Cold water immersion dyeing, using our own mix of dyes, followed by adapting last week’s stencil to get a negative image surrounded by an organic shape. Once I got my head around what the tutor was trying to suggest I do with the shape, this was surprisingly straightforward.
E21, one letter and two numbers, but about as close to my personal nirvana as is possible. The Morley College textile suite, E21 is where I’ll be on Thursdays this academic year.
First up, screen printing from a paper stencil. Trying to continue some of the sweeping shapes from last year’s Creative Textiles course, I drew ( !) this frond / blob / inebriated starfish in my sketchbook ( this is getting a bit serious).
Then cut in newsprint, and used to print with the screens that we stretched last week, I have transformed a very worn and tired looking old sheet into
Continuing with the now adhered stencil, and the addition of yellow print paste, gave these lovely firebird effects
The ombre effect is made by placing distinct blobs of different colours of the print paste on the screen and then dragging the blobs down the screen.
The shadow effects are caused by placing the wet screen down again on the existing print before the paste is dry. As with many textiles, these serendipitous effects are the ones I like the most, and will probably be impossible to recreate.
Inspired by the technique for Dresden plates in Karin Hellaby’s book, “Sew a Row” I have made twelve 12 finned Dresden plates. These have been machine appliqued to calico, sandwiched with batting and backing and are now ready to quilt. I’m using the Jacqui Harvey back stitch quilting method again, details can be seen below and then I’m going to try out quilt as you go as I want to do a mix of hand and machine quilting. Hadnstitching is done with Superior Threads, “Rainbows”, which is beautifully smooth to sew with.
everything is for gifts or swaps, so only non-identifiable glimpses can appear here
