1st Time Screenprinting on Fabric

Here's some work from the 1st Time Screenprinting on Fabric Class. The first day, we created stencils. The work that the students created was beautiful and amazing! If you take a screenprinting class at Lillstreet, you create stencils the 1st day. Stencils are immediate and very gratifying. It's a simple way to create beautiful graphic patterns and designs.

My beginning students are a very talented bunch. Check out their work below!

Rain Out for Lillstreet on WGN

Hey guys,

Typical Chicago weather...muggy, a million degrees, and thunderstorms galore. The Lillstreet demo on WGN is rescheduled for July 14th due to the weather this morning. We were planning on shooting outdoors to highlight fun, creative things to do in Chicago this summer. Hopefully next month the weather will decide to be a little more predictable.

Until then....

Camille Canales

Check Back Tomorrow!!!

Hey all,

Last minute update.  Tomorrow morning around 11:45, Lillstreet will be featured on Chicago's WGN's Midday News.  We will be talking about classes in the summer, featuring ceramic work by David Trost.  I will be there dyeing textiles and displaying my 2008 resident artist flags.  Tune in to check it out!

Check out the Lillstreet Textile's blog tomorrow for a link to the video.

Best,

Camille Canales

www.camillecanales.com

Heads Up on a Great Yard Sale!

Jane Hanna, marketing director at Lillstreet is having a fantastic yard sale this weekend that might be of interest to  many of our blog readers.  Here are the details:

Saturday and Sunday, June 19 & 20, 9am-2pm. Winchester & Winona.
My gentleman friend and I will have an insane number of books for sale, plus LPs, CDs, video games, comics, board games, toys (including some awesome grab bags comprised of things like army men, glow sticks, bouncy balls, wind-up toys, temporary tattoos, small plastic animals, snap-n-pops, etc. from my long days working at American Science & Surplus!), and other fun stuff for kids of all ages--including an embarrassing number of Pez dispensers. It's going to look a little like Uncle Fun in my front yard!
There's also some nice furniture, including a hand-painted rolltop desk with drawers and a custom hutch, an Ikea desk with overhead hutch that's perfect for a dorm or small apartment, some one-of-a-kind collapsible "tetris" tables that a family member made (they won an engineering award!), an entertainment center, and some other assorted tables, shelves, chairs, and lamps.
Fiber artists take note: I'm selling a lot of yarn and embroidery floss, two irons, a gorgeous 1930s Singer sewing machine with table, AND an awesome sewing desk/ cabinet with a huge work surface and tons of built-in storage and a spool rack!
I have a giant plastic footlocker and a big trunk painted cammo--both of which would make for terrific storage in a studio.
For sporty types, there will be a hardly-used treadmill, weight bench, Ab Lounger, tent that sleeps 4, stability ball, 2 bikes, and some hand weights.
Plus, the usual clothes, accessories, dishes, small kitchen appliances, bizarre knick-knacks, and some truly bad wall art.

Smart Clothes for Teens

For the first time Lillstreet is offering a class that combines Fashion and technology: Smart Clothes for Teens. The Textile department and the kids street department are offering this camp in which students learn and use different art skills. It is a class that guaranties an enjoyable time for the students and the teachers. Here are some of the projects that we will do in the class Smart Clothes for Teens.

For more info go to: http://www.lillstreet.com/class-detail/2655. Or e-mail me!!!

Enjoying screen printed fabric

One of the things I'm always thinking about is how I'm going to enjoy all the awesome screen printed fabric I end up making.

Back in December I screen printed and then sewed together about eighty plushy owls for a gallery show I was having. After the show I was left with garbage bags full of adorable, colorful owls.

I had so much fun making these I was trying to come up with an idea on what to do with them.
Other than giving them to my friends kids and becoming awesome Aunt Katie (which isn't bad). I came up with the idea to make them into mobiles.

Here are some pictures of the finished product.

Remember there is always Open Studio on Saturdays from 6-10.

