Layers of Text

I spent two days this week attending the Summer School at Littleheath Barn called Layers of Text.

Liske's aim was that we would print less metres of fabric but have several layers on the fabric we did print.

I had written Captivity, Freedom, Identity on one screen with flour paste and Dancing in Fetters on a second screen also with flour paste.

When the flour paste was dry I scraped thickened Procion dye through the screen which breaks down the flour paste.  A different take on breakdown printing.

The piece above was printed onto Organdie with a piece of muslin underneath.  The image went through the Organdie and coloured the muslin below. 

 

 

I scraped flour paste over a piece of calico and wrote into the flour paste.  When this was dry the calico was screwed up to make the flour paste crackle.  I scraped thickened dye over the fabric.  With the small piece at the bottom I tried using Masking Fluid to write with using a brush before putting the dye over it.

 

 

The top fabric is Organdie and the bottom piece is muslin.  I used a Thermofax screen and a mixture of two colours of thickened dye.

 

 

I wrote on this piece of calico with a Copic Wide pen with what I had hoped contained a permanent ink.  I used thickened dye to write the rust and ochre words and a Thermofax screen for the chains.  However when I washed the fabric the black ink leached out leaving blue writing.

Not that it's a problem!  I can make the piece again on non-soda soaked calico and use fabric paints with the Copic pen.  That's if I decide I need to do it again.

In the meantime, this last piece matches the other fabrics I printed rather well, so I will cut them up and piece them together.

Watch this space!

Thanks for being here today
Bernice

Getting stuck!

Well having finished the two exploding books, I was stuck.  I didn't know what to do next.  So I read some books on Kindle Unlimited and played Solitaire.  Not really very creative!

However in the back of mind was always 'What shall I do with this?' This being several pieces of cotton fabric that I had used breakdown printing to print on.

I put the photo on my Facebook page and asked the question there.  One of the suggestions was to cut it up and sell it.  I did so with the squarish piece bottom left.

I'm really not fond of the green and one of the other suggestions was to overdye the fabrics.  I still might try that.

The thing is - do I look at the fabric and say 'aqueducts and canals' or do I look at it and say 'Venice architecture'.

I decided I'd play with the latter idea first.  I got out my Venice colours of fabric paint.

I cut the right hand piece off the wide fabric.

I used the paint through some Thermofax screens but the paint was a bit too runny an splurged too much.

I printed onto repair tissue instead.

Then I tore pieces of the printed tissue and using gel medium, glued it to the fabric.

I certainly had more control with the repair tissue.  But the fabric is still too green for Venice.

Back to the drawing board!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Committed to Cloth

As a thank you for demonstrating printing techniques at the Festival of Quilts the team was invited to spend a day or days at the Committed to Cloth studio.  I had 3 days available but ended up only using two of them, spending the third day as a day out with Roger.

I took with me all the fabrics that I have printed using breakdown printing, either at Committed to Cloth or at Urban Studio North with Leah Higgins.

Leslie and I looked at all my fabrics and took out those that needed more work.  So on day one I printed over the existing fabric using procion dyes.

Above: the original printed fabric from C2C 2018   Below: Over printed and dyed.  Still not a fan of the fabric

1m x 1.5m

Above part of the origianl fabric printed in 2018 which I thought was too bright.

Below mark making with black dye.  The photograph doesn't show the true colour of the fabric - it is much nearer the colour of the original.

1m square

Above: the original print which had too much white.

Below: with added texture

1m x 0.5m

Above:  the fabric was too pale.  I think the photo above was taken before the print paste was washed out as the fabric was definitely paler than this.

Below: added turquoise and a different screen

1m x 1.5m

Above: part of the original print.  Photo taken before it was washed out.

Below: added colour.  Not sure about it, but I expect it will be fin once it's cut up.

1m x 0.5m

 

Next time: all about the fabrics I cut up and reassembled!

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Starting a new textile piece

I still have lots of fabric left from the time I was at Leah Higgin's studio for Breakdown Your Palette.  I used some of it for a wall hanging about a walk along the Stratford Canal.  I have wondered what to do with the rest of it and then I spotted this painting by Paul Klee.  It's called Highways and Byways.

I'm obviously going to be drawn to the colours - you know how fond I am of turquoise and orange.

