Hollie Heller Ramsey

This past weekend, I had the great privilege of taking a class from Hollie Heller.
Hollie is a multi-media, collage artist who has work in many corporate collections and museums. She had us using dye solutions to color paper and making collages on polyester drapery sheers. We used photo transfers and papers we had printed and other handmade and commercial tissue papers. And, of course, since it was the Mavericks, many of us also used our ubiquitous coffee filters. Oh, how I love my coffee filters!

The first day was spent primarily applying dye solutions to various papers, then discharging color back out with bleach. We also worked with friskets as masking solutions and did lots of stamping. I liked this part of the workshop the best as I felt the techniques were most directly transferable to fabric dyeing and other surface treatments on fabric.

Fun and games with Hollie Heller.

This past weekend, the Mavericks sponsored a workshop with Hollie Heller Ramsey, who is dropping the Ramsey part of her name as she prepares to marry the new love of her life this coming June. Hollie is a delightful person and I learned some new tricks of the trade and enjoyed every minute of it.

We worked primarily with two different techniques. One technique will be particularly effective to apply to my fabric dyeing and painting; and, of course, because of that, I found it most exciting. I love the cross-pollination of taking something that works on one media and applying it to another. I actually prefer that. It leaves me with the illusion of some creative “wiggle-room”. If I feel as though I am simply aping the teacher, I get a bit claustrophobic. In the case of Hollie’s work, that could not be further from the case. Our work is so vastly different on all levels.

Basically what Hollie had us doing was applying dye to paper. The finished product was not colorfast as no chemical agents had been added to the dye solutions or applied to the paper. She recommended that we spray our finished work with fixative which acted to seal the dyes and prevent them from running. We applied color with brushes, stamps and sponges. We also used discharging both with stamps and stencils. Another thing we used that I had not used previously was frisket. This is a masking agent used primarily by watercolorists to block out white areas of their paintings. I did not try the peal-away, 100% covering type; but an unlucky purchase of the wrong type of frisket (medium) by Hollie turned into a lucky discovery for me. Although the frisket medium will not block out white areas, is does act as a resist of sorts. Everywhere I had stamped the resist, I got an iridescent sheen beneath the color that adhered to it. I love that! I can’t wait to try it on fabric and am hoping to get the chance this weekend. (Ever generous, Hollie gave me the bottle as it was not what she had intended to buy.)

The other technique we worked with was photo transfer onto sheer fabric combined with collage and sealed with Minwax Polycrylic. Primarily we collaged tissue and other light-weight papers in combination with photo transfers; but I sort of broke away on my own tangent and collaged both front and back of the fabric using coffee filters, as well as photo transfers and tissue and other papers. I also printed some very attractive paper quite by accident while iron-drying some painted coffee filters on top of a pad of newsprint. All of these disparate items went into a collage based on my Aspen photos taken last fall. After I got home Sunday evening, I began to thread paint the aspen trees. I am very pleased with the results and am considering simply framing the piece as it stands. Because some of the components were collaged onto the back of the sheer, the effect is somewhat misty and you really get a feeling of light coming through the fabric.

High Country Aspen, detail 2 

High Country Aspen, detail 1 

High Country Aspen -