Hope to see you there.
Kate

Growing and Collecting Natural Dye Plants

Chicago is a great location to grow and collect many different kinds of plants to use for dyeing. Plants that we normally see growing in gardens, such as tansy, coreopsis, and black-eyed Susan, can be used to create yellows. Other plants, such as sumac, buckthorn berries, and black walnut, can be collected in the fall to add to your natural dye palette.

Starting next Monday, I will be offering a 4-day natural dye workshop where we will learn the basics of dyeing and discuss growing and collecting dye plants in the Chicago area. There are still a few spaces available in the workshop. Come and join the class and discovery how plants in your garden can be used create beautiful colors.

Black-eyed Susan

Sumac

Black Walnut Hulls

Woad

Goldenrod

Dyer's Coreopsis

Now exploring : Arashi Shibori class

Arashi Shibori class just started. We learned how to wind strings on PVC pipes, how to dye in a pot. Time passed so fast! As we folded cotton fabric, it created zig-zag design. We will dye next week Saturday in different colors. Also, we will combine kind of "painting" first, then apply Arashi Shibori on the painted fabric. Let's see,,,. I will inform you how it goes. Exciting!

1st Day Prints!!!

I am so happy to introduce work from this summer's First Time Screen-print on Fabric class! 

Last night was our first class, and with no time students were hustling around the studio working on stencil prints.  I kid you not, students had about 25 minutes total time to design the stencils and print them onto fabric.  Check out the results!

You too can make wonderful prints on fabric... Classes start up again July 15, Thursday evenings from 630-930pm.  Come back and visit the blog in a few weeks, when I will post photos from our final class projects.  Thanks for looking!  

Camille

Amy Witte Fashion Show Tonight

Amy Witte, who teaches sewing classes here at Lillstreet, will be part of a fashion show tonight down in Chinatown at the River View Lofts.  For details and the full listing, visit this Reader Link.

Open house at Lill St.

Just a thank you to all those contributing to our dynamic display in the textile room for Open House at Lill this past Saturday. It really served to draw people in so they could see the possibilities textile-wise for their future craft experience. Here's some shots of the textile room.

Special thanks to Elizabeth and Frances for their beautiful contributions.

I worked all day on my flags which will go up the rooftop flagpoles in July. Stay tuned!

Natural Dye Workshop

One of the many subjects that we will be discussing in the upcoming natural dye workshop is what is the best method to obtain a range of colors with indigo. Indigo, on unlike other natural dyes, can not be mixed in the dye bath, but needs to be separately over-dyed or under-dyed. Historical, many master dyers have disputed which method is best. We will look at indigo’s dye history and I will share with you the results of a recent two year study on over-dyeing and under-dyeing with indigo that I did for my Certificate of Excellence in Dyeing, Level II, for the Handweavers Guild of America. Join us for a 4-day Natural Dye Workshop, June 21 to 24 from 10 am to 2pm, to learn all about indigo and many other natural dyes.

Gradation study samples for cochineal

Gradation study samples for madder

Gradation study samples for Osage Orange

First Flags of the Summer Season are Flying!

Hi!
After a weekend of rainy weather my Nuno-Felt Flags went up late this afternoon. The theme for the flags are the four elements; Water, Fire, Earth, and Air. Each flag represents one element. Please look up to the roof the next time you are at LillStreet and check out my flags flying way up high. You can also check out my personal blog for more in-process pictures later tonight or tomorrow at http://franniesfeltsandfancies.blogspot.com.

All four flags.


Water flag.


Fire flag.


Earth flag.


Air flag.

Thank you,
Frances Krueger-Jackson

Arashi Shibori class will start this SAT!

Arashi Shibori class will start from June 12 (Sat). Arashi means storm in Japanese. The lines created by winding thread look like a rain storm. In Chicago, a storm contains heavy rain with strong wind. In contrast, storm in Japan is gentler, you may see old Japanese prints. Rain describes diagnal lines. Since this shibori technique created such kind of lines, Mr. Suzuki (master in Arimatsu district, Japan) named. Originally, the artisans used solid wood to wind fabric, we use PVC pipe instead as you see the picture. After winding thread on PVC pipe, push the fabric, then put it into dye pot. The resist part by thread make lines. Please join!