Eco Printing

For a long time now I have been wanting to have a go at eco printing and dyeing and have read loads of posts online as well as purchasing the odd book or two but there's always been something putting me off as it is something completely new to me.

Then in the very first WOW book there was a workshop from Caroline Bell which was so easy to follow I knew I must have a go.

The first thing it required was some iron (or ferrous sulphate) water and as I still have several rusty bits of iron left from the time I was creating rusty textiles, I knew it had to be done.   I put rusty nails and other smaller bits of rusty iron into a jam jar with half and half water and white vinegar and then left them for several weeks.  I gave the jar an odd shake when I thought about it but don't think it is really necessary.

The leaves I used came from around and about, including some wonderful acer leaves from my sister's garden and it was finding these that really pushed me on with the experiment.

Following Caroline's instructions, I layered up abaca tissue and khadi paper with iron water and leaves, clamped them between two tiles and boiled them for 30 minutes.   Because my tiles were only half covered by the water, I did flip them over after the 30 minutes and did the second side for another 30 minutes. (Must look out for a bigger saucepan!)

The Acer leaves on khadi paper

Other leaves on abaca tissue

Other leaves on abaca tissue

Other leaves on abaca tissue

My initial feelings about the results were a bit mixed.  The acer leaves which I used on the khadi paper were really good but the other leaves - mainly oak, birch and sycamore - on the tissue were very black and on first sight, not very appealing.

I wondered whether the iron water was too strong and needed to be diluted a bit; also whether I'd used too much; or it could have been that I boiled them for too long.  These are all options I will explore the next time round.

I haven't finished working through Caroline's workshop as I wanted time to think before going on.  I posted these photos on the WOW Book Facebook group and received lots of positive and encouraging comments, including many suggestions that they looked as though they should be made into books.

When I have made more progress with them I will let you see what I've done.

And finally for this time ......

Another hoop of embroidery has joined my growing collection.

For some time, I have been wanting to do a piece of embroidery with a void, or negative space as some call it.  We were away and my work on the denim jacket had come to an end so I had a go using a hand print as the negative space.

I was very limited in the threads that I had with me and loath to buy any more as I have found in the past that I always buy what I already have, I made use of what I had and went for a variegated blue look.

It was really an experiment and has evolved as I did it. 

I used lazy daisy, straight stitch, crosses and French knots and started m
by working just under and inch all the way round the hand print.   I started at the bottom with a variegated thread, changing for the middle third to a mid blue and then finally a light blue for the top third.   When I had done this it looked a little odd so I evened out the shape but it looked more like a mitten with a hand inside it!

Once I was home I tried it in a hoop and decided that it really needed to have a circle of stitches around it and went for one smaller than the final hoop I mounted it in.

The jury is still out about this - maybe I've got it out of my system and will not repeat it but time will tell.

Solar Photography

For Mother's Day this year, one of my daughters bought me a Solar Photography kit which she purchased from Boo To A Moose - well worth looking at their Etsy store as they do wonderous things with polaroid prints.

At the time of Mothers Day, we were well and truly still in the depths of winter so I put the gift away until summer and the sun arrived and, I'm glad to say, this week was sunny enough to give it a go.

I started by using some shells which I thought all had good outline shapes but sadly they did not work as well as I though as the depth of them meant the shadows cast interfered with the outline shape.

I then tried with some stones from my collection of heart-shaped stones.  These worked a lot better but were still a bit blurry.

The original layouts look so promising so I will have to put it all down to experience!

For my third try I went for something flat and decided on some lace which was flat enough to be clipped in the frame that came with the kit and therefore produced a much better print.

I've still got some sheets left so I will have another go soon.  In the meantime I will read up on the process and have a better idea of how to get good prints.

Mixed Media Dabble

I have long been a fan of Maggie Grey having been to a couple of workshops with her while I was a member of Context some years ago as well as subscribing to her Workshop on the Web (WOW).  Things have changed with WOW and now instead of the workshops being published online, there is now a WOWbook that was first published in December with the plan to print two each year.  I personally like this more than the online format as I always printed them off so to have a book is much better for me.

