Signs of Spring, New Stencil

I have been looking for signs of spring on my daily walk.

Could it be a sign?

view to the northwest

I’m working on some new stencils. Here’s the first one, purple coneflower. Cut from Shibugami paper, which smells delicious and cuts beautifully. Next step is lacquering the stencil per John Marshall’s non-toxic method. I will wait to lacquer until all my designs are ready. Today I make rice paste in preparation for some experiments on my chosen cloth.

 

purple coneflower

Creating a spiral

Beginning this project, I wanted to use some of the many small dyed and printed pieces, which I had also used in the 3 two-layered pieces (Symmetry, Remembered Contours, Matrix/Mourning Doves).

Working with the the golden spiral I hand-pieced two rectangles to approximate the geometry of this fascinating form. Fabric is so forgiving of the imprecise!

Growth through self-accumulation

and another….

Finding the eye

I created a stencil tracing the line of the spiral with a series of dots getting smaller and smaller (using my Japanese punch), and then both discharged and rice paste resisted the pattern; with a wash of turquoise dye paint in between. The mis-registration of the stencil created little mini-lunar eclipses and double-dots.