Extraordinary Prints from Ordinary Objects - D

D is for Discharge!

I stencilled this fabric. (Not all fabrics discharge to white). 

Discharging Is the fancy name for removing colour form dyed fabrics. 

The regular household chlorine bleach works well on all cellulose fibres

(cotton, linen, rayon, bamboo etc), but will cause discolouring and deterioration 

in most other natural fabrics. Not all dyed fabrics are in fact dischargeable - 

it all depends on what kind of dyes have been used to dye the fabric originally. 

If you dye your own fabrics, any fibre reactive dyes will discharge beautifully. 

The variety of techniques you can use for discharging are almost endless. 

In fact a lot of the tools that you use for adding colour to cloth can also be used 

to remove colour!

Once the dark fabric has been discharged, you need to rinse and neutralize the 

bleach - in order to stop the bleach from eating holes into your fabric. 

The same goes for any tools you use - bleach is notorious for consuming brushes 

unless they have synthetic bristles.

http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/FAQ/neutralizingdischarge.shtml is a great site for this info. 

On this fabric I used a brush to discharge the black.

Pole wrapped and discharged to a lovely rich brown.

I screen printed the discharge paste onto silk noile
using Rongalite (which works on silk) instead of bleach.

Colour Vie pigments do not discharge, but can be added
afterward for layering and added surface details.
www.colourvie.com

For the black silk crepe de chine scarf I added
colour Vie pure pigment to the Rongalite
discharge paste, so that colour was added at the
same time as the black silk was discharged.

Dorothy Caldwell uses bleach discharge in her fabric pieces.
www.davidkayegallery.com/

Detail showing Dorothy's stitching and patching.

Extraordinary Prints from Ordinary Objects - C

C is for Credit card!

The raised areas will dry flat and dark.

Credit cards a good for many things, like shopping,
but more importantly: PRINTING! 

Your old credit card or any bit of stiff plastic or card can be used.
1. Using pigments, paint your fabric in a pale colour
    Colour Vie is ideal (www.colourvie.com)
2. While the first coat is still wet, paint over it with a darker hue.
3. Use the credit card to remove some of the top layer of colour.
4. ENJOY!

I scraped off the top layer using an old credit card

Possibilities are endless

Here I used the bathmat technique, then the credit card

Student work

Extraordinary Prints from Ordinary Objects - B!

B is for Bath-mat!

Second week of printing the alphabet - and B it is!

Scraped (top of mat) and dry brushed using the back of the mat

1. Take  your lowly dollar store bath mat - or a fancier one. 

One of my students once brought in her wedding gift bat mat - great pattern!

2. Using pigments (I favour Colour Vie), paint your fabric in a pale colour

3. While the fabric is still wet, paint over the first colour with a darker hue.

4. Slip the bath mat under the fabric

5. Using a scraper of some kind (I like dry wall smoothers), 

scrape off the top layer of pigment. 

The suction cups on the mat were put under the fabric and dry brushed
using metallic pigment

A different kind of mat, scraped

Metallic gold added to the  scraping

Student work

This technique and several others are described in  my Instructional Guides 

“Creating Textures” and “Creating Textures: Soft Textures”. 

Mention “Bath-mat” and receive a special price of $12 (+ shipping and tax) for both guides. www.colourvie.com

Extraordinary Prints from Ordinary Objects!

A is for Apple

This Fall I have been very excited to be teaching a bunch of workshops 

and meeting wonderful, creative people all over Ontario. 

Since I had to spend so much time out of town, this means that there are 

no workshops in the Colour Vie studio until some time after the New Year.

 (I will let you know as soon as I have the Spring 2013 Workshop dates available)

Meanwhile I decided to share some amazing prints and how they are produced 

with you. 

My intention is to publish a different print every week, 

so keep checking back to catch the latest fabric print news!

For some structure and to challenge myself I decided to “print the alphabet”

starting with A.

A is for Apple!

- Cut an apple in half

- Allow the halves to dry out cut side down on a paper towel for a few minutes

- Mix the pigment colour you want to print with

  (What can I say - I am partial to my Colour Vie pigments:) www.colourvie.com

- Make yourself a stamp pad from a piece of medium density foam

  (or apply pigment with a foam brush)

- Ink up the apple and print away!

On this piece I used pale green pigment and metallic gold pigments.

 I painted the fabric first, then printed with pewter and gold metallic pigment

Student work