Auction Commission: The Reveal (with a lesson)

It's been a long time since I have blogged and I am long over due. Sometimes life puts up obstacles and sometimes they are just pleasant distractions that lead you astray.

While visiting my twin sister in Colorado Springs, my husband and I finished four stained glass windows for our front door. We have spent three weekends stripping and sanding the paint off the door, restaining, and then polyurethaning it. Finally last weekend, we put in the glass... and voila. C'est magnifique.

However, I am most incredibly pleased with the result of the Tipperary batik I also finished while in Colorado. I have delayed in composing my final "Auction Commission" post until it was in the hands of its new owner. Now that it is... the REVEAL!

The batik was almost perfect after I removed the wax from the final dye bath. There were still a few little details I felt I needed to touch up.

I wasn't comfortable with the way the hair blended from the lighter part of the body into the darker area. The transition was too sudden. I used a paintbrush and hand-feathered bleach, waited about an hour, and washed it out in a bath of white vinegar and water. Although bleach may discontinue removing any more color, it still acts on the fibers of the fabric, weakening it more and more over time.

The purple in the body still did not match the vibrancy of the purple in the face. I applied a wash of purple dye over the areas where I wanted greater concentration of color. I then placed plastic wrap on either side of the batik and let it remain that way for 24 hours. Like radioactive material, dyes' reaction with fiber has a half life. It is about half as effective about 3 hours after you mix the dye with the Soda Ash thickener solution. By wrapping it in plastic wrap, you further delay its drying time so that it maximizes the half life potential.

Everyone has someone in their life who inspires them, who changes the way you feel about yourself, who makes a difference in who you become. For me, it was my high school art teacher, George Benedict, who sadly passed away last year from cancer. George taught me how to see... how light bends itself... that everything is formed of geometric shapes... and the most important lesson of all, how to convey power and emotion in the eyes.

Tipperary's eyes were nearly perfect. The color, The transitions. The only final touch I needed was to use a daub of white paint to enhance the highlights of (and the life in) his eyes. As the batik's new owner wrote me, "The package arrived yesterday. When I got home it was waiting. I opened it and it is beautiful! The colors are really vivid! I was amazed. I am so happy with it. I love the eyes (and everything else), but the eyes just grab attention when I look at it."

I want to thank everyone for their kind comments on this blog and on my Facebook page. We all have doubts sometimes, and I am by no means immune. I really appreciate your encouragement and support. :)