Anomene Fever

Spent some time yesterday making a print block loosely resembelling an Anomene. It was made from "funky foam", again from a local toy shop and glued onto a block. The images were printed using fabric paint onto previously dyed and printed fabric. Am liking the layered look and may continue further. The green leaves were stencilled on before printing the flowers. May need to consult "The Painted Quilt" book by the Kempshalls for some inspiration.

Block and Screen Printing

Decided to do a bit of further work on the fabrics dyed last weekend. Have had a play with screenprinting in the past and decided to resurrect my old battered screen and squeegie! The screen itself is just a wooden frame covered in a piece of fine net, crude but works. The stencil for the flowers was cut from greaseproof paper and attached, with masking tape, to the front of the screen. I used screen inks to print with, again have had them for about 10 years but wonderfully they've withstood the test of time! I then printed the black centre with a foam dot when the flower was dry.
The spirals were a block print made from childrens pre-cut foam shapes (from a local toy shop) glued to a piece of board. The photo's not great but i printed onto tissue paper and scrim as well as the large painted background. I used fabric paints and a sponge to coat the block then straight down onto fabric and voila!
Now, what shall i do with these? May print further but not sure yet.

and also..

Had a go at painting the dyes directly onto pre-treated (soaked in soda solution) fabric, using the method in Ruth Issetts book "Colour on Cloth"
The first photo is when wet, the second when dry and the third when washed. I like soft muted colours so the final piece was pleasing but will need further experimentation to produce strong colours. Having never used Urea when dyeing fabric only salt i replaced the "Chemical Water" (recipe in the book) which contains Urea with a salt solution. I do like to go along on my own merry way sometimes!
Perhaps the inclusion of Urea would deepen the colour??? Any tips gratefully recieved. I used a pippette to "splodge" the dye onto the fabric, liking the feathery look it gave. My try to get a darker finished piece or may not as softer tones are much more me.

...a bit more

These were dyed in plastic bags. The larger piece in the background is tissue paper which i often colour with spent dye.

Been Dyeing!

I really enjoy dyeing my own fabrics to use in projects so yesterday I set out armed with fabric and dyepots. The first photo is of a bargain fabric picked up in a local shop on saturday. It's a Viscose Linen and was £2.69 a metre. When i read on the label it was Viscose i knew how well it would absorb procion dyes and wasn't disappointed.
Silk organza, muslin, percale cotton and the viscose linen were all in the same dye bath and absorbed the dye in varying degrees. I used three colours pouring them into the bath one after another, raspberry, red brown and magenta. The percale is the lightest in colour and the organza the darkest. Was pleased with the results so now i need to get on and use them!

Hood Bag!

Finally I'm able to post something having been "blog dormant" for a while. Been busy with some library books teaching myself "How to Draw". Not sure I've achieved the desired outcome but will continue to practice, after all isn't that what makes perfect!! Somehow i can't see that ever happening!
Well here's a photo of the bag I made from the hood of one of the jumpers on the last but one post. I just cut the hood off and prised the two layers apart, as it was lined originally with a knitted inner layer as well as the outer . This gave me a perfect ready made bag shape complete with velvet ribbon detail. The handles were the rib at the bottom of the jumper, cut off and stitched in half.
It's a gift for a colleague at work who's leaving who enjoys cross stitch so have made it as a small project bag with a drawstring top. Needle case to match still a work in progress!

...and another one

This arrived in the post yesterday from Mandi who's in Ireland visiting her parents. Inspired by a trip to the Giants Causeway it's just lovely. Thanks!
PS. Have finally worked out how to turn off the flash on my camera so am hoping for improved photo's from now on!