However it gave me an idea for using the fabrics I have.  I didn't have any rust coloured plain fabric that matched my fabrics but Liske at Littleheath Barn Studio kindly sold me some that she had dyed especially for me.  I tore 3 pieces of it to piece with some of the brakdown printed fabric.

 

 

I had some pieces already stitched together from the previous hanging to give you an idea of what I am planning.

I've sewn those leftover pieces together and added some more.  This will be the central strip.

I'll keep you up to date with how this grows.

In addition I am taking part in a fundraising event that Liske is running called Pieces of Positivity.  After a donation to Cancer Research she sends out a piece of drop cloth - that's the fabric that covers the table in the studio and picks up any paint and stencilling etc as we all work there.  My piece looked like this:

 

 

I have cut it down to size and bonded it to a backing fabric.   Liske is going to make the pieces we all make into bunting to put around the studio.

It looks enormous in the photo but it's actually only 15x20 cms.  I'm going to handstitch it and then see what else it needs.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Dis-ast-er daa-rling!

Can you tell I'm a Strictly fan?  I wasn't dancing I was preparing a screen for breakdown printing.  And I mixed the dye too wet and then tried adding more manutex powder.

Which didn't really work.  I ended up with some very thin dye on my screens.  Then I added the shells.

The shells were an experiment.  I know how flat things work on a breakdown screen, but who knows what the shells might do.

Lots of the dye leaked through the screen.  Then I left the shells on for too long so that when I came to pull them off they pulled up the dried dye which was paper thin.

It looked like this when I'd pulled off the shells.

So all in all - a dis-ast-er!

Although to be fair the shells looked quite cool.

So what happened when I tried printing the screen, I hear you ask!

Well!

Not very well really!   This was using print paste.  The coral sand was a bit random and then I tried the robins egg blue over the top.  This is while it was still wet.  I wasn't holding out much hope for what it would look like when washed.

I mixed up some dye with the print paste and printed through the screen on the left and used a thermofax screen on the right.

 I used the thermofax screen over the blue.

 Lastly I scraped the dye onto the silk noil using an old credit card.

Thirty six hours later I washed the fabrics out.  And most of the blue had disappeared as I had thought it might.

However they are in a similar colour palette to the silk noil I had already painted at a previous session.

I need to add some more blue to these fabrics or to another piece of fabric and then I'll be set to make something.  Or start again!

I'll let you know.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Piecing with Leah

The thing about printing is that you are bound to have fabrics you like and fabrics you don't.  You can always use the fabrics you don't as the backing for a piece of work!

Leah uses what she calls 'bricks' in a lot of her work.  These are rectangles of fabric which she usually uses horizontally.  I love the look of her pieces but don't want my work to be a poor imitation of hers.  I did however want to try out the method.  As much of my Venice work is based on the architecture I thought I would piece these 3"x1" 'bricks vertically.  I spent a long time cutting up fabric.  I spent even longer - nearly 4 hours ironing the bondawebbed pieces to the backing fabric.

It is now ready to machine stitch.  I may handstitch on it too before stretching it on a canvas.

I also tried making log cabin squares.

I also made 3 pieces that were 'half squares'.  Being pedantic they are two-thirds squares!

I didn't always get the hang of the pattern so sometimes the intended middle square wasn't in the middle!  Ho hum!

I was very fortunate that my table was next to the design wall so could pin my squares up as I went along.

Once I had finished all the squares we played with the placing of them.  See if you can spot the difference!

Then I 'auditioned' narrow strips of the solid colour on the pieces before sewing it all together.

Once it was sewn together I bondawebbed the small strips to the fabric.

It's now got a backing fabric and acrylic felt wadding, ready to stitch.

I learned a lot during this 5 day workshop - and not just about screen printing and piecing.  I know that I am a fairly slapdash artist which is probably why I like mixed media.  I like slapping paint down on paper or fabric and taking as little time as possible over it once I have the idea.  But piecing 3"x1" strips is a slow process, as is stitching log cabin squares.  But with Leah's constant support and encouragement I was able to stick with it and achieve the makings of two really good pieces.  I am hoping to continue to apply myself more effort to my work now that I've seen what results I can achieve.

I thoroughly recommend taking course with Leah.  And if you can't make to Urban Studio North you can always buy the book.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice