My post from the 29th is about my decision to stay home from the craft show in Virginia. Since then I’ve spent a lot of time tidying and putting things away in the studio, so I have room to work. And most of the past three days I’ve been practicing and experimenting and learning more about some techniques I’ve underutilized. So here are some photos, just of the devoré so far:
This is a picture of a poly-cotton blend fabric. I’ve screened devoré paste on the fabric through a Thermofax screen, let it dry and then ironed it. Once ironed, I washed out the cotton portion of the fabric, leaving the poly behind.
Here’s the same fabric after washing out the cotton. It’s held up to the light because that’s the best way to see the resulting pattern.
Here’s a look at testing the pH of the devoré paste – gloves are a must! If you’re not up on your pH numbers, 7 is neutral, soda ash is alkaline, about 11 or 12, and vinegar is 2.4 – 3.4 according to this site.
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5 comments:
Battery acid has a pH of about 1.0 just for comparison.
Is this the same paste that is used for silk/rayon velvet?
Sandy in No. CA
Yes - it's exactly the same. It burns out cellulose only and doesn't eat the silk or polyester.
OOOOOH....so that means we could do this on Radiance, it would eat the cotton. leave the silk and could still use procion (in a acid solution) to dye...OOOH! THANK YOU!
Sarah
Well, yes and no. The first time I experimented with devore, I tried it on Radiance. From that test I learned that when it's woven, the warp is silk and the weft is cotton. You can see that if you look very closely at a torn edge. So the result was disappointing - just shreds. It would probably work for narrow cross-way or diagonal stripes. Worth a try!
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