Dual dramatic devore

Last week of term at Morley, so a dash to consolidate this term's learning ( as well as she a great group lunch outside in the garden).

Using my swirling screen, which I now think it too overpowering to use on its own, but which works when overlaid with a paper stencil of circles


I did some devore on a white silk / viscose satin ( this term has been more costly in terms of fabric required). I forgot my camera again, so did not photograph each stage of this process, but the steps were:

prepare paper stencil
apply devore paste to the silk / viscose satin through the screen
hot acid dye in the first colour ( burgundy, purply colour)
rinse thoroughly
dye again but this time in Procion MX blue/turquoise

As the fibres take the dye differently, the effect is this wonderful two-coloured piece.



After lunch a scramble to use up this term's print pastes. Setting up another open screen with masking tape to produce a grid along the lines of the devore on the velvet, I applied the pastes along the print well in blobs of two colours, to give these lovely ombre ( graded shades) effects.

First of all, aubergine and teal on top of an indigo, shibori dyed cotton


Then, the same shades on a piece of white cotton sateen


I have also managed to put needle to textile this week as well, with more success with the lattice smocking


Quite different end result with the cotton being much flatter than the synthetic printed textile.

Divine devore, a finish and a new stitching experience

So, after this long, thankfully I got to Morley on Thursday and carried on working with devore and hot acid dyeing. Devore is a many-stepped process, so it is not surprising that the fabrics are usually costly and used in clothing with minimal cutting and seaming.

Starting from this white silk/viscose velvet



which progressed via this screen printed design ( which I'm calling "Frank Lloyd Wright meets Charles Rennie Mackintosh at the Willow Tea Rooms")



to finish as this wonderful teal scarf, dyed using Kemtex hot acid dyes.



I hope I'll be able to repeat this colour, as I did take notes while I added a dash of the and a smidgeon of that.

Next up, a finished cot quilt. Liberty lookalike braid panels ( donated to our group) machine pieced with neutral panels, and then hand-quilted a la Nikki Tinkler.



Lessons learned from this one,

1 if you are going to use a quilting stencil, make sure you remember which way up you placed your cables, so that they are going in the direction you want - please don't ask me any I am writing that one

2 if you are going to use hand-dyed threads ( particularly red) makes sure to test them for colour-fastness first

3 similarly, if you are going to use a thread that gives a unique finish, make sure that you can get more of it before you start your project


As my samples from Morley are accumulating, I'm using some of the synthetics to try out stitching methods that I've never tried. First up, lattice smocking

A bit all over the place, not helped by the fact that is was done while watching the extended version of " The Fellowship of the Ring", but worth exploring further.

Not blogging, but coughing

With apologies to Stevie Smith. No creativity going on as I'm full of the cold, and have no voice. Normal transmission will be resumed shortly, I hope.

Two pieces in "Made at Morley"

Two bags were accepted in to the exhibition, however, I forgot to take my camera so no photos until next week.

There is a very wide range of work in this exhibition, so do go in if you are near there.

Stuffed and stitched

A day at Morley to consolidate technique by revisiting some previous textile marking methods. First up, indigo shibori, but this time with the stitched circles stuffed with polyester wadding to try to avoid white pleating in the centre of the stitched circles.


Somewhat successful: two ends of a single length of cotton sheeting, about 40cm x 180cm




I and quite pleased with the effect in the centre of the smaller circles and will explore this further. I forgot that the polyester wadding would be very buoyant, such that the stuffed parts were bobbing about on the surface of the indigo vat rather than immersing.

I tried using a couched cord wavy lines instead of stitching to gather the folds in the centre of the piece. Very quick to do on the sewing machine, but it gave marks that were much less distinct


Next, a bit of batik, trying to write text, ( about 20cm x 30cm). In the indigo bath for a much shorter time, hence the lighter colour


I also did a bit of foiling, screen printing, and cold water dyeing but those pieces are not photographing well under artificial light, so photographs of these will have to wait.

If you are near Morley between 15-29 March, do visit the gallery to see "Made at Morley" an exhibition of pieces made by students on the textile courses. Work has to be curated in, so I won't know until next week if I have had my submissions accepted.

When thoughts turn to cleaning the grouting with a toothbrush……..

it is really time to get on with some serious creative activities that involve mess.





Leading to transformation from this

to this


Indigo twist over dyed with Procion MX twist dyeing

And then tray overdyeing of screen printed image

Transferred dots

Experimenting with painting disperse dyes directly on to synthetic fabric and investigating differing degrees of diffusion of the dye through the cloth. The background was dyed first and then the dots war painted on. Interestingly, the fewer dots in a circle, the more the dye spread through the fabric. I should probably know the physics of the, but I can't drag it out of my memory. The fuchsia was a mix of fuchsia and black, hence the fine dark ring on the outside of the circles.

The next piece was painted with stock concentration and a 1/8 dilution. The dilution spread so much that there was no definition of the dots, just a very laborious way to get a wash of colour. The spirals of dots were painted with the stock solution mixed with indulca to thicken the dye and limit the spreading. As ever, lots to explore.