Karen Kamenetzky Fiber Art

I just got back from two messy fun days at Judy Dales’ stunning house with the rest of my crit group. We dyed a mountain of silks using acid dyes and microwaves. I learned this technique from my good friend Kris McDermet who dyes wool for her beautiful originally designed contemporary braided and hooked creations.

After spending years dyeing cottons and silks using the usual multi-day laborious procion dye technique-this method give instant gratification!

Me-happily pawing through my newly dyed wet silk

You see the results in minutes and can immediately overdye if you’re not happy. Acid dye gives intense colors on silk. And what you see on the wet silk is very close to the final dried result. This group of women did not shy from some wild experimentation.

Judy Dales measures out organza

Marilyn Gilles squooshes a yard of silk into a teeny container

And  except for the occasional poop colored mistake, the results were spectaculor. I now have 15+ yards of gorgeous silk heaped on my studio table waiting for the iron…

Biodiversity IV finished

I added one more layer of tulle to this piece and decided any more layers would muddy it up. There are parts of this piece I like; the way the cut out tulle creates interesting negative spaces and the subtle shading created by the tulle. I challenged myself to NOT use any orange in this. But I look at it and feel it lacks oomph. Is it the missing flash of orange I crave??

Biodiversity IV detail

This is a smallish piece that I started about a year ago, decided it wasn’t working and stuffed it behind a pile of fabric. I pulled it out last week and  saw potential! I  finished stitching the already fused on cell shapes, added some running hand stitches and sewed on and cut away a layer of tulle.

Biodiversity IV in progress

Biodiversity IV in progress (detail)

It’s layered much like a larger piece I finished last year, Biodiversity III:

Biodiversity III

It’s all about movement, energy and the joyful chaos of life! There’s only one layer of tulle “web” on it now but I’ll add one or two more. I’m using Judy Dales’ brilliant method of cutting away unwanted areas of tulle with a seam ripper. Works like magic!

I’m just finishing the third smaller piece and haven’t yet found a way to mount them that I’m happy with. I first tried white stretched canvas-blah. I may possibly return to that idea but paint the canvas. I mounted two of them on black foam core but I don’t like the color or how easily foam core gets it’s corners smooshed.
So today I’m bringing the three pieces to my local art store and will see if I can find a perfectly colored and textured mat board home for each of them.