Printing with acrylics on paper and fabric

At February's meeting we experimented with printing on paper and fabric using simple shapes. Here are some examples from around the room (in no particular order):

Do bring anything you make from your printed pieces along to a future meeting, we'd love to see them.

Karen

Meetings planned up to July

At the February meeting we discussed topics for the next few meetings. Here is what was decided. Dates for all this year's meetings can be found on the meeting dates page (see above).

Sun 16th March – Silk papers made from cocoon strippings – Julie will show us how we can embed threads and snippits of fabric in our papers. She’ll also show us how the silk paper can be moulded over bowls to form 3D pieces.

 

Sat 12th April – procion dyes – this will be an opportunity for those of you who want to do some more resist dyeing, clamp dyeing, parfait dyeing etc. and Leah will demonstrate ice dyeing. There will be a couple of group activities for those who want to take part. We will be dyeing a large piece of fabric to be divided up and each person gets a piece to use as a base to add layers of colour during workshops during in the year. Please also bring any ugly fabrics that you have dyed or printed but don’t like – we’ll have a lucky dip then see if we can’t turn some ugly ducklings into beautiful swans!

 

Sun 18th May – To be decided. We were trying to arrange a workshop on batik...

 

Sat 14th June – Using text to create texture – Leah and Julie will demonstrate a few techniques and then let us all experiment! Leah will bring procion dyes so that we can work onto cloth. The dyes will also work on paper but you may prefer to bring different inks. You’ll also be able to use the dyes on any pieces of batik you have from the previous class.

 

Sun 20th July – Cyanotype and sun printing are planned.

 

Prints from September's meeting

Before we have another meeting tomorrow, here are a few photos from last month's meeting.

This one uses children's building blocks to produce a cityscape.

The rest use homemade print blocks.

June meeting - Paper lamination

At our next meeting on Sunday 16 June, Leah will be running a workshop on paper lamination. This is a method of transferring images or text to a sheer fabric. She will also show how to use paper lamination to make stencils.

Here is an example in which Leah has used paper lamination to transfer images.

If you want to do the workshop you will need to bring -

Sheer fabric – polyester voile is a good place to start - it can take lots of scrubbing and is ideal for making paper lamination stencils. You can use any sheer (except nylon) - you can use white or coloured depending on what you're trying to achieve. 

Matte medium - both Liquitex and Golden Matte Medium are suitable. Leah will bring some, but if you've got some of your own you might want to bring it along. 

Papers and imagery - you can use sheets of newspaper or sheets of cheap printer paper to make simple stencils. However you'll also need to collect some images to transfer. Paper lamination is a very inexact process so think in terms of colour and texture rather than sharp images. Newspaper is the easiest paper to work with so collect interesting images or just work with sections of text. Collect plenty and tear them out rather than cut. You can also use laser printed / copied images if you want to work with one of your own photographs or with something you've found in a book / magazine. Glossy paper from magazines won't work. Nor will stuff printed onto photo paper. Most inkjet printers use ink which will bleed into the matte medium so are unsuitable. 

Other stuff - 

Print board with drop cloth 

Sheet of heavy plastic for scrubbing unused paper off (plastic coated table cloth will do) 

Ball headed pins to pin fabric down 

If you have one - Silk Screen + cheap 2 inch masking tape + squeegee.
Freezer paper + cutting board + craft knife to make masks for your silk screen (you could make something before the meeting but remember to think about negative space if you're going to make a stencil). 
Or thermofaxes if you have them.

Other ways of applying the matte medium - brushes, credit card, textured rollers etc. 

Couple of plastic pots / containers + plastic spoons 

Parchment paper 

Bucket

For examples of how paper lamination can be used have a look at

http://www.parallelstextiles.com/index.html

http://www.christinechester.com/gallery.html

Usual arrangements for lunch.

Printing session Sunday 21 April

Ten people came along for a meeting where we were printing with thickened Procion dyes and discharge paste.

Thanks go to Leah for preparing all the colours and paste we were using. We had a delicious selection of colours to choose from: two reds, blues and yellows, plus black, brown and petrol green. Here they are:

I hadn't had much time to think about what I was going to do, so just threw a load of stuff in the car. In the end I made a couple of small print blocks inspired by Hundertwasser's paintings (the subject of a recent workshop). I used these to print, first with discharge paste on black and green cotton and black velvet, and then with thickened dye on white cotton.

The discharge paste was great fun and easy to use. I have used household bleach before, but we used Formosol mixed with with print paste, which was much easier to control. You use it just like thickened dye and can apply it with stamps or by screen printing, including with thermofax screens. After applying it to your fabric, you just have to wait for it to dry and then iron to activate. The design appears like magic and gets paler the more you iron it. Finally, you have to wash the fabric to get rid of the print paste and stop any further bleaching.

Here are my fabrics, after washing and ironing, plus my print blocks.

If any members have a photo of their fabric from the printing session that they don't mind sharing, please send me a copy I'll post it on the blog.

Details of the next meeting will appear shortly.