Sunday 12 November 2006

Printmaking 101 - Fabric Sample

I was just relaxing the other night when I had a brainwave! As those of you who read my blog regularly will know I am currently taking an online Printmaking 101 class with some members of the Surfacing group. We are into week 5. All of the printmaking is for paper and I have done little, if any, printing to fabric this past little while. I decided as a memento of the course I would do a piece of complex cloth.

The picture you see above is the result. I used a hand dyed/bleach discharged background which I did in the summer (60" x 60"). It was just waiting for something to be done with it.

The first print was taken from a piece of cardboard cut into a square to which I added 1" strips of masking tape in a grid with no gaps (I hope that makes sense). I painted the tape with a mixture of blue/yellow fabric paint, not mixed xompletely as I wanted some yellow to show. I then "printed" the fabric.

I made a further block by cutting polystyrene shapes which I glued to cardboard. I painted the shapes with a mixture of red/blue fabric paint which gave me a nice rich deep red.

The final print was taken from another piece of cardboard which I covered with double sided tape to which I applied some string in a freehand design. I had some trouble when I printed to paper with other blocks I made with string last week. I found it hard to get the paint on the string and NOT on the surrounding tape/card. I found a neat way to overcome this. I painted an overhead transparency with gold fabric paint and while holding the string block string side up I laid the transparency on top of the string and with a rotating motion applied the ink to the string and very little, if any, paint transferred to the area surrounding the string. This made for a rather nice clean print on the fabric.


Here is a closeup of the fabric. You can see here how clean the string print is. I laid the fabric on a pile of newspapers which gave a nice surface for printing. I think this piece has enough on it now. What do you think? Does it need more or should I just layer and quilt it. I think it will be a nice memento of my very first Printmaking course. Now what should I call it? Any suggestions would be very welcome.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

This is lovely Carol, you have been working hard.

Terri Stegmiller said...

This printed fabric is beautiful. Hi, I recently discovered your blog and have enjoyed looking at your work. I also enjoy painting/printing on fabric.

Carol said...

Hi Carol,

I just thought I would like to try some of the techniques on fabric. I was and am struggling with the drypoint so at least this was constructive.

Carol

Carol said...

Hi Terri,

Thanks for dropping by. I hd a look at your blog this morning and I do love your handbag.

Congratulations on your win!

Carol

Liz Plummer said...

I love what you've been doing on this course, Carol. And I've just discovered your blog - am just settling down now for a good read.

Shirley Goodwin said...

I think it probably has enough printing on it now to complete it. The piece suggests "Sky Windows" to me.

Rayna said...

It's a whole cloth piece and it's done! Beautiful - please post after you've stitched it.

Carol said...

Hi Liz, Shirley and Rayna,

I think you are right ladies, it's finished. I couldn't think of anything else to add so I guess it was telling me something.

It's back on the design wall and I will layer it at the weekend. I have no idea how I will stitch it yet.

Carol