Wednesday, April 2, 2014

CAROL SODERLUND visited Kingston March 21-23rd and her students had a great time, with many success stories to take away.....


Denise Leduc with her disperse printed collage

The weekend of March 21-23 found 18 enthusiastic students gathered at the Odessa Fairgrounds Hall to share in a three-day dye printing adventure with CAROL SODERLUND from Geneva, NY. Carol was in Kingston for a first visit to Eastern Ontario to share her TRANSFORMATIONS  workshop using Disperse Dyes as the colouring choice for cloth, and sponsored by our FIBREWORKS KINGSTON WEEKEND WORKSHOPS SERIES.

A huge amount of supply baggage was in Carol's car as she arrived at the workshop site, and Instructor host and very important FW team member DIANE HOGAN had made Carol very welcome in her lovely home for the weekend. Diane was a great sport carrying tote after tote and helping to set up all of Carol's supplies.

The workshop got underway with an almost three hour talk about the use of the disperse products and Carol's recommended PRO TRANSPERSE dyes for Synthetics from Pro Chemical and Dye in Massachusetts. Students received a nice overview of the many products Carol uses for her transfer dyeing processes and the tools required for the work. An "iron off" station set up was established in the hall, and much paper painting, design play and "ironing off"work got underway!
Carol in Kingston with a great group of her samples

The weekend included many tips along the way, and while every step was not a perfect experiment, the small lessons learned about the intensity and concentrations of the dyes and the amount of dye added to the papers before printing, using both thickened print paste and the dyes straight from the bottle after dilution was the foundation the students needed to make this type of print work an important part of their fibre work for the future. The students were "dye-hard" in their focus on printing, making marks in the dye painted papers, using stamps, Thermofax screens, and more as they prepared their work for the final reveal. Here are a few more photos:

Work underway... the fun begins
Ann Fales and Linda Coulter hard at work
Debra Krakow created awesome papers and prints
Ann and Linda comparing notes and some samples/ ready for print papers
What an array of work by Shoshana Teitleman
Diane Hogan "ironing off" - respirators required
Kit Vincent - a great sport and very successful Print Maker

All in all, a terrific weekend and so many thanks to the students, many who drove in from LONG distances to participate as Carol brought her skills and techniques to life in this third workshop of our 2013/14 Series of Weekend Workshops. Much commitment and understanding for the unpredictable variables in this type of work were demonstrated by the students. Thanks to Pat Caffery for all of her help she provided to Bethany over the weekend, and for the great job by all of the participants in keeping the torrent of papers and paints/dyes under control (almost all) for the weekend.

Carol shared her machine free motion skills and tips with a group of avid fans
On the third day, the printed pieces were sorted, pressed, selected for inclusion in a few small pieces to be layered and machine quilted as samples from this course with Carol. The intensive machine stitching demonstration was invaluable to the students who participated and the many tips and tricks that Carol uses in creating her own work will stay with her students for a long time.

THANKS CAROL for an inspiring and fun-filled workshop weekend. 

Please follow Carol and her Workshops Calendar at her website "LIVING COLOR" at:
 http://www.carolsoderlund.com/workshops-and-lectures/workshops/


Hope to see many of you at our next workshop series with PENNY BERENS 
 May 16-18 and May 20-21, 2014.
See the Workshops #4 and #5 listings on the sidebar to the right here at the blog.