Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Discharge Monday

Monday was discharge day. Discharge with bleach. I used several blacks manufactured by different companies, my hand dyed fabric and commercial batiks. I wanted to see if there were any differences with the blacks and how the batiks and hand dyes would bleach out. I also used bleach thickener on some.

Below are some of my samples.

The top fabric was shiboried with a 50% bleach and 50% water solution on a Robert Kaufman black fabric. The bottom was taped with pieces of masking tape and sprayed with the 50/50 bleach solution using Timeless Treasures black fabric, this came out a peachy/cream color that I really like.


The left fabric was a hand dyed fabric that started out a very dark blue/green. I used a cut-out of a tree branch from a stencil I carved for another project and sprayed 50/50 bleach, water solution. The results really surprised me. The right was a hand dyed fabric that started as a red/violet. I used 2 TBS bleach thickener and 1/4 c of bleach and 1/8 c water, and sponged with a couple different pieces of foam sponges.

The left fabric was twisted in a swirl and squirted 50/50 bleach and water solution in the folds. This was an unknown black batik. The right was a Gee's Bend dark red solid that I shiboried with a 50/50 bleach solution. Another real favorite.

The left was a hand dyed fabric I squirted with yellow and blue dyes and swished around. I used a purchased stencil on it with thickened bleach. The right was a blue/green hand dyed fabric that I used a Clorox bleach pen on for water ripples.


These are commercial batiks that I used purchased stencils with bleach thickener.

After the fabrics bleached to the colors I wanted I rinsed in water, then put in Anti-Chlor solution for about 15 minutes, rinsed again and then machine washed and ironed.

I had a great time experimenting with this process and will do again later this summer.

2 comments:

Thelma said...

Love the results you got. Discharge is something I would love to get into more. I've done a little but not much.

Beverly said...

Lovely results! You might want to try using Soft Scrub with bleach, or dishwasher detergent with bleach and not mess with thickening bleach. Takes a bit longer, but a lot less fumes.