Patchwork Show Santa Ana

Today was Patchwork's Spring Show in Santa Ana, California. Here are a few shots of my booth set up and some of the new shibori dyed items I had for sale. (I share a booth so this is my half)

We had a corner spot!

A view down the table.

New shibori dyed zip cosmetic bags.

New shibori dyed silk scarves for sale

New Tiny Press

I purchased this mini printing press, a Baltimore 11, on Ebay back in 2014 for a song (not really a song since I can't carry a tune, but a very good price). It was affordable because it was missing an ink plate and rollers. It took me 2 years to find the parts.

First, rollers were purchased at the LA printer's fair from Ramco Roller. The owner, Adrian Ramos, kindly took a set off one of his presses because it was a perfect match. The ink disc was a harder fix because it had to be made from scratch and I had nothing to go by but the model number. Everyone at the Printer's Fair said "talk to Dave" meaning the wonderful Dave Churchman. I contacted Dave in Indiana and even though he had just gotten out of the hospital, he jumped on my project. He had an Amish machinist make me a disc and after a few stem adjustments (FYI, a Baltimore 11 does not use the same ink disc as a Sigwalt 11!), a perfect fit. My little press is all set and ready to go.

My regular press is a Kelsey tabletop and this one as about 1/3 the size. So cute!

The Baltimore 11 press was made from the late 1800's to the early 1900's. Mine has it's original black and gold paint. You can read a little history at briarpress.org here.

Shibori Fun

I decided to try my hand at Shibori - a Japanese method of fabric dyeing that involves pleating and binding the fabric to create the design. Mine is very basic but was a lot of fun to do and fairly easy.  I had some cotton scarf blanks to play with and looked up some methods online. (Sorry I can't give a source but I researched weeks ago and looked at a variety of instructional websites and then winged it).  After folding and pleating the fabric in a variety of ways, I kept everything in place using rubber bands, string and binder clips (the black metal ones from the office supply store). I used RIT dye and followed the directions. Since I didn't want to risk dyeing our sink or washing machine, I bought a large pot at the Goodwill and did it on the stove top. This worked really well and there was no mess. After I washed out the dye, everything looked really solid blue and I was a little worried about my technique. After cutting the string and releasing the binder clips I was amazed at the patterns that emerged. I call it a success!

My first attempt at shibori!

Each pattern comes out differently.

My only regret is that I didn't leave the plastic gloves on until after I had cut the strings and hung everything to dry. My finger tips are a bit blue!

Exciting New Project!

I've been working on a new project that I'm very excited about.  I've been wanting to print some scarves for awhile but have been having trouble finding an affordable way to do it. Out of the blue, I was invited to submit some designs to a newish (launched November 2015) website called shopvida.com which makes a variety of scarves and tops from artists' designs. The site features all kinds of designers - photographers, painters, printers, etc - and manufactures their designs as custom, print-on-demand products. The company is based in San Francisco and manufactures mainly in Southeast Asia. A portion of the proceeds go towards a literacy program for the makers.

You can check out the site here (http://shopvida.com), or my page here (http://shopvida.com/collections/voices/victoria-cole). I've just ordered some product which I will show as soon as I receive it. Below are a few of my first designs offered for sale.

Mid Century Mosaic Scarf

Mod Dots Scarf

In the City Scarf

In the City Top

Winter Leaves Top