Tuesday 12 March 2019

Catch up time

Last summer, just after the bandages were taken off my hand, I spent a glorious 5 days at Committed to Cloth.  The retreat was called Breakdown Printing with Colour Studies.  I went with the intention fo getting as much out of it as I could even if all I did was watch and listen.  I wasn't sure my hand would be up to doing any of the actual work.  But I did.

I have at last spent some time cutting up the colour families I made and putting them into a sketchbook.  I haven't been able to grip the rotary cutter firmly enough to cut up the fabrics into little squares.  But now, here they are.

Leslie dyed a colour family in the washing machine to show us how it is done.  It  produces an all-over dyed  smooth finish (above) whilst the ones I did produce a variety of textures based on the unironed fabric.    Dark Brown - Turquoise

Lighter versions

 Dark Brown/Royal blue - Turquoise/Royal Blue

Various experments



Then a change of colour


I managed to do all the breakdown printing whilst I was there.  All 8 metres of it.   I used the various colour families I mixed on the breakdown screens.








I ended up with some lovely fabrics although I still have no idea what I'm going to do with them.

If screen printing or breakdown printing interests you, there are 2 books I can recommend.
Screen Printing by Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan
Breakdown Your Palette by Leah Higgins


Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like a really good course. Wish I could get down there for one. Leslie came and did a breakdown printing class once though and I enjoyed that.

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  2. Always a pleasure going to Committed to Cloth - I've now done several course there and always come away having learnt loads and with piles of fabric I'm not sure what to do with. Thank you for sharing, and glad your hand is so much better now - it's been a long haul hasn't it?

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