Continuing on the fabric painting and printing, here are some more techniques I've been exploring:
I have a set of natural dye pigments which have been looking for a project for quite some time now (!) so I thought this would be a good opportunity to combine two experiments in one - new media and new techniques....
The pigments are from Earthues and are made from natural oxides, ochres and minerals. They come in the neatest test tubes sealed with natural cork and wax.
Being pigments they are insoluble in water and have to be suspended in soy milk. The fabric is first mordanted with aluminium acetate, allowed to dry then painted with a thin layer of soy milk (sorry to any purists but I didn't make the soy milk I bought Asda smart price!). The powders are then pasted up with a bit more soy milk and can be painted (or thickened and printed) straight onto the fabric.
Printing with natural dye pigments on cotton
My first experiment was with the basketweave design. I used the pigment suspended in the milk and a slice of kitchen sponge to print a weave structure using one pigment for the "weft" and one for the "warp". I was really pleased with it. Um, until I accidentally washed it before I'd steamed and cured it off :-( This is all that was left.....
(Yes, it looks like something I wiped the floor with. So sad. Unfortunately I'd already thrown all the leftover pigments away so there wasn't much I could do but next time I get them out I'll aim to do another one).
So, not to be outdone the next batch have been steamed to within an inch of their life and are currently curing. This can take over a month so not a project for the impatient....
Stencilling with thickened natural dye pigments on cotton
For this piece I thickened the pigment with gum tragacanth and used an acetate stencil to replicate the airplant image. This produced a finer image than I anticipated and printing the "stars" in clusters gave a simplified but interesting representation of the airplant.
Starch resist using potato print and natural dye pigments on cotton
For the starch resist I used some old gram flour from the kitchen and added water to make a thick paste. I printed the paste onto the fabric with a potato print. The level of accuracy was poor, probably because the potato was still too wet and the resist slid off the potato as fast as I could put it on!
Undeterred I let the resist dry and then dyed with natural goldenrod extract to give a soft yellow fabric.
I also did a further print with the resist paste which I sponge-painted with stripes of pigments.
(DISPLAY BOARD PIECE - BOARD 2 OF 10)
Bleach-print on natural dyed fabric
For this sample I revisited the lemon juice using a make-up sponge to apply in large, bold star/flower shapes. I applied the juice, dyed the fabric and allowed it to dry. I then applied bleach over the top and slightly offset on one of the flowers to see how different the effect of the two discharge agents was on the same fabric. I added a series of small star-flowers using the resist paste and an acetate stencil. As can be seen in the finished samples, the bleach was significantly more effective and the lemon juice and discharge was very much subtler. The pattern was a variant on the airplant theme, combining a large and small interpretation based on the same source image and using the smaller motif to form a border.
Shibori-style clamping and natural dyes
For this sample, I wanted to recreate a basketweave-type look so I used my rather loose interpretation of the Japanese shibori technique to fold and clamp a piece of fabric before dyeing it. I clamped it with large food bag clips (not very traditional!) and dunked it straight into the remainder of the madder bath. What is particularly satisfying about this piece for me is the variations in colour even though I only used a single dyebath.
Bleach discharge paste sponge-printed onto black gabardine
For this sample I used a solution of thickened bleach to print onto black fabric with a cut rectangle of kitchen sponge. The bleach didn't take out as much colour as I anticipated and it was interesting that it bleached to brown rather than white.
Having explored a range of printing techniques for this sample I decided to use a different technique altogether. I folded a piece of silk voile into 4 lengthwise then concertina-folded the piece into 3. I then held the folded fabric vertical and used a pipette to drip orange and red dye down the silk. The intention was that the folds would create a repeating pattern. Although I like the finished piece it isn't quite as much of a repeat as I would have liked. I may have opened up the fabric before it was completely dry and on reflection less dye would have been sufficient as the wicking effect made the dye spread more thoroughly than I anticipated.
I repeated the exercise using the synthetic fabric to see how the colour take-up would differ. The dye moved equally quickly and the colours were less vibrant. The silk paint I used does say that it can be iron-fixed onto synthetic fibre but I haven't rinsed it yet!
Interestingly, I laid this cotton fabric under to catch the drips and it came out really quite pretty!
I took a negative image of the drip that I manipulated using lunapic and used the same technique on the black chiffon. This was much more effective than I anticipated.
Silk paint and gutta on silk voile
In a bid to create a pattern with a clearer repeat I used gutta to outline 6 sections on a piece of silk voile. I then used silk paints and an alternative colourway to paint areas of colour.
