original mock design had the butterfly with a black background, but I felt it was too over powering and a bit punk, so went with gold. Gives it a fairy feel.

forest set

I finished this set for my son today. I have been wanting to sew the pants for ages, but needed to get my overlocker serviced. It works perfectly now. It was a bargain off ebay.

Hand stenciled navy tee with cobra design (I make my own stencils from waste plastic from my own consumption), and hand sewn pants from my own pattern.

The fabric is my favourite in a long time, espcially with the gold fern detail all over the dyed background. It is a quilter's cotton, so holds the wide-leg shape of the pants well.

my 1st quilting effort

This is my first attempt at quilting.
The panel will be for a handbag. The pieces are really small 5cms (2.5 inches) but it looks quite good close up. The stripe fabric will also line the bag. I'm thinking to do some freestyle quilting pattern in maybe a yellow thread over the patchwork, but am not quite sure yet if it will work/look good, or even if I can do freestyle quilting as I have never tried it.

Feb custom 1 - giraffe

the first of my February customs is nearly finished. It is a giraffe, here is a work in progress pic. Still needs some detailed love, but I am really happy with the dip dyed colours. Have an idea of something extra to add, but may not yet, depends how the detail comes up.

Buddhist script

This tee has been listed at Ozebaby for auction.
It features the Buddhist mantra "Om mani padme hum" hand stenciled on the front in fibre reactive dyes. I have also dyed the tee is a marble effect to resemble old paper or a carved stone. I have hand made the stencil out of waste plastics from around the home.
I love this, not only because I have some attraction to Lord Buddha, but because it embodies more meaning and substance than anything I have made for my business in a while. I get so sick of doing cutesy stuff that has no deeper meaning, especially as I wouldn't paint it on a canvas, why am I on shirts???

I am having a break from stenciling with dye for a while as it is a very touchy medium to work with, by nature being liquid, it likes to run. It can also back dye whilst rinsing and can destroy a piece I have spent literally days on in a few seconds.
It really isn't worth it for me at this time.
Hope those who have some hand stenciled pieces appreciate them, although they will never really understand the work that has gone in to them.

soft velour

I dyed this cotton velour up the other day while i contemplate what to make with it.
It dyed really nicely, I'm happy with the result as I was a bit spontaneous with it. I think it has this real fairy quality to it, so I will use it accordingly.

the great art debate

...so I have been thinking about art heaps, and the definition of art and how loosely the tern is used. I should be studying education (which is what I am actually doing currently at uni, but it is soooo boring!).
Is there a real definition of art? or is it dependent on the user as to what art is? i would say advertising is art, yet others say a car is art.

So, according to Wiki, "The term art is most widely used to describe a particular type of production generated by human beings." So then, both the car and advertising in th previous example would be art.
And again from Wiki, "The denotation art implies some degree of aesthetic value, regardless of any practical value of the art in question." So, the eye of the beholder does come into the picture, some see aesthetic value in cars, others advertising.

As Wiki is doing great in this discussion, "Art is that which is made with the intention of stimulating the human senses as well as the human mind and or spirit.".
But, "Something is not considered 'art' when it stimulates only the senses, or only the mind, or when it has a different primary purpose than doing so."

So this is exactly what I am thinking! Calling a car art may show that the caller appreciates the car on a deeper level than we might, but the primary purpose of the car, to drive rather than be an art piece, would include it into the category of not being art.

Enough from Wiki for now.

For me - art appreciates in value. Yet I have been calling some of my hand painted pieces art. They may appreciate in value, but the fact that the sewing will fall apart before the paint does means it cannot keep appreciating in value like the great works of Cezanne or Matisse.

Therefore, I think the only true (in my opinion) wearable pieces of art are those that are on display or have been worn once (which equates to an exhibition), like works by Versace etc. Therefore I am either going to stop calling my painted tees are (because that has to be pure ego LOL) or I am going to paint pieces worthy of being hung on a wall.

Hope you have enjoyed my ramblings.... more to come.

new auctions

I finally finished the bilby, right in time for Easter! I do love painting Australian animals, we have the most amazing animals in the world. Hand dyed and painted tee.
And this box jellyfish has been floating around in my head for ages, glad to have it out.
I need to get better photos of it. It is the most gorgeous rainbow colours flat (I do love rainbows), but when the light catches it, the colours glow. Hand dyed and painted tee.

Going live for auction @ Ozebaby in the next few days.

some current favourites

these are some of my current favourites during my uninspired phase.
This tee is hand dyed with various shades of pink. I like it because it is pink but doesn't have that cutesy factor that many modern girl's clothing has (and I find distasteful). I call this tee 'Pink Cloud'.

And this has always been my favourite stenciled piece. I have made a few of these, this one is the most recent. There is just something so simplistic about it. I made these stencils out of waste plastic from my own consuming and have hand cut them with a box cutter. Now I have a better knife LOL. I use a unique tying method (my own) to make the background reminiscent of bamboo. The panda and bamboo is then stenciled onto the tee with dye. Stenciling with dye is a pain staking process because it is liquid and likes to run. I am over caring for perfection otherwise I would give myself a nervous breakdown.