Thermofax printing

Last week I spent Thursday afternoon and Friday afternoon demonstrating printing on fabric with Thermofax screens and thickened dye, at the Festival of Quilts.  You can find out more about Thermofax screens at screens4printing.

I used a scraper or a sponge roller to push the dye through the screen.

I also used stencils.

I built up layers over layers - not waiting for anything to dry.

My aim was to cover all of the white fabric.

On Friday I bought a new screen.  I also started on a new piece of white fabric.

The wet dye always looks much darker than when the whole piece is washed out and ironed.

And here are the two pieces of fabric washed out.  This is a metre.

And this was a half metre

Now to think what I might make with it all.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

ExTex - The Finale

Well it's over.  A nine month investment into creativity.  9 weekends of learning and playing finished with an exhibition at the Fashion & Embroidery Show at the NEC.

We had a fabulous exhibiton space and many visitors who made super comments about our work. Kim chose a selection of items from each of the 10 students to make up this amazing array of work.   She chose several f mine that were featured in my last ExTex post.

My final piece was a set of books hanging as a mobile.

The books mostly moved about except when I tried to film them!

And of course you can't go to a show and not spend money. Well, my plan was to go and NOT spend money.  But inevitably I did. 

I don't usually buy these blocks but this one had my name on it.

And then! I watched a Hilary Beattie video and was able to do this with the blue foamy thingy.

I'm really looking forward to working with this block.  I'll report back!

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

ExTex: Penultimate Post

I hadn't realised it was such a long time since I have written about ExTex.  The last time was Session 4 and next week is the final session - Session 9.

Session 5 was about experimenting with weaving, knitting, needlefelting and wet felting.

The homework was to use one (or more) of these techniques to produce a 3D something.  I made this wet felted vase.

At Session 6 we used Transfer Paints.  I really wasn't enamoured with these but I'm quite pleased with this homework that used the dyed fabric and felt.

Session 7 was a mix of things.  Firstly we dyed fabrics.  At home after I had washed and dried the fabrics I made this colour wheel.

I also tried out the different colours on a dyed background with coloured stitching in the hope it would show how colours react with one another.

We also played with Tyvek and Lutradur.

At our penultimate session we played with Kim's technique of 'Backgrounds & Pretties' made with dyed or painted newspaper.  I backed one of my 'pretties' with painted Lutradur.

And we made beads with different synthetic materials including cellophane and crisp packets.

I've spent the time since trying to complete all the rest of the samples I need for my workbook and which maybe chosen for the exhibition at the NEC in a couple of weeks.

This sample is made from a baby wipe that I had used to clean one of the stamps I made.  It is stitched on to some fabric I had painted on a different course and some bits of painted Tyvek was added.

At session 8 Kim talked about different ways to raise the surface on a piece of work.  I stamped a piece of Lutradur with modeling paste using one of the stamps I made.  Then I painted it with Seth Apter Paper Artsy paints.  I also used some copper paint.  I stitched into it with seed stitch.

A close up

After the NEC show I'll share some photos of the exhibition and my finished piece which is still in the making and I have only 5 days left to finish it!!!!

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice