I just wrapped up my first day at a week long fabric printing workshop at ProChem in Fall River, MA (home of Lizzie Borden). Fabric artist, Pat Pauly, is leading us in free-form methods of embedding thickened dye onto yards of fabric. Today we just got the hang of things and practiced using the tools for the rest of the week. THE tool of the day was a Bondo spreader/scraper. We used it like a palette knife to mix thickened dye on the white plastic table cover, then spread it over the fabric, practicing single strokes across the whole width of fabric. We also used stencils, but in an abstract manner. Unlike the stacked stencils I'm used to that require registration marks, these stencils were about creating texture and pattern. Many of us also had to let go of the idea of creating complete "whole cloth" prints. Like any piece of fabric, they will be cut up and turned into something else. I'm still working on getting over the "preciousness" of the final product.
In addition to the scrapers, we also used small foam rollers to dryly apply dye over thin stencils on the top. Or, like a leaf rubbing, by placing the motif under the fabric and lightly rolling over it.
The thickener is called Print Paste and is mostly sodium alginate. It's a powder mixed with water to create a gel that is added to the dye. This colorless paste is also used to dilute the dye creating a range of pastels, tones, textures, and streaks. All the samples here are still wet and won't be quite as vibrant once dried and rinsed out.
Our first exercise was a plaid sample using stripes of our mixed dyes- a yellow, a light red (orange), a magenta, a turquoise, and a dark blue. We also had black, but I didn't mix that into anything, today. Then, for the second sample, we mixed a dark color and created a dark to light ombre effect across the width of the fabric by mixing the colorless paste into the dye, breaking up the strokes as much as possible with the scraper.
In the polka dots, below, I used two stencils- a larger bubble like one and then the smaller dot is actually a stove top grease trap. Areas that have been printed act as a resist, so you can drag or scrape additional dye through them. After allowing the dots to dry for an hour, I then added the diagonal stripes.
The last print of the day was just way to clean the tables. I started by placing a piece of snow fencing under the fabric and lightly rolled over it with a dark blue. Then I scooped up all the excess dye on my table/palette and dragged it across a 1/2 yard of fabric in horizontal stripes.
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