Encaustic Myths. More encaustic and stitching..

Book front cover

I showed some of my stitched encaustic pieces in a group show in October and received a lot of encouragement to continue in this direction. So I designed covers for a unique hand made book of my husband's long narrative poem about Theseus and the Minotaur. From there I created some other mythic pieces.  I used cotton muslin that had been variously dyed in compost, rust or onion skins, and added inkjet printed imagery, some of which was then stitched or embellished with copper wire, metallic thread or upholstery thread. The pieces were finished with encaustic medium. The Atalanta pieces included collaged elements. Frames were made out of birch wood boxes, painted and sealed.

2 versions of "Atalanta" . Fabric dyed with onion skins with photo transfer and encaustic collaged elements.

2 versions of "Ceres". Fabric is compost dyed. One includes hand and machine embroidery in metallic thread and upholstery thread.

Icarus. Rust dyed fabric, photo transfer and encaustic medium.

The Labyrinth, with crocheted and couched fine copper wire on compost dyed fabric, glazed with encaustic medium.

Book back cover. Rust dyed cover with couched copper wire and encaustic medium.

Front and back book covers.

 Use of images in this series in accordance with copyright of the Trustees of the British Museum.

Rust Dye plus Stitching plus Encaustic

I have a fascination with the shapes and textures I see in rural barns and outbuildings. While planning  a fabric piece called  "Mended Barns" (more about this in another post) I started researching how I might capture the distinctive rusty patterns that develop in steel roofs and siding. There are numerous online resources on rust dyeing, but I found Kimberley Baxter Packwood's website and e-book most informative.

The move from rail to road transportation has meant the demise of the railroad. Many have been converted to walking and biking trails. Over the years I've walked a rail trail near my home, every time finding some rusted treasure: bolts and spikes and all kinds of metal objects that held the rail lines together. I have a big bucket of lovely rusty objects. I must have known that I'd find a use for them one day.

Canyon Study, 2009

My first experiments didn't generate anything that I'd use with "Mended Barns" but my results brought another one of my recurring themes to mind: petroglyphs, pictographs and ancient places of power. Here are two of my 2009 collagraph prints made after a memorable trip to the Grand Canyon:

Shamans' Gallery, 2009

And here are the first rust dyed, stitched and encaustic pieces:

Rust dyed cotton muslin

"Cedar Breaks"
Hand stitched and encaustic on hardboard substrate

Rust dyed cotton muslin, partially stitched

"Spirit Boat"
Hand stitched and encaustic on hardboard substrate

This may be the start of a series!