Improvised printing

I have been trying to find a good surface on which to do more fabric printing.  The best combination so far for home-based, restricted space, seems to be the broad ironing board, with 4 layers of blanket, and a layer of calico.  Yesterday's experiments were more roses on the blue dyed cloth with Liquitex fabric paint ( applied to the stamp with a brayer) in two blues and a mixed purple.  Good transparency with these and the hand of the fabric hasn't changed much. Good wash-resistance as well, tested this morning.

I then got very improvisational and rolled the remaining paint, diluted with water,  from the brayer onto unpinned cloth on the printing surface.  I like how industrial this looks.

I'm going to use this bit in a journal quilt.

Today's sunshine is a welcome contrast to the sky earlier this week.

October journal - 2 months late….A river runs through it

The River Thames has been an important part of my life since I moved to the western suburbs. Walking the paths, cycling by it, supervising wobbly scooter rides,visiting events, and even once, being part of a the team on a dragon boat that paddled 26 miles down it. This is the shape of the river between Twickenham and Teddington with colours that portray different seasons of the year.  The postcode is given a bit of lip service here in the bottom corner.  This is much more regularly shaped than it seems here, just struggling to gets a photo in daylight at present.

Block printing, felt applique, watercolour crayon, machine quilting on recycled cotton sheeting.

Trees, continued

Morley this week, and back to my printing project to do with damaged trees, Paul Nash, bleeding canker, the garden museum, wounds, bark, trenches, identity tags - as my tutor says, I could be getting a bit overwhelmed by my subject matter and need to simplify.

Experiments with painting thickened dye paste directly on the screen

experimenting with polystyrene blocks

Finally, a tree image

Tree printed

This could finally be gong somewhere.

Practical stitching

I now need a laptop sleeve, as I will be travelling more in my new job. and carrying my laptop with me.  I haven't found anything for sale that I really like, so I used this piece of cloth to make my own.   There are two layers of cotton wadding in this, so the quilting had to be done with a large stitch.

Front, with loops for pens or key fobs.

Back.

Straps, which are webbing embroidered with a favourite thread.
The double zips, to allow it to be fully unzipped at airports, were a challenge, but I'm glad I had a go at these.
More carved marking tape at Morley this week, on top of a ProcionP background, created with a notched foam brush - obviously needs ironing!

Work on display at Morley College

The work of the participants in the Printed Textiles course is on display at Morley for the next two weeks.  The broad theme was earth, air, fire and water and I have pieces in the earth, fire and water sections.

Earth, mine is the white silk scarf with the squiggly circles, at top right.

Fire, mine is at the top, tray-dyed linen sheet.

Water, mine are at the bottom, below the lovely silk shibori.

The air exhibit is this amazing dress, made with silk fabric that has been printed using the breakdown screen method with Procion P pastes.

Angie Lewin - glorious design, and upcoming exhibition

I have just picked up a copy of "Plants and Places" by Angie Lewin from our local library. I am treating myself to an hour with it, after being soaked, and stabbed by rather large hailstones, on my bike.



It is glorious: excellent print design, beautiful photography and superb heavy paper.

Even better, there is an exhibition of her prints in London for the next two weeks, here, and should coincide with a planned visit to this year's Prism exhibition, "Hidden Places, Hidden Spaces".

So much to see, so little brain available to absorb it all.

Morley Montage

Our final session for this term was last Thursday, so a fair amount of last minute printing went on , along with a good lunch at The Three Stags.

I had made a furoshiki bag from some of my printed fabric, after seeing them at the V and A , gasping at the price, and after much pondering, and web-searching, found a way to make my own version. I took this along to Morley, and my classmates were very complimentary.



The art work, shown a few posts ago, has now been transferred to a permanent photo printing screen. I still find it incredible that I started with a blob of paint, made some scratch marks and under the guidance of our great tutor, Marian, have some up with an interesting and unique image with which to print.

Much printing later, these are Thursday's results.


The paper cut has now also been transferred to a permanent screen. I thought I would prefer this image, but it has turned out not to be the case. It seems more limited in scope, not lending itself to overprinting, and unforgiving of mistakes.


No class for three weeks, I'll be bereft. I have brought some dye home, so hopefully there will be some time in the Xmas mayhem for some experiments.