As well as the book, there are also some extra online workshops, including a mixed media course that Maggie has written.  I spent some time last week having a go at the first ideas and plan to continue my way through the ideas soon.

After starting with an exercise with the colour wheel, it progressed on to making colour charts with torn magazines.  Also had to look at pictures etc that appealed, collecting ideas together on Pinterest to  help to show coloured preferences.

We then moved on to explore tint and shade, first using a stencil with gesso and paint on paper and Vilene and then ink and bleach using mountboard.

  

I think I was a bit heavy handed in places with the Gesso so I only added stitch to the right hand side where the squares are more defined.

   

Love the shell designs I used and have some ideas going round my head for using again.

I've come to a halt on the course as the next stage is using Decovil which I know I have but can't find it anywhere! 

I've loved having a play and doing things that I would not have done on my own and although I may not use all the ideas again, it has sparked ideas that I want to have a go at and maybe take further.

Dyeing orange fabric

On my trip round the colour wheel for this year's Journal Quilts, I was horrified to find for the February one I had no orange fabric so this week I set to and created some.

Now my dyeing practice in the past has always been a 'chuck it all in and see what comes out' but this time round as I wanted a particular colour I thought I would be more methodical. As usual, I  turn to "Dyeing in Plastic Bags" by Helen Deighan and used her methods and recipes and even went as far as recording the recipes I used for the dyes and the salt and soda solutions.  I also pre-marked my fabric samples and made a note of the quantities of dyes I had used so hopefully I can recreate it a need them again.

I found being organised has made me more aware of the colours I achieved and also where they weren't quite right I can tell from the colours I used how I can adjust them next time.   Once the main samples were done I used up the dyes I'd mixed with a bit of   'chuck it all in and see what comes out'.

Really pleased with the results and look forward to using them on February and March's JQs.

The fabrics along the bottom are the eight pieces I was systematic about, mixing lemon yellow and golden yellow with scarlet and magenta.  The two red/pink ones were using 2:1 yellow to magenta.  The other fabrics were the others which used up the orange dyes I have left, some with red added.

Productive Day Dyeing

I spend a morning this week dyeing - no particular reason, just fancied doing it!

I normally use the plastic bag method but decided to give low immersion/tray dyeing a go this time.  

The first batch started with lemon yellow and I then added red and turquoise.  I think I overdid the "pressing to make sure everything was covered" as it did end up looking more brown that I wanted.  Once washed it didn't look so bad.

I then dyed batches of turquoise with a splash of cobalt blue; magenta with a splash of purple; and finally orange with a splash of red.  Very happy with the results of these.

To finish off I used up all the left over dye with the result of a blue, red, purple mix.

At the same time I dyed some threads - soft cotton, perle and a skein of stranded.

I have a project in mind for these so keep watching!

Play Day with Thread and Shutter

Once again, Thread and Shutter members have had a day playing with fibres etc - the thing they like most of all.

This time we decided to make some silk paper.  Last year I had purchased some silk fibres to make silk paper at a Context workshop but at the last minute couldn't go, so I was really keen to have a go myself.  Fortunately, everyone else wanted to too!

Several years ago I bought a silk paper kit from a show and had come home and made two pieces of paper straightaway.   This was then put to one side so when we decided to have our own workshop, I found them and shaped them over a bowl and cup to make two vessels.   I did try to machine embroider one of the pieces before I shaped it but it was too thin so I just made the bowl.   What I should have done was use some water-soluble fabric - maybe next time!

I'm pleased with both the results but feel they need some stitching and beads so I will do this at some time in the future.

 

 

 

 

 



 This time round, I made two pieces of silk paper.

This first one was made from layers of silk hankies with other silk fibres, silk rods and gold flower petals added for detail.   Unfortunately I wrapped it in cling film to bring home and when I unwrapped it, the cling film had stuck to the paper and wouldn't come off!  To try and save it, I put another silk hankie on the top which on the whole has worked okay.  I love the edges that the silk hankies give.

Not too sure what will happen with this so watch this space!

The second piece was created with silk tops in red and purple (definitely not my normal colour range!) with sequins added to finish.   I am going to make this in to some form of vessel, lining it with some dyed fabric and sewing it together with beads - again, watch this space.

