And more layers of text!

I had a really productive two days of Summer School this week, particularly the second day.

I cut up some of the printed organdie and printed muslin and pieced them together.  I’m going to put wadding and a backing fabric to finish it. 

I had some pieces of calico that were fine as process samples but didn’t work as pieces. So I pieced them together to make a sketchbook cover.

The cover is a bit loose so that I can still add to the book.

I used some more of the organdie and muslin to make a strip hanging.  The idea is to hang the two narrow pieces slightly in front of the other 3 pieces and hang it so the light shines through. I might change my mind about doing that.  I’ll let you know what I happens.

Thanks for being here today.
Bernice

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

The first of a series

You may remember the Nonet I wrote called Dancing in Fetters.  I also wrote recently about the zoom workshop I did with Julia Triston.

One of the exercises was to write words on a piece of paper and cut it up and reassemble it.

Instead of the textile I was going to make, I started a new piece by writing the whole of the Nonet on a piece of calico.  I used a thermofax screen I had made some years ago of chains that I had drawn.

I cut this fabric into squares and reassembled it using the sewing machine.  The letters show up more as letters than marks as in the original paper collage.

I printed out various sizes of a treble clef, stave and music notes to see whether this was what I wanted on my hanging.

I settled on a size and drew it out on Stitch 'n' Tear.

I straight stitched the stave on the machine and tore off the tissue.  I hand stitched the treble clef.  I then satin stitched on the machine over the top of the straight stitch.

I drew the music notes on bondaweb befor ironing it onto fabric.  I cut out the notes and ironed them onto the hanging.

I used calico to make the binding.

I had some fabric in my stash that was a perfect match for this piece as it looks like bass clefs.

So, Dancing in Fetters 1 is finished.   Now on to Dancing in Fetters 2.

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

Text Sketchbook

At the beginning of December I introduced you to my Text Sketchbook and I thought it would be good to update you on how it's going.

When I went back to it I was unimpressed.  I had wanted the pages to be neutral.  But there's a big difference between neutral and dull.  So I've started doing what I said at the end of that post which is to add orange.

The sketchbook is really thick now and doesn't photograph well. But you can see what I have done!  I've used some of the painted papers I made during the demo videos for Simply Create.

My theme in this sketchbook is walk.  I have returned as ever to walks along the Stratford Canal and included photos from the walks.  Plus I have added words from the Robert Frost poem: The Road Not Taken which I have used in previous work.

And something we all need to do - play!

I hope you have enjoyed looking through my sketchbook.  Lots more to do in it - but it's a marathon not a sprint!  A walk not a run!!!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

A second sketchbook

After I had shown you the pages in my sketchbook from Laura Kemshall's sketchbook challenge, I started another sketchbook.  I wasn't totally in love with what I had done in the first one, but I will continue with it.  There was a vague theme of Venice but I haven't totally thought it through yet.

The second sketchbook has text as the theme.  Last time I showed you some of the gel plate monoprints I had made.  In September I started doing Text - Texture - Textiles at Littleheath Barn and my theme was walk which is also my word for the year.  So with this second sketchbook I thought I would use walk as the theme again.  I printed out a few black and white photos that I took in 2019 on a walk along the Stratford Canal.

I've scanned a few of the pages so you can see where I've got to

This is a photo of a piece of text work I did at a Simon Sonsino workshop

I've been going back through the sketchbook using stencils (bottom right)

I kept to a colour palette but I think I need to go through and put a brighter complementary colour on some of the pages.  Probably orange!

All of the videos are now available for the Sketchbook Challenge so why not join in.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Monoprinting with stencils

I love using my gel plate for monoprinting, but it is veryaddictive.  I usually get out a range of different types of papers - cartridge paper, deli paper and printer paper usually.  I limit myself to around 15 sheets of paper because otherwise I would just keep going.

Two reasons for keeping to a small number:
1.  I don't have enough room for a large number of papers to dry.
2.  there's only so many things I can think of to do with the painted papers.

Actually there's a third reason:
I've found the best prints are those that have several layers so even with 15 pieces of paper I might be pulling 45-50 prints.

This time I knew I wanted to play with my text stencils.  Here are some of the results.

I frequently photograph or scan my monoprints.  This is especially useful if you put another layer on one you really like and don't like how it turned out.  In addition, if you have scanned one you really like, you can use it multiple times.

The other useful thing you can do is change the scale of your print on your computer - larger or smaller - and use the print out for collage.

Next time I'll show you what I did with these papers.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice