This week I’ve thrown my time into screen printing, taking the dayoff work yesterday to use the college print room. Most of the prints are still drying, but I got to bring these 3 home!
Some little while ago I got all buzzed up about an idea to do some batik. A trawl through the web came up with Dylon Easy Batik and as I couldn’t resist (HA! geddit!!) giving it a go.
I have to say firstly, it is a lot of fun.
With the consistency of cream (shake well – I forgot one time and it does separate unshaken), it paints on nicely. I was using cotton sheeting, and found it absorbed and spread, so even the finest lines came out a bit chunky. In that sense it’s limited in comparison to real batik, but something to build into the design I guess. The other main difference is that unlike batik wax it is flexible when it’s dry, so none of that lovely crackle effect. But other fabrics need testing on!
First easy batik doodles!
This is the underside of a freshly dye-painted sample. The eagle eyed amongst you might notice the batik-stuff appears speckled. It isn’t. This only happens if you use a fluffy-with-velvet-trimming-fuzz-covered surface to paint on. Oops. No matter, it all comes out in the wash.
Now that leads me on to another thing. If one were to follow the instructions one would paint on the stuff and allow to dry, pref overnight, then iron to fix (did all that), then to place the fabric flat in the dye for 30 mins (longer and the resist loses resistance), not aggitating it for fear of loosening the stuff from the fibres.
If, on the other hand, one is me, one might choose to go off recipe at the point after the ironing…
I had planned to paint and drip procion dyes, swish with water, get a nice watercolory-effect then fix with soda ash per dying instructions on the bottle. Building up by layers, some more batik-stuff, more drying-ironing-inking cycle, etc…
But, surrounded as I was by so many delicious colored inks (not fixable), I ended up using a mix of procion dye (unfixed, didn’t bother since all the other ingredients became involved), ink, dylusions spray, coffee, tea…
It was a giddy whirl of color, it was really out of my control altogether. i just decided these samples would be ingredients for non-washable creations. Simple as!
But sometimes, just knowing something won’t work is not reason enough not to give it a try. After all that ironing a certain amount of fixing must have happened. Plus I knew full well if I’d been wearing white when I did this, no amount of laundering would have got the splashes out! So I *washed some edge snippings to see what happened… just how much color loss and more importantly, washability of the stuff
Surprised by the results – less color loss than I expected, and total stuff removal (speckles n all!)
*washing: hand washed in cool water, no detergent, just til the water ran clear.
One of our major projects for this term is beginning to take shape. I’m expecting it to be a series of images (or ‘outcomes’) with a connecting theme – someone very special to me – as a form of memorial. Incorporating digital photo editing, screenprinting, and some painting. So here’s a little bit of where I’m at just now
It’s looking a bit murky, I’m venturing into muted tones… (it’s weird out there!)
This is a series of experimental backgrounds.
I’d forgotton the salt on watercolor trick. It is actual magic!
Restricting colors to focus on form and layers.
White ink, then dilute black procion dye, then collaged.
I’m looking to get a slightly dream-like, ethereal quality…
This one doesn’t fit with the theme, so will wind up in a future project some day…
Dabbling in doodling. I want a taste of the post WW2 era print designs.
Playing with ink… bound to get a bit spattery 😉
Too dark, but I can see it meeting up with that other one from earlier.
I’ve got some part-written posts on other comings and goings which I must get round to finishing! Feet not touching the floor much these days – but I’ll be back again soon! 😀
Lordy, where has the time gone since I last posted….? I’ve missed our chats.
Student life is going from strength to strength – initial doubts replaced by a deep joy of the challenges. This week has been ‘reading week’ so college was closed, I’ve caught up on the day job & finally replaced my creaky 8 yr old computer in the office. In the odd moments in between I’ve been busy-ing on the quilt which has grown dramatically since I last showed you….
Also I got myself some Easy Batik I plan to play with this weekend – I’ll show you how it goes – I’m intrigued!! I also found out we can do real batik in school, and am super excited about this!
More soon… 😀
I have a question, I hope some of you textile-y folks may be able to answer…
I’ve got the urge to batik, and seen this stuff online, Dylon Easy Batik. My question is: have you ever tried it out, and how did you find it to use?
