Unfortunately it's really hot and sticky here in eastern Massachusetts. Summer weather decided to (finally) pay us a visit after we've had very cool and rainy weather since spring. My studio is littered with the sweaters I've been redesigning, and it was also pretty warm inside, so I decided to make a small outdoor printing area on our back deck.
It was also hot outside, and thunderstorms are forecasted later in the day, but at least there was moving air. I brought all of my printing supplies outside, along with six pieces of cut cotton fabric that were large enough to cover the white construction fence I wanted to print off of. I donned my 1978 Fabrications (a Boston area fabric store in the 1970's and early 80's) apron, which has been my art uniform for as long as I can remember, and I set up and started printing.
I ended up printing six 30" wide x 60" lengths of fabric with the gridded texture of my new white construction fence, and one smaller piece that I printed through the fence so I got sort of a checkerboard print instead. That piece of fabric will probably be used for my August 12 x 12 x 12, since it's almost time to start working on that. I was going to do three large checkerboards of the fence, but I'm not crazy about how the small piece looked so I stopped. Plus I was dripping in sweat and was rather uncomfortable. I hate being hot.
I didn't want to bring fabric with wet black fabric paint through the house to hang them up to dry, so I hung them from the wooden bars that keep my outdoor umbrella open. Even though it was really humid, they did dry in the breeze.
When the weather started to look threatening, I took them inside to continue to dry, and let the fabric paint set, in my downstairs bathroom. Not very glamorous but it is what it is.
Next step is to iron the fabric to set the paint some more, and then wash it to remove the extra paint. Then I'll be ready to work on these new pieces. I also need to finish painting Orange Construction Fence Series #70, which is almost done and I just noticed I haven't taken any pictures of it in progress yet. Need to do that. When the painting is completed, I'll stitch #70 and also #69 which is ready and waiting. More on all of this soon.
