Flour Paste Resist

I've been wanting to try this resist method for years, but for whatever reason, didn't get around to it until last week. The process is explained well in Jane Dunnewold's Art Cloth book and Sue Beevers'  Off-the-Shelf Fabric Painting book. There have also been numerous articles about it in Quilting Arts Magazine over the past few years.  Basically I made a paste of half water, half flour, whisking it smooth.  I stretched and pinned my fabric to a padded board with T-pins.  The fabric I used had been previous ice-dyed, but needed more texture and pattern.  I used a squeegee and applied a thin layer of the paste to the fabric. I used a notched trowel, like those used for tile setting, and made some patterns into the paste with that.  I also used a bamboo skewer to do some doodling and writing.  You need to make sure you are scratching all the way through to the fabric, so there will be an opening through which to brush in the paint. Then I set it outside to dry.

Once it dried, I crushed it to get crackles through the paste.  I even crunched it up and put it in the freezer for a few hours and then did more crushing of it.  It was hard to see what and how many openings I had created .  I stretched it out again on the padded surface and used a synthetic, flat,  acrylic paintbrush to push in black Setacolor paint.  I painted over the whole piece really pressing that paint into the surface in many directions.  Then I set it outside to dry.

I let it sit for three days so the paint would really adhere to the fabric.  Then I let it soak in a bucket of water to loosen the paste.  I rinsed out all the paste, let it dry, and ironed it to further set the paint.  Then I washed it twice.

Closeup 1

Closeup 2

Closeup 3

This piece was sun-printed first.  I used a stencil in applying the paste and the trowel.

Arashi Fabric using Three Poles

I've been taking a great online class, taught by Jane Dunnewold, called The Art of Cloth Dyeing,   through Craftsy http://www.craftsy.com/  .  I have both of her books and have thoroughly enjoyed them and refer to them often.  Wasn't even sure if I needed to take the class, but got it at half price for $25.00, which is far cheaper then going to one of the four day classes she teaches, especially when you add in lodging and travel expenses. Not saying I wouldn't love to go to one of those, but just don't have the dough. Having been a dyer for some time and teaching dyeing as well, most of the material is review for me, but have learned some new things here and there. I enjoy her teaching style and demeanor as well.

However, dyeing using more than one pvc pole was something completely new to me. When you want to dye a larger piece of fabric, wrapping it around one pvc pole, even a wide diameter one, there is still fabric that won't have contact with the dye.  This is a way to get the dye to reach all of the fabric. I didn't do it quite like Jane teaches in the class.  She immerses the poles into liquid dye with soda ash.  I like to presoak the fabric and squirting the dyes, so I can use multiple colors.

This fabric was ice-dyed first and had a lot of white, uninteresting areas.  It's about a yard. I pre-soaked the fabric in soda ash and let it line dry. Next,  I stitched three lines, using the largest stitch on my machine,  to create sleeves so I could insert three PVC poles, one into each.

Here are the poles through the fabric

This picture shows the fabric compressed on the poles.

I put them into a plastic lined garbage can lid and squirted diluted dye.  Then it was allowed to batch for 24 hours to give the dye time to attach to the fabric.

Here is the finished fabric.  It has some wonderful layers of textures, pattern, and colors as you can see in the closeup photos below.

Over-dyeing T-Shirts and Fabric

Here are  pictures of the two T-Shirts and one fabric that I over-dyed yesterday.

Here's the shirt after it's first shibori dyeing last February.  It definitely needed something more.

So I accordion folded it lengthwise (after soaking it in soda ash for 15 minutes), securing it with rubber bands and string wound tightly.  I then placed it in a plastic box and squirted black  dye on it. After it batched for 24 hours, rinsed it out and voila!  I think it looks a lot better. It's  a nice weight, not too thin, Hanes Extra Large shirt.  It's for sale for $20.  Let me know if you are interested.

Below is the before picture of this Lands End 2X shirt.

