More from the Barn and since then, part 3

This is a value sample made simply with drops of dye mixed with gradually increasing amounts of water. Click on the image to see a larger version.

 

The second photo shows some DSP prints that I made while in class. When home, I pulled out my plastic faux wood grain tool and spread thickened yellow ink on clear vinyl, then took a monoprint from the vinyl. A detail is below.

 

Finally, I have another monoprint made using colors from the screened sample pages. I made a DSP screen using leaves from the park out back. While that was set aside to dry, I rearranged the wet leaves and made a monoprint from them. When that was done, I used some thickened dye and a wallpaper brush to color the background all over with tan. Looks somewhat like camouflage, but pretty camo! Thanks for looking!

More from the Barn and since then, part 2

When I got home, after unloading everything out of the van that we’d taken for the show, camping and class, I had a series of black to pales grey fabrics to dye for a customer. This is the result. After that, the next project was processing the color samples from class.

This first picture is a color sample made with thickened disperse dyes painted onto paper. The different values of yellow were printed onto fabric as full sheets; the various values of red and blue were cut from paper and arranged onto paper by color and value. The the result was heat pressed onto each value of yellow.

The last photo is a truncated series of color samples that were mixed the same way as above, but the thickened dyes were printed directly onto the fabric. The colors are delightfully rich. The yellow was screened onto the fabric first, then it was heat pressed and washed out. Once dry, the process was repeated with red, then blue. The next experiment will be to put some clear print paste onto fabric, then screen colors on top. That should show if the print paste resists dye the way it does with MX. It might not be the case because of the dyes subliming. The gaseous dye might just migrate right through the print paste. If there’s no difference, I’ll be able to screen all the colors on as soon as the last has dried, and only heat press once.

More from the Barn and since then, part 1

Here are some pictures of the work that came out of my week with Carol Soderlund at the Nancy Crow Barn, and what I’ve been working on since.

This fabric happens to be a ‘dye rag’ that I used when working in class. I like this picture because it shows the difference that happens when a piece has been heat pressed. The next thing I did with this piece was to run it through the smocking pleater with widely spaced needles.  Once that was done, I soaked it with a different blue color and let it dry. Then I processed it in the autoclave to set the color and texture at the same time. The second photo shows the finished piece.

The last photo shows one end that has been spread out and taped down. You can see that the original turquoise remains and the dark blue migrated to the high points of the fabric.

More from the barn

On Wednesday Carol showed us monoprints from two different surfaces.


thickened dye spread on heavy (violet) plastic













Here’s the resulting print.

Then she spread dye onto the hard plastic-topped table – a large surface for a bigger piece of fabric.

Spreading the thickened dye



Scratches in the surface make their own patterns in the spread dye

 

patterns made in the dye with a notched spreader

 

Adding marks from the pointed tooth edge

More thickened dye was spread, then patterns were made in it with a stamp, left, and a sea sponge, right.

Here’s the cloth being spread onto the dye-painted surface. Only problem – I never took a picture of the finished fabric!

Master Class at the Barn

Last week I had the privilege of being in Carol Soderlund’s Visions/ReVisions Master Class at the Nancy Crow Barn in Baltimore, Ohio. No finished work at this time, but I do have lots of pictures!

Here’s a good picture (I think) of Carol, the Master Cat Herder! She wearing an ensemble of a retired hubby shirt with an applied yoke, plus a tee shirt colored with thickened dye rolled over snow fence.

We started working with thickened dye and building up layers of it on screens for DSP (deconstructed screen printing.)  I applied dyes to a screen that was laying on top of several oak leaves plus some string. This was on top of a piece of vinyl, and the dye created a nice layer on the vinyl, except where the leaves were. I laid a piece of fabric on top of the dye that remained and made a monoprint. Then I peeled the leaves off the screen and laid a moist piece of fabric on the leaves. Both pieces are interesting, and both can use more work to be complete. And I haven't even gotten to pictures of DSP yet!

Thanks for looking, more soon.