Hue & Dye - Debbie's OCA Textiles Blog: Assignment 3 - Project 6 - Stage 4 - Part One - Raised and Structured Surface Textures

For this stage of the project I wanted to try some techniques that weren't based around stitching as well as some more familiar surface texturing with stitch. I'd seen 3-Dimensional Fabric Medium being demonstrated at an exhibition in Colne with Empress Mills and as I've never used it I thought I'd see what it could do.

Based on some YouTube research, a couple of my favourite textile books and the instructions, I got my materials together and started with some completely random application of the medium. Once it was more or less dry, I pinned it out onto a foam mat and held an iron over it to make the medium expanded. Just as well I did as it really tried to shrink in as the medium expanded and the fabric puckered. The results were interesting and I could see some potential for landscapes or similar natural structures using the random technique. (The medium was applied with a thick brush and just brushed on).

I decided to see how the medium might be used on more planned shapes. Not sure whether it was such a good idea (for the longevity of the stamp!), I painted a hard rubber stamp and printed medium onto fabric.

The pressure of the printing process must have squeezed the medium into the relief areas of the stamp as it created fine lines of puffed textured with flat areas where the print surface of the stamp would normally be. Interesting but not what I'd expected! I think this could be exploited further by making my own stamps (maybe lino cut?) and taking a completely different approach to the stamping process, aiming for the areas of relief to be as important as the print area.

The back of the fabric (glazed cotton) was interesting as the medium had pulled the fabric in, creating a concave shape. The shape was actually more even on the reverse.

I continued to experiment, using a synthetic flock fabric and painting over the shapes. I also added some procion dye powder to the medium to see how it would take colour. This was not particularly satisfying but the dye did create a coloured medium.

A coloured paint onto fine muslin saw the medium transfer to the parchment paper below. Research point: Perhaps this could be exploited with a second layer of fabric below to give two "prints"? (Or maybe the fabric layers would simply stick together?)

My final experiments with the medium were on a piece of cotton velvet to see how the medium interacted with the velvet pile. I had a couple of cookie cutters that I held over the fabric and painted a thick layer of medium (uncoloured) with a brush.

After heating the medium, being applied more thickly, gave a much more satisfying raised texture. Clearly, for even "raising", even and quite solid application is required. The pile didn't appear to affect the performance of the medium and gave an interesting contrast of textures. Research point: This could be further exploited with other textured fabrics, sateens, rough silks etc.