Shave like a......

Man Artisan....

Are you an original artist????

Or the sensitive type???

I knew that my can of "original" shaving cream at the studio was almost empty

so when I was at the store recently, 

I grabbed another can

not knowing that I had selected the "sensitive" type.

Well okay, I am kinda sensitive!

But why would I even have shaving cream at my studio????

to shave with, of course! 

As in ... "to cut or scrape away the surface of with a sharp-edged tool"

This kind of 'shaving' requires a flat surface on which to work

so

I used a lid from a large plastic tote...

(on the floor, of course!)

I squeezed out a large amount of shaving cream 

(Barbasol works well...
you can decide if you want to be 'original' or 'sensitive'
but not sure 'soothing aloe' will fit the bill though)

onto the lid....

(probably more than I needed to)

and shmushed it around with my hand. 

Later on, I got smart and squeezed out a smaller amount of shaving cream

and shaaaaaaved it out with a rubber scraper. 

I started with my All-purpose inks...

dripping a variety of colors onto the shaving cream...

and moved it up and down, and side to side with a marbling comb
in an original way..

 I placed the fabric (here I used canvas) 

down on the inky mess

and patted it down gently...

and carefully pulled it off...

 (only so I didn't get ink all over the place). 

I used some watercolor paper and 

pulled off the rest of the ink too.

I used a rubber blade tool,

like a small squeegee 

and shaaaaaaved off all the shaving cream

and voila!!!

On the second go-around,

I used the same type of inks

but a different color palette on cotton fabric...

did some fancier swirls...

with a most sensitive flourish!

you can see the marbling comb I used 

in the bottom right of this photo...

(warning: the marbling comb can make you extremely sensitive

if you poke yourself!)

Finally, 

I used my acrylic inks..

and more drips...

and loads of swirls, slashes, and doodles...

with cotton ...

and paper...

and hands....

and sensitivity (just saying)

and ended with this...

Once the fabric seemed reasonably dry,

I heat set it...

with parchment paper on top

in case some of the color came off.

Now I am not sure what I am going to do with all my
clean shaven fabrics and paper

but I did run some textile paint over a thermofax screen
on a corner of the fabric....

stay tuned to see what happens next!

By the way,

while both types of shaving cream work well,

the 'sensitive' type has a most pleasant smell

when cleaning up!

And for goodness sake,
 if you can't shave like an artisan,
 shave like a man!

From my vantage point....

I am still working on this quilt for our guild challenge....

and if you look really closely at the 'X's in the right hand corner...

you might see Mr. U and I standing on that bridge last night....

bet you can't see us...
(of course not!
  I'm the one taking the photo and Mr. U is probably nearby!)

Anyway,

with the spring melts from the Adirondack Mountains and the plentiful recent rains,

the area is experiencing high waters,

and raging falls...

The center of our community is the falls
which has historical significance,
literary reference,
and industrial importance....

(lots of paper and paper products are produced in this area)

but as the sign says...

you can only see the falls in the spring...

and from our vantage point
on the bridge
we saw...



I've been asked about my "technique" (is that we call it?)
for creating my quilt, "Along The River"
and so...
from my vantage point
(on the floor now)...

here is my attempt at a re-cap/tutorial....

I blew up a map of the area I wanted to include...

I laid some lightweight fusible interfacing on top of the map
with the fusible side up

and began cutting up pieces of fabric (previously backed with Wonder Under)



on top of the interfacing...

Occasionally, I laid a piece of the release paper
(that I had peeled off of the Wonder Under )
over the fabric and pressed the pieces in place on the interfacing...

I created the river in the same way
and cut the interfacing along the edges of the blue fabric...

laid it on top of the background
and pressed it in place...

I added the interstate down the middle
in the same way
et voila!

To anchor all the pieces in place,
I sprayed the top of the quilt with a temporary adhesive
(because that is what I had at home but I think I would prefer something permanent)
and laid a piece of black tulle (which I purchased at Joann's) on top of the quilt..



Then I started some free motion quilting....


some lines down the interstate with gray rayon thread
and some zigzags with a silver metallic thread on the river.


I traced the streets off the enlarged map
onto sheets of tracing paper
and pinned them onto my quilt...

and quilted the roads, using a free motion foot,

through the paper

which I, then, peeled off around the stitching...

I have been using the latest tools that technology can bring....

an old toothbrush and a pair of tweezers to pick off 

any leftover bits of tracing paper and thread...

(I'm picky about those things!)

Of course,
my project is by no means complete
but this gives you an idea of the process that I used.

I will post photos of the complete project

as soon as I dig myself out....

 

or peel myself off the floor!