Every Dog has his Day!

At last I got my chance to produce some cloth using the breakdown printing method ...

Washing day and all the pieces are rinsed, washed in synthrapol, rinsed again, spun and hung out to dry.  The large piece in the background is the dropcloth from the table which has some amazing areas on it, however, I think it might get put into soda ash again and re-used to build up on what is already there.

Above is the second screen I printed and towards the end I decided to add some Fire Engine Red to the mix.  A little of the detail below where you can clearly see images made from plastic garden netting, part of a plastic meat tray, a wooden coffee stirrer and good old bubble wrap.

Below is the print from my first screen, which had dribbles of thickened dye paste on it into which I have pressed various items to add more texture.  I think I used turquoise and antique gold on top of the black on the screen.  It is hard to remember as you do get a bit engrossed once you start to print.

Finally, this is a close up of one of the sections of the drop cloth, which arose from a screen that had been dribbled - but not by me.

The colours do become slightly duller once washed, so perhaps I need to add more Procion dye powder when making the thickened dye paste.

Yet more Surprises!!

Today I spent the afternoon doing some more breakdown printing with one of the Running Stitchers and we had fun.  One thing we have found out is that it is better to print onto a finer fabric.

The bonus was that she also brought her washed pieces of fabric over with her so I managed to take some photographs.

This was the piece that had ferns embedded in the dye

Dye added to the screen using the dribble method

Some closer detail to give an idea of the wonderful effects that just happen

I also found a couple of photos I had taken of the flour resist before it was washed off

More breakdown printing

Today I had chance to see one of the pieces of fabric that was produced last week and was very impressed.  There are some beautiful images on it and the colours are surprising too.  I think we basically used black, turquoise, emerald green and golden yellow.  I can't wait to see some more of the results.