Thermofax Preparations

On Saturday, my friend Lynda and I are planning a day to play with Thermofax and screen printing. She inherited some kind of Thermofax and a thousand frames. We just need to do some experimenting to figure out how it works. In the meantime, I am developing suitable images for our play day.

Would you believe the feather above started out as the sun-printed feather below? I played with it in Picasa and Seashore to get the black and white image above. Although I would not be able to give you the recipe--I was not taking notes. Just playing!




This one is modified from one of my many tree bark pictures. I think the secret to this one was the Edges filter in Seashore. Or was it the Threshold filter?


This was a picture of a tree I took on a bike ride last yesterday evening.

Here's the only slightly modified original (and yes the sky really was pink and blue) :



I have about 65 images I've been playing with, trying to make them suitable for Thermofax. Stay tuned and see what we are able to accomplish on Saturday!

Velvet Scarf a la Gay Feather

Sew Savvy invited Conversations-in-Cloth to attend a program in which Virginia from Gay Feather in Madison, WI, came to show us her patterns and store samples at a house party in Appleton. Visit the Sew Savvy post to view a photo montage of Virginia's fashion show. You'll see some unusual patterns, and beautiful fabrics. All the patterns are for sale through Gay Feather. Feel free to ask Gay Feather questions on anything you see there.

She opened a shop in Madison just as I left and moved to Oshkosh. My husband even likes her shop because she sells REAL linens and silks and woolens. It's a texture-lovers paradise! If you are ever in Madison, WI, stop in to see what she has for sale, and on display. The button collection alone is worth a stop!

When I was looking for fabrics to make my wedding dress, I had to trek to Chicago to get linen and silk. At the time, no one sold those nice (real) fabrics in Madison. Virginia is filling a niche there!


I don't sew clothes anymore, but if I did, I'd likely make this jacket out of this gorgeous double-sided linen. Mmmmmh!


I did purchase a kit of silk and burnout velvet to make this yummy scarf.