Croxford, Janine

Janine Croxford received her art degree from Univ. of Wisconsin. Being lucky to live in Newton County in the middle of the National Forest I want to share what I see around me every day, trees, birds, bugs, all things nature. As an artist I want to create pieces of affordable, wearable art that make people feel good getting dressed in the morning. I used to do Ukrainian eggs, which is a batik process. That led me to doing batik clothing. Then I discovered solar dyes. I could get cool colors and a picture like in batik, but much more safely. Once I started cutting patterns there was no stopping me. So, I started doing reduction dyeing. For reduction dyeing I reduce the amount of dye around the pattern that I created. Each finished piece has my signature dyed into it to show people they are getting a one-of-a-kind piece of art. People would see the bright, colorful solar dyeing and dismiss it as “tie dye” - so I started playing with an ice-dyeing process. Ice dying is basically a watercolor form of dyeing that uses ice to transmit dyes through the fabric as it melts. It gives a very fluid and elegant look. Trial and error continues with each technique and I have great fun getting ideas from people for patterns and creating new designs.