Folded book

Another finished book! I'm really on a roll here.

This is another of the silk noil books.  The silk noil had been dyed using an ice dye which at the time felt unsuccessful, but actually the marks that were made looked like rust and decay and really fit my canal theme.  I added some of the words of my canal poem through a thermofax screen.

I printed out some contact sheets of my photos onto silk and organza.  The photo shows the fabric on the left and the backing paper on the right.  The backing paper might turn up in collages at some point.

I also printed out a sheet onto Bondaweb.

I bonded some of the printed fabrics onto the pages.

I also tore up the printed Bondaweb and bonded it to the page.

I bonded two 'pages' back to back and folded them. This book is now 11.5x12 cms.

You may have noticed that I have not put any stitches on the pages.  I felt the pictures I had put on were so straight edged that stitches would look odd.

I put two of the pages together to make signatures.  I had made 7 pages so I left out the one I liked least.  I stitched the signatures.

Then I wove through the stitches to bind the 3 signatures together.  This is not one of my best weavings as the original thread through the signatures was not sufficient to cope with the weaving.

I may at some point cut the weaving off and redo the whole binding but for now it will do.  I have several other books to finish first.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Summer School

After an uncomfortable two days of extreme heat for the UK, I spent two cool days (in both senses of the word) at Littleheath Barn with Liske's 'Art Cloth: Maps and More'.

We spent the two days trying out various techniques with a limited palette to produce some fabrics that sit well together.  My colours were basically rust, slate grey and a little charcoal dye.  The aim was to produce fabrics that were dark, medium or light.

Sadly the photographs don't really show the true colours of the fabrics.

For this fabric I put some white acrylic paint through a bought stencil.  I put narrow masking tape on a screen and printed through it.

right side

reverse

Liske had demonstrated how to make a breakdown screen which I used.  It didn't breakdown as much as I thought it would.

right side

reverse

This is muslin which I wrote on with dye.  I scraped dye over the one end and used a thermofax screen on the right.  I cut it into two pieces.  The top part shows the results of using flour paste as a crackle which I put rust dye over.  I scraped pale rust over the the bottom piece.

I used soy wax and drew lines over my screen and scraped dye through the screen.

right side

reverse

I made a screen by spreading a thin layer of flour paste on it.  On one half I put a bought stencil.  On the other half I scraped lines and shapes when the paste was dry.  I also used the stencil to fill in the gaps so I have positive and negatives of the design.

right side

reverse

I scraped dye over this piece of muslin so I have some matching plain fabric.

At the end of the day I had a fabulous piece of dropcloth.  I had started the two days with a new clean cloth.  I cut this piece from the dropcloth and sprayed a soda ash solution over it to fix the dye. It's cotton drill which is heavier than the calico and muslin I had used so it will possibly become a background.

We're back next week for another two days of composition, planning and making using the fabrics. Although we may start with adding more layers of design using fabric paints.

I've no idea what I shall do with all these fabrics.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

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

Adding layers

Last Autumn when Liske was able to run workshops we started on Text, Texture, Textile.  These are some of the fabrics I dyed and printed at that time

Last week we were at last able to go back to the studio.  I hadn't really taken to the fabrics I had printed which is why I hadn't done anything with them.  So last week, I added more layers of text and shapes using thickened dye through stencils and thermofax screens.

I'm still not totally in love with them.  But I suspect they'll be fine cut up into smaller pieces.  Or I could put another layer on using fabric paints.

I've also wondered about over-dyeing them all with one colour.

Watch this space!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice