Neon Tetras and Shibori

I have been distracted by fish again! We saw some neon tetras at the store. I have always loved them, so I decided to make some! These are about one inch long and painted with metallic paints. Their fins are fused from some unnatural irredescent material, (maybe lame?).

I have also been distracted by a surface design class our art bee is taking. The top sample is batik. It took about 15 minutes to make these wax circles for about 1/2 yd sample, not including dyeing time. The circles are about the size of quarters. I think it is gorgeous!!

I love the bottom sample too. These are tied circles that I learned from the book, Shibori, The Inventive Art of Japanese Shaped Resist Dyeing by Wada, Rice and Barton. The circles are slightly larger than peas. I did a sample slightly smaller than a fat quarter and it took about 7 hours. I love the way it came out, but even with some experience, it just takes too long. I will try some batik smaller circles with a copper pipe next. We'll see how that works!

Nellie,
Here's an update for you of what I used this orange batik fabric for. I will be putting these birds on my new quilt, Vertigo, coming soon! Enjoy! Kathy