 Here's the shirt again with a closeup below, after doing arashi shibori using Cerulean Blue dye.  This one is more subtle, with some very nice nuances of colors.  It's also $20 and for sale.

The last piece I did yesterday was to over-dye an ice-dyed piece.

I accordion folded this piece, fitting it snugly into a box and used black mixed with some fuchsia squirted sparingly on it.  I think it's more exciting now, due to the  contrast, but I also liked the mood of it when it was quieter. 

Garden Update and Over-dyeing

This is my 101st post.  Can't believe it!  Seems like yesterday when I started this. Thank you to all my lovely readers.

Did some over-dyeing of T-shirts and fabric today, that needed an extra punch.  Will have pictures of them tomorrow after they batch for 24 hours.

Meanwhile, I've been very busy keeping up with all the vegetables in the garden.

Above are the beets, which taste great, especially with the lemon boy tomatoes and a little goat cheese.

 Here are the squash and cucumbers.  Today, I made Gerkensalat, a German cucumber salad my mom used to make with onion, vinegar, and a little sugar.  So refreshing!

The cute little pepper plant.

A variety of lettuce, rainbow chard, basil and mint for those mojitos

One of the Lemon Boy tomato plants with lots of tomatoes

Sunflower getting ready to bloom.  I really like how the light shines through the leaves and their wonderful edges.

Controlled Burn Accepted into San Luis Obispo's Dimensions Show

I received  news yesterday that "Controlled Burn" was accepted into the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art's  Dimensions Show,  which will feature a variety of mediums, including wood, glass, metals, clay, fiber, etc.  The show will run from September 5th through October 12th, with an opening reception September 5th.  I feel very honored and excited.  Here's a picture of "Controlled Burn."

This was a shibori piece that I felt turned out well.  I first dyed the center piece yellow green and then did the arashi shibori in red over it.  I love the little bits of turquoise that show through here and there.

Round Three: The Fabric That Wasn't Meant to Be

After  making a new silkscreen design that didn't work due to my thermofax machine not working  correctly, I've come to the conclusion that this fabric is  not to be.  I need to send my machine off to someone who knows how to fix them.  The heat is not consistent and the image is not getting burned all the way through.  So in screening, a little ink comes through here and there, like a dot to dot drawing.  Does anyone have any suggestions on who to send it to?

Yesterday I took the day off and went kayaking with friends in Morro Bay.  We had a great time and a lovely lunch spent catching up with each other.

After lunch I stopped at the Cotton Ball in Morro Bay and found a fabric pretty similar to the one I was trying to create. So, on with the quilt.  Will revisit my blue fabric at a later time and do something with it.

On the way home, I stopped to take pics of these very cool rusty trucks.  Rusty trucks seem to be featured in a lot of artwork these days.  There's just something about them.  Some rust designs have such beautiful metal patinas caused by the oxidation of the metal. It will be fun  to play around with these in photoshop and see what I can get.

Round Two: Discharging Design onto Fabric

I unwrapped the arashi shibori fabric yesterday and was surprised that it was all blue.  I believe I used too much dye.  One thing this did prove was that procion dyes can last over a year, as long as they are kept refrigerated and no soda ash has been added to it.  I had this dye in a small refrigerator in the barn for over a year and a half.

So I decided to wash it out thoroughly and try using discharge paste to create some white patterns.  I silk-screened a design onto the cerulean blue fabric.

Below is the discharged piece drying on the line yesterday evening.

Here is a closeup of the pattern.

Today I steam ironed the fabric, like you are suppose to do, and it turned a very light blue  where the discharge paste had been applied.  I had hope for it to be more white, but know you don't always get all the way back to white.  Next, I rinsed it in soapy water, and hung it to dry.  I was very disappointed to see that as it dried ALL the pattern disappeared.  I don't know why that happened.  I have used the paste before with great results.  I have emailed Jacquard Products to ask them 

what they think went wrong. 

Meanwhile, I am gearing up for Round Three to create pattern on this piece.  I am going to try blockprinting or silkscreening white paint  on it in some kind of wave design.  Wish me luck!