 

 

Using the silk hankies again, I made another vessel.  I love the edges around the top of the vessel and again, I'm going to stitch in to this one and add some beads.

 



 

The final piece was made by weaving some stripped silk carrier rods with pieces of cocoon added.

 

Again this needs some stitching on it - add it to the list!

 

 

 

A very productive day all round leaving me with lots of stitching to do!





Workshop with Kim Thittichai

Spent a wonderful day yesterday with Kim Thittichai  at a workshop organised by  Context.  We were creating "Hot New Jewelled Surfaces for Stitch" by painting bondaweb and Vilene Spunbond, combing the two, adding foils, glitter, sequins (basically anything that sparkled!) and then cutting it with a soldering iron and reassembling in to another surface.  On top of this we also zapped with a heat gun for create even more surfaces!

As I said "wonderful".  Any of you who have met Kim will know how creative she is but she is also very entertaining and it was delightful to spend a day with her.

Now for the end results:

 

 

This is coloured Spunbond with painted Bondaweb applied to it and then gilding flakes, square sequins and foil added to it.

 

 

 

 

This is some Hot Spots applied to some Spunbond and then foil applied.

 

This is painted bondaweb applied to some organza and then gilding flakes, threads and tiny sequins added.

The second part was to take two of the pieces, back them with Bondaweb and then cut shapes from them using a soldering iron.  I took the first two pieces and cut some strips with wiggly outlines and then applied them to some heavier Spunbond that we had painted earlier in the day.  I had also applied some painted Bondaweb to a piece of black cotton so added some of the cut Spunbond to this too.

 

I'll definitely be adding some stitching to this last piece! 

 

 

Another piece of organza was prepared in the same way as before but with some skelton leaves this time:

 

 

 

These pieces were them "cut" with a heat gun and reassembled together with some plain organza.

 

 

 

It's difficult to see the crunchiness of these pieces from the photos, but once again I will be stitching in to at least one of these.

 

 

Not only did I come away with pieces I can work on but also loads of inspiration and ideas for future pieces.  

 

Check out Kim's website for more details of her workshops and the lovely supplies she sells.  http://www.kimthittichai.com/index.html





A day well spent

I spent a whole day this week painting and creating along side my friend Jo.   We meet each week to compare, discuss and encourage each other in our textile explorations and from time to time we put aside a whole day so that we can try out any new ideas or techniques.

I had been re-reading Kim Thittichai's "Hot Textiles" recently so wanted to try out some of the ideas from the book.

I was particularly keen to try layering some tyvek with organza so painted up a couple of sheets before layering them with some organza and stitching together on the sewing machine.  I then zapped them with a heat gun giving the following results.



Detail

I applied the heat from both sides but found what I thought was organza wasn't!  The orange fabric did not react to either the heat gun or a soldering iron except to burn.   Lesson learnt:  Don't assume something is what it looks like and try it out before including it!

As the overall effect was what I wanted, I left it as it was.   I haven't taken it any further yet as I'm unsure what to do as it is quite hard to stitch into.


I also tried layering painted bondweb on to organza, resulting in two pieces.

 

 

This first piece had foil applied to once the painted bondaweb was put on the organza.  I then added scrim and net scraps and attached them to the bondaweb.   I then applied a heat gun which of course shrunk and distorted the bondaweb/organza but not the scrim.  This gave a different effect which can be seen in the photos below. 

 

The next piece again had added foil and scrim and intended ripping some metallic fabric to add.  When I tried ripping the fabric all I got was the metallic threads which I added anyway.  I love the way painting bondaweb wrinkles into ridges which is transferred when you iron it to the organza.

 

 

 

 

 



I've since chosen background fabrics for each of these and will be adding stitches and possibly beads.

 Just to finish the day off I tried out a print making block I had bought some time ago and never used. It's one of those you heat up and then press something in to give an image to print.   I used some knitting needles to make some lines and as it was very quick and easy and gave a good result, I shall definitely be trying it again.



 

 

Now come the bit where all there beginning works of art have to be nurtured and worked on to produce finished works of art.   What this space for the results.