In the accidental gap year I found myself in last year, I determined myself to continue learning. I absorbed a wonderous feast of inspiration and enthusiam from the good folks of the internet. Yes, that includes you. I thank you sincerely.
I collected and devoured books and articles, blogs, tutorials and galleries (online and off). I explored new techniques and new media with whole-hearted abandon. I believe I learnt a lot.
Turns out I forgot a lot too.
I forgot the time lost to debating the obvious and making suposition about the intents behind all manner of art. With mind maps.
I forgot that for every hour in the classroom, at least another one or two are needed for research and time lost down figurative blind alleys. I forgot how the time it takes swells and nudges out of place all other aspects of day to day being.
I do remember having a big wobble at about this stage on my last course. The initial I’m an art student euphoria has burnt itself out and in its wake sits a mildly stunned version of me, in mini-crisis-of-intent. Just a stage in the process.
If you’ve visited here before you’ll have to noticed two of my favourite things are words and colors.
So dying a dictionary seemed the obvious thing for me to do.
30 years ago this month I began high school.
30 years ago? Lordy!
Equipped with the essentials dictated by the school, I now owned a Pocket Oxford Dictionary.
(At over 1000 pages and a good 2 inches thick, the average pocket size of an eleven year old child negated its title.)
Nonetheless this book has travelled with me through the decades.
Battered, dog-eared, with scribbled notes in the margins here n there…
… the spine went first but now it’s cover has separated totally from its papery wordfilled heart.
In it’s new incarnation – a colorful version of the former – it will one day become collage ingredients.
As an aside, I sometimes catch a glance of myself in my art room, as if from an outsiders perspective. I’m ironing torn, stained scraps of paper. Phrases like ‘not doing anyone any harm’ in bemused but sympathetic tones echo in my head. I smile. They just don’t understand. Anyway, I do it cos I have to and it makes me happy. Nuff said.
I’ve been dying fabric for the quilt lately. I’ve been dying fabric for years. It got me thinking: The only stage I don’t like is towards the end when the residue dye – as it’s no longer active – has to be poured away. Why? it’s mostly water. But something inside me winces, it’s beautifully colored water and I don’t want to waste a drop of color.
In my perpetual quest for ways to wring every last ounce of goodness out of every stage in a process, last week I had one of those why did I never think of this before epiphanies.
It’s no good to dye fabric with now, but it will dye paper!
Decanting the dye dregs into jam jars, rolling up scrap paper and standing them in the jar.
Then just let science take over: the water soaks in and climbs up the dry paper bringing the remaining pigment in its wake.
When they’re soaked through, or the water in the jar has dried up, or when I just need to clear some space I empty the lot into a bucket to finish intermingling and eventually dry.
It’s satisfying on so many levels: using up color, repurposing scrap paper, creating patterns for future collages and art works. It does it’s own thing when left to its own devices. It’s messy and unpredictable (just like me) And it’s effectively better than free!
More variations on the theme:
I love metaphors.
In my world knowledge presents itself as a corrridor full of doors.
Some are locked,
Some seemingly lead nowhere.
Keep on moving, keep trying the doors.
Many lead to another corridor. All these corridors are full of doors.
But gotta keep trying…
Today’s door opened to everything there is to photography beyond low-level point-shoot-n-hope set on auto. Totally loving college!
A little while ago I told you about my plan to make a quilt.
So far I’ve completed 9 5×5 squares……
I started by recycling a quilt I made years ago, stripping it down for usable fabric, but there wasn’t going to be enough to complete the project.
I scoured boot sales, charity shops and my wardrobe for possible cut-up-able clothing, and finally the shop-that-sells-everything came up trumps with 2 large offcuts of pink cotton velvet.
Although pink isn’t a color I plan to use, but I chose it for it’s 2 very easy options: + yellow = orange, and + blue = purple.
These arrived at the end of last week, so the weekend was dying time!
It has a certain wonky appeal, which I put down to IK‘s aversion to ironing.
More precisely, IK’s aversion to clearing space to set up the ironing board. Coupled with the memory of a sewing time many years ago when I let IK iron on the carpet instead of the ironing board. It didn’t end well for the carpet.
We ironed some pieces today (properly), they look much better for it. We agreed the ironing board should be left up while construction stage is still in progress! 😉
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