Painting with dyes

Today I finally got round to painting my sample screen prints with my procion dyes.

I'm really pleased with how the colours have turned out so I'm definitely going to use the same process on my final garment. I will just have to be very careful not to drip any dye by accident whilst I am painting the real thing!

Sampling

I began sampling with fabric today. I started by experimenting with how I could use the embroidery transfers in way that would be different from their original intended use.

First I ironed on a transfer, and then painted the image with procion dyes.

Then I did the same, but machine embroidered the outline of the image in dark brown before painting with the dyes.

I also experimented with how it would look like if the dyes bled through the outline. I achieved this by dampening the areas to be painted first with water.

I like how both effects have turned out. They reminded me of a vintage souvenir scarf that I have. My mum told me that both my samples and the scarf look like a technique used to decorate ceramics called 'clobbering'. This is when a transfer is fired on to ceramics and then children hand painted the design, which is why the colours go outside the line.

The sample below was inspired by a variety of visual inspiration that I had collected for my Pinterest board.

The collage below was taken from a similar picture of seedlings in pots from my visual research and I decided to use the seedling motif in a similar way to the textile artist Viv of Hens Teeth who I have mentioned in a previous post.

The above print and ariel shot of allotments below immediately suggested a patchwork design to me. I want to evoke the mismatch rows of plots whilst still keeping a certain colour harmony with the varying shades of green. Unlike a traditional patchwork the plots are a bit higgledy piggly and rough around the edges, so to suggest this I will try to create a patchwork effect by using a appliqué technique.

Floral image transfer

During my initial research I came across a method used to transfer the natural colour in flowers and leaves onto fabric. You can find a tutorial here if you are interested on trying out the process yourself.

In the tutorial they used violas which gave quite an effective result, so since I have them growing on my allotment I thought that I would try with them to start with.

As you can see, the results can be a bit hit and miss, if you'll excuse the pun.

This is with verbena and forget-me-not flowers. I was expecting the forget-me-nots to come out really bright blue, but they came out a bit smudgy, the verbena came out well though.

These are rocket leaves and flowers. The leaves came out well because they are an interesting shape but the flowers just turned out like yellow blobs. I think it was because they are quite delicate.

My top tips for using this process is to choose flowers that are quite flat in shape and that are not too delicate to handle. The flowers turn out best if they are placed face down on the fabric. It is important to use a light coloured natural fabric and flowers with strong colours to get a clear crisp effect.

Although I would use this process again, I don't think I will be using this process on my final outcome as the results are varied. I think it would work best to try lots of flowers and then cut them out and appliqué them onto your finished textile work. That way you can be more selective and only use the best results.