Marbleous

Moving on to the next experiment ---- this is marbling fabric with dye-na-flow paints and shaving cream.

Using a layer of unscented shaving cream smoothed out, I added drops of paint then swirled it around. I placed fabric over this and patted the fabric down so it would absorb the paint. I peeled the fabric off and scraped any excess shaving cream from the fabric.

Below are the results.

Should anyone have this much fun?

Another Play Day

This weeks experiment was trying monoprinting. I used a gelatin mold as my print plate from Rayna Gilman's book"Creating your own hand-printed cloth". The technique was simple, make a mold with non-flavored gelatin, spread some paint over it, make an impression on the paint and press fabric over the mold. I used previously hand-dyed fabric, and seta color and opague paints.

The first print I used bubble wrap on a lavender fabric and violet paint.


Second print I used flower stamps on white fabric and a blue paint. Around the edges I stamped excess paint from the stamps to give a negative print.

The last set I used a green fabric and a fern and an unknown weed and then ghost printed each.

To end the day I sun-printed on a batik with some weed leaves with an olive green paint.

This technique gave some great results and a wiggly-giggly feeling. Everything is fun with jello!

Batty about Batiks

Tuesday I batiked fabric again. It was such fun before, I had to do more.

This time I started with previous hand-dyed fabric as my first layer. I started with smaller designs first using soy wax and a tjanting tool. Overdyed the fabric with a darker color and let dry in the sun. I did some of the fabrics with a second layer of soy wax and larger designs and overdyed the fabric with a second darker dye.

These were done with one layer of soy wax.

And these were done with several layers of soy wax and dyes.

I feel I had more success this time around with the batiking. I learned to start off waxing with smaller designs first and with each layer of wax making the designs larger, also starting off with lighter dye colors and progressing darker.

Summer is more than half over and sooo many more surface design techniques to try!!!

We're in the middle of a heat wave now so I'll go back in the air-conditioning and continue with a work in progress.

Painting Saturday

I mixed up some Seta Color paints Saturday to sun-print fabric. Last year I sun-printed some leaves on orange painted fabric but never used it. So now I mixed some orange, red-orange and red-violet and painted, then added some salt to give some texture. This will work well with last years fabric.


Next I used two blues, ultra-marine and cobalt. I painted it onto fabric and added salt.

Using moss green, blue-violet and purple, I streaked it on then added some leaves and sun-printed.

Another fabric I painted red and red-violet, put washers on the top and sun-printed.

Last I tried using a light green batik fabric, painted over with turquoise, laid down leaves and sun-printed.

I did the same thing with this piece but used a dark green paint.

I really like the look of the added salt. It gives a lot of texture to the fabric. The leaves that were sun-printed are just fun.

It was a productive day and a fun technique.

Batik experiment

This past Wednesday my friend Martha and I tried soy wax batik. This was the first time either of us had done it.

We pre-soaked fabric in soda ash then used tjantings, empty thread spools, tjaps, luffas, and potato mashers to make our resist patterns. After the soy wax dried, we painted over the fabric with dyes thickened with sodium alginate. The fabrics were laid out in the sun to dry.

One of Martha's.

Mine.

Some of the fabrics were then reprinted with more soy wax and painted with a different color dye and dried again.

Martha's

Mine

Not always wanting white fabric showing, we tried previously hand dyed fabric. This gave a different starting point.

Martha's

Mine

At the end of the day we had some great fabrics. Will definitely do some more batiking before summers end.

Dyeing Fabric Fun

This past Saturday was such a sunny and cool day, I decided to dye some fabric outside. Using Procion MX dyes, I colored two different types of silk - dupion and habotai.

I got some colors that will work with silk tie samples I got from a friend.

Next I squirted some dyes onto silk velvet and swished the dyes around.

I had two different manufacturers of PFD fabric - Moda and Kona. I dyed some of each to see what the finished feel of the cloth would be. Kona feels rather thick, okay for piecing but I don't like it for applique. The Moda feels about the same.

My favorite cotton is Pimatex by Robert Kaufman. It has a feel similar to the commercial batik fabrics. The thread count is tighter and works much better for any type of applique.

I also dyed some organza. I needed very little dye for these since its so sheer.

It ravels quite a lot when washed and tangled up with the other fabrics. I wasn't sure whether to throw it in the dryer, (didn't want it to melt) so I draped it over a clothes rack. It got back its stiffness.

Further experiments with soy wax and shibori are in the future.

Play Day Experiments

Last Tuesday I had a play day with some art quilt friends. Each brought some art supplies and fabric to experiment with paints, inks, fabric markers, stamps, stencils, etc.

I tried some Tsukineko spray inks, spraying around the negative parts of stencils. I used many different colors, some I borrowed.
Above is sage sprayed with lilac walnut ink.

Oregano with cornflower walnut ink.

Carnations with cherry blossom walnut ink.

With the exception of the bugs, the fabrics are different yellow/green hand dyed fabric. The bugs are light blue hand dyed fabric.

The next day I outlined my stencils with a Sharpie black ultra fine marker and put in details.

Moth with cherry blossom walnut ink.

I then painted the insides of the stencils with Tsukineko inks.

Morning glories sprayed with terra cotta walnut ink.

Iris with eucalyptus walnut ink.

I also played around with stamping using Distress Ink Pads. Wasn't too happy with the results of what I made but it gave me some experience using the stamps and ink pads and the fun of experimenting without feeling it has to be made into a quilt.

I'm very happy with how the spray inks came out and will continue with the other flowers and bugs next rainy day.

Bleach Discharge Session

Last weeks fabric dyeing led to bleach discharging this week. I used a bleach pen, spray mister, and stencils on the fabrics below.

Then I folded fabrics, dipped the folds in bleach solution, the dark areas are the original fabric. Squiggles were made with a bleach pen, and a sprayed over stencil were done on the bottom fabrics.

I then tried using a commercial batik. The left is the original, the right was discharged with a bleach pen.

Each fabric was a surprise when discharged, didn't know what color any of the fabrics would change to. All were happy surprises.

At our guild meeting Tuesday, my students from the Beginner Hand-Dyeing class brought in their fabrics for show and tell. I think they're happy with the results.

Hand-dyeing Class

Last Tuesday, I taught a class at my guild (Warwick Valley Quilters Guild, web site http://www.wvqg.com/ ) on hand-dyeing fabric. The process I taught was low water immersion, a simple beginners course. They did basic colors, then some tints and shades, and ended with a couple of tie-dyes. Below are some pictures of the students. Don't they look like they're having fun!

They will be bringing in the finished results this coming Tuesday at our meeting. Will have some pictures of their work then.

I had some dyes left over (couldn't waste the dyes) so the next day I did some dyeing.

I also painted some dyes onto soda ash soaked black on white fabrics. I just squirted dyes on the fabric and smooched it around with my hands.

I used a lot of black dye mixed with red, blue, green and violet. These I plan to discharge. They're actually much darker than the picture.

The weather has been so rainy........I don't know when I'll get to do this.