Panenka Thermal Imager A4
I was thrilled to receive a thermal imaging machine from SantaClaus this Christmas! I’ve been working on it quite a bit and it provided me with an alternate method to make one of the two political art quilts I’ve been stewing over for the past 8 years.
The screens burned on the imager are up to 8-1/2″ x 11″ After burning them, I tape them on both sides with duck tape and let sit for a day (if I’m feeling patient) until rinsing with warm water and printing onto fabric. I used Prochem or Jacquard fabric paints to print my various images of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, as well as financial information about Halliburton.
Screen, duck-taped with white tape, paint daubed along top edge of image.
Here’s a picture of the supplies and tools I used. A hard, plastic “squeegee” works best on these screens. There’s felt and a sheet on the table underneath the fabric being painted, too.
I learned a few things about the imager while doing this….double-sided tape behind the laser-print copy that you are burning onto the screen will show up in the painted image, as it interferes with the heat transfer through the paper. Also, thinner (read:cheaper) copy paper seems to work best for heat transfer.
Pic of Dick with obvious tape behind his thorax.
I created a background fabric for my masterpiece with a stencil and Micron pen. The text reads “LIESBRUTALITYLIESBRUTALITY etx.etc.
Stenciled fabric on Kaufman newsprint commercial fabric.
I added a “moral compass” from the current administration, rusted onto hand-dyed fabric by a lovely vendor at the NQA show whose name I don’t know. At any rate, the rusting resulted in backward compass, perfect for the situation at hand. S is N, E is W and the decider is in his throne.
Rusted moral compass
After playing around with the images I had painted and looking around for some tidbits, like quotes from G.W., I decided to add “Decider” and “God speaks through me” to round out my fabric rant.
Well, now that you’re bored to death, poor reader, here is a pic of the more-or-less final product. It feels really good to have gotten all that rage off my chest and onto fabric. Hope not to have offended anyone.
Unquilted as yet: “The Decider: Moral Compass” by Andi Perejda
3 Comments
February 13, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Fantastic, Andi. Art should provoke thought; if someone is offended, then they are thinking! I’m going to send my mother over here– she will love this.
February 14, 2008 at 4:02 am
Andi,
I have been thinking about your Moral Compass quilt ever since the last meeting we had, and I dug up my copy of an article called The Complete Bushisms from Slate.com. It was during the 2000 presidential campaign. My favorites are:”I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully”, “I will have a foreign-handed foreign policy”, ” The best way to relieve families from time is to let them keep some of their own money” and ” There needs to be debates, like we’re going through. There needs to be town-hall meetings. There needs to be travel. This is a huge country.”
February 16, 2008 at 4:24 am
I LOVE this piece… have you quilted it yet? it is so refreshing to see quilts covering topics such as this. I love your techniques and how youve handled your images and placement.
I want to see more! I havent seen your blog before but I will be sure to check back. thanks so much for sharing!
Ashleigh