take my batik work further and further

It’s been just over a year since I added this goal and it is still happening. I find looking back to be pretty damn interesting…

But all the same, onward with the Art Challenge goal…

Finally found someone kicking my ass in a way I appreciate.

Their website sucks (even in my need-to-be-fixed state I got you there, though our bio’s could do good battle), but they are featured over here at good ol’ Dharma.

This artist are also doing alot more handpainting with thickened dye, which gives control, that I have tried.

Something I have yet to really start doing.

I need to do that…

No pictures to show yet, but in preparation for a busy August (a show at my studio, then participation in the Glenwood Art Fest, and then maybe Renegade Craft Fest in September…) I declared June to be ‘prototype’ month, where I try out new and interesting things, while July will be ‘production’ month, where I concentrate more on making small batches of the prototypes.

This is totally fun.

And despite being super busy and finally doing an inventory and then finally actually making new stuff this year (including long overdue shirt for JudithKD) I decided to also rearrange my studio space yesterday, literally sawing my desk in half. I be crazy.

...but this batik will involve more than pretty much any other shirt I’ve done so far. It almost seems odd to call it batik, really, but mixed-media seems a little high-falootin’ to me.

Can’t wait to grab a moment to take this item a little further down the road to completion.

I like this one. Little samurai face just below the collar of a women’s cut shirt, pink and lavender, with some hand painted touches.

I took a few extra steps and tried a few new methods to achieve this result and I was pleased with the whole deal. I also tried a little bit of a production run (total of six originally pink shirts that were left over from my original breast cancer idea that sorta flopped) before I even had the prototype all the way through. Confidence or foolishness?

It was also pretty well received at the studio show last weekend, and I sold a few, which is also very pleasing…

It points in a whole bunch of new directions, though, as the whole batik thing continues to be really, really interesting.

(they still photograph fer crap though, getting moire patterns and the colors are always off…sigh…)