RUSTING WITH DELIGHT

  This  month it is my turn to write about what we did.  I showed the group how to use iron powder to create rust exactly where we want it instead of the randomness of using rusted metals.  

  Before the meeting I mixed iron powder with sodium alginate creating thickened iron powder.  The first thing that we did was to screen the mixture onto fabric.  Some brought white fabric and others brought patterned fabric, giving us a variety of results.

Kathleen Malvern screening her first piece.

Sandra Hoefner and Angela Kenley intent on their project.

Jan Warren making her checkerboard prints.

The next step was to lightly spray our prints with a salt, vinegar, and water mixture  and be PATIENT while waiting for the chemical reaction to start.

Jan's checkerboard piece.

Sandra and her famous ladies.

And Jan's second piece,  more abstract.

Susan Strickland and her first piece.

 Angela,s tree, unfortunately backlit by the window.

Suzanne  Barnhart's piece screened on this great blue-green fabric.

And Suzanne, hiding behind her chickens.

Susan with her favorite crows.

Kathleen seems to be hiding.  She also did a screen on black fabric which I'm eager to see after it has had a chance to "rust" a little longer.

Before coming to the meeting I took a piece of fabric that I had painted in Mickey Lawler's class and did some screen printing on it with screen printing ink  and thermofax screen.

Then I added this fence with the rusting mixture.  The colors are somewhat different in person.  The group thought was that it looked like a park in Paris.  Sounds good to me.

This process can be used on paper as well, creating some interesting pieces for anyone doing mixed media.

All in all, a great learning experience, for me as well as for everyone else.  Now the challenge will be to use this technique in one of our upcoming group challenges.

The formulas and techniques that we used were from an article in Quilting Arts Magazine, Controlled Rusting by Barbata Triscari, O/N 2013.  

Anyone with questions can contact me at  gjeneve@gmail.com