Colour families day 3

On Tuesday I told you about the first two days of the Colour Families workshop.  On the last day I took my Venice Sketchbook with me.  I wanted to try to colour match a colour family to be able to produce fabric I could use for a piece inspired by the sketchbook.

Leslie particularly picked up on this section

 And in particular the window section

I started by using Dark Brown procion dye and Charcoal made from equal parts Dark Brown and Royal Blue to make this colour family.

This family is paler.  I added 2 teaspoons of print paste to every tub.

Then I added a small amount of turquoise to every tub - a dribble of dye while I counted 1 2 3.  Not a very accurate way to do it!  Plus I really didn't mix some of dyes together very well.

Using a roller I put the dye onto a cotton/silk mixture fabric.

I'm not sure how I'm going to stitch it.  I want to leave it as a whole cloth but it is a very lightweight fabric so need to think about how I am going to proceed.

I painted another piece of fabric which also needs some thought.

I feel I want to leave it as a whole piece and possibly stretch it over canvas.  It's the stitching that needs thinking about.

Or maybe I could cut it up and piece it in some way with this one from the last blog post.

Decisions! Decisions!

Thank you for joining me today
Bernice

Tips for making a book

When I was awake in the early hours of Saturday morning, I was trying to work out how to make the pages I've made that I showed you in A Venetian Return into a book.

I realised that I don't really do things in the most logical order so I thought for my benefit, and for anyone who finds it useful, I would jot down here a more useful and logical way to go about things.

Make decisions before you start!
I tend to just start without really thinking what I want the end result to be!

Size and shape
Decide what size you want your finished book to be.  A4, A5, A6?  Do you want it to be portrait or landscape?

Paper
What sort of paper are you going to use?  Or maybe you're going to make a fabric book!

Pages
Do you want the pages to be all the same size?  Do you want neatly cut edges or torn and distressed edges?

Colour scheme
Are you going to choose a limited palette or use whatever comes to hand?

Theme
Is you book going to have a theme or just have random pages?

Binding
How are you going to put the book together?  Use signatures sewn together?  Use book rings or ribbons through punched holes?

Make the book first?
Are you going to make the book first and work into it?  Or just make pages and put them together?

There are many other questions to ask yourself, but this is probably enough to be going on with.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Challenge reminder

Are you going to join in?

Remember I suggested a 30 day challenge for June!

Here are my paints, papers and inks ready to start on Monday.

I am going to make a collage everyday through June.  I'm not going to have a theme, but there will be a colour scheme.  Plus I'm limiting the size to the size of the sketchbook.  The aim is to fill a page each day and maybe at the end I'll have ideas to develop as pieces of work.  But for now, it's just about playing.

Here are a couple of collages I made in January at Committed to Cloth.

I'd love it if you decided to join in. You don't have to do a collage. You can choose any creative pastime you enjoy. I suggest you do something you already know how to do. Stay in your comfort zone for a month. Innovation might come from it, but comfort zones lessen anxiety. However I would definitely limit the size of what you do.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Leah Higgins Too

As promised last time, here are the fabrics I printed.  The colours in the photos aren't totally true to the fabric but you will see how using a colour family you can get lots of fabric that goes together.

Let's start with the ones that really didn't work well as part of the family.  However when they are cut up they may work after all.

Now on to the ones that did work.  Remember the grid I drew on the scrren with straight lines.  This is how it prints.

This was a mix of torn masking tape resist and embedded items.

The next few are various screens of embedded items.

Spreading the dye with a credit card

More embedded screens

Using crumpled up plastic bags to make the pattern on the screen.

 Another masking tape and embedded items screen

And the grid again

Another colourway from the masking tape and embedded items screen

Using the drippage screens

There are some more fabrics but I they are very similar to the ones you have already seen. Most of the fabrics will be cut up and used as smaller pieces but this last one may well stay as a whole cloth.  Still thinking about that!

And finally the whole pile!

If you are interested in breakdown printing and the way Leah uses it, you can see her gallery at the Festival of Quilts at the NEC from August 1st-4th.  It is undoubtedly the best fabric, stitch and quilt show in the UK.  Don't miss it.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Leah Higgins

I recently spent 5 days in Leah Higgin's studio learning about Breakdown Printing.  Leah runs some amazing 5 day workshops and she is an excellent teacher.  AND you can take her home with you in the form of her book Breakdown Your Palette.

Over the days I made various screens.  The first few on show here were made by drawing the dye onto the screen using Procion Dye mixed with Print Paste in a squeezy bottle.

 

These drippage ones were made by drawing a thick line of the dye mix and putting the screen upright so the dye dripped down the screen.

These next 3 represent the several (I lost count) screens I made by putting a layer of dye mix on the screen and then embedding bits of metal and plastic into the dye.

When the dye is completely dry you pull off the embedded bits and then it's ready to use.

On the first day I used the black dye which when it breaks down with print paste is quite a blue black.

The rest of the week I used Petrol Green and Rust Brown.   We did a 15-colour family using bucket dyeing.

Next time I'll show you the fabrics I printed using the numerous screens I made.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Inspired by music

If you have read the previous two posts you will know that I am working on a project inspire by a poem and a piece of music.  It was so difficult to settle on one piece of music but in the end I chose 'Summertime' by George Gershwin from the opera Porgy & Bess.   I decide to make marks whilst listening to the music.

I used several colours of yellow paint and different sized brushes on a big piece of lining paper.

 

I put a section of the painting to music paper in my sketchbook.  I added a photo of one of my gelli prints and the words of Summertime.

I also put a piece of fabric with the words printed on with a Thermofax screen.

I put two of the gel plate print photos on a page and used the screen again.

And collaged photos of gel prints and the painting.

I moved on to painting papers but forgot to take photos until I had cut it up and collaged it with washi tape lines.

I liked this large collage but decided I would have a go at some small collages.  First of all I did some gelli plate prints with these colours:

These are 9cms square.

I rather like the purple and magenta with the yellow and orange.

I need to decide now what piece of work I am going to make from all this inspiration.

Watch this space!

Thanks for joining me today.

Bernice