Project 4 Preparation Stage 1

Preparation

I've been busy making a solid surface to print on and a printing pad.  I've also been reading notes on what is coming up and it seems to give me no clue as to what I do with the printing pad.  A question to my tutor I think.

Here's the response:

Hi Irene,

This is an interesting question and one that I haven’t been asked before! I have re read the instructions on p87 and I am assuming that you saturate the surface felt or fabric with either ink , paint or dye and then press your printing block/found object etc. into the felt or fabric surface to coat it ready for printing or stamping. I have to say, this is not something I personally would do, but that’s not to say it isn’t a valid technique. I prefer to use a roller to get a thin even coverage onto the printing block but as you have already made the printing pad, give it a go and see what happens! I’ll be interested to see the results.

Kind regards,

Liz  

No wonder I was puzzled.  I've been using a sponge to get a thin coat of paint onto my block and been quite happy but having made the pad I've just got to try it.

Some days later I tried using the pad.  I've been quite happy with using a small sponge to apply the paint so I wasn't very excited about this.  It's a good job because I found it had no advantage over my method and it was very  extravagant with paint.  Maybe if you were using just one colour for a large piece it might may be OK but right now I have a very wet pad (I washed it) and lots of paint down the sink.

I used a couple of stamps I hadn't used before which was good but all in all I'll be using them again but not the pad.

Project 4 Printing and Painting Stage 2

Experiments with techniques

I'm really apprehensive about this section of the course so I thought I'd spend a little time just seeing what I'd got and how it works.  First I tried some printing on sugar paper with a roller.

I've been reading the woodblock printing section of World Textiles by Gillow and Sentence and found this lovely example.  I like the symmetry of the design and the variety of the allegorical patterns. I decided to use the square idea in some of my experiments.

Adinkra cloth from Ghana

I used a wooden Indian block to stamp a regular, repeat design.  I used a mid brown but then overprinted (a little offset) with yellow in alternate squares.  I then used a blue to complete the pattern.  I think it looks very effective for little trouble.

There is some work ethic in me that makes me think the blocks are just too easy so I looked around and made my own design from bits and bobs.  I ruled some lines and used the end of a spoon handle to decorate between them.  I used a milk carton top for the large circle and criss crossed each circle with the short end of a bendy drinking straw.  A cork was used for the heavier central blob.  The very small circles were the end of the straw.  I'm pleased with this

My next attempt started with a scourer. I covered the page and got a stipple effect.  On top I put a paisley design with a wooden block.  I alternated the pattern and in the spaces I placed a small Islamic design in yellow.  The colours were determined by what I had in by stash.

The stipple effect seems to be a good base for an otherwise plain design.  I like the way the paisley takes centre stage.  The stamps I've used are crisp and clear and I seem to be able to get the pressure just right.

It's time to see if I can do something for myself.  I've got a selection of bottle tops so I looked at them and decided to use different sizes to make a block.  First I drilled a hole down the centre of a cork then cut it into sections and stuck it into a milk carton cap. Then used sandpaper to make sure the surfaces would make proper contact.  I just tried one at first to check that it worked.

On my first try I didn't get the pressure right but the second go was better.  I made some more and stuck them onto a block.  I used Sticky Fixers so that I can re use the base.

The block....

...printed once.....

......printed twice

Putting five tops on has made a difference to the repeat pattern that I'd not really considered.  I could either use six as my number (thank goodness for Sticky Fixers) or intersperse with another stamp.

A shadow of blue and a smaller stamp as well

This made a bit of difference but it wasn't anything I'd want to repeat. I tried using six tops.

Six tops on the block worked much better

I used the shadow idea again alternating the colours and put smaller circles in between and I was much happier with the outcome.    It seems that whilst an odd number may be OK for a stand alone piece it's not so good for a repeat pattern.

Incidentally, Sticky Fixers are not waterproof so the end was a bit messy!

I wanted to make a block that was flowery so I did this with medium cotton string.

My natural inclination is to use a neutral fabric to print on but I decided to be a bit more adventurous and I used a piece of material I dyed last week (in fact an old tea towel).  I knew I would have more of a challenge with the colours and that proved to be the case.  To get at least something on the fabric I started with white and that was subtle but OK.  My original intention had been to overprint but that proved impossible because the pattern was not regular so I opted for an irregular stamp.  Without washing the block I introduced a really bright pink that immediately got lost except over the white.  I did the same with a bright blue.

My colours on newspaper

I'm pleased with the way the block worked but my prejudice against dark fabric has been reinforced.  

I tried the same method but on paler, lighter weight material.  This time the white paint faded into the background and the colours came to the fore enough for me to play around with them a bit.

The string on my block was still damp so the early paint spread a little.  That encouraged me to use water to blur things a little more.  I used a brush to ink the block and towards the end I was using multi colours for each print.  This is very different to the previous sample but I don't necessarily think it's any better for being on a paler fabric.  I feel this task has given be a lot of experience regarding what can be expected of fabric paints.

I came across this image and thought how relevant it was as well as being beautiful.

Silk spools

I wondered if I could use printing to embody the excitement of these silks.  I have some new fabric paints I want to try out and this is the perfect opportunity.

I'm quietly pleased with this.  I used a double layer of corrugated cardboard to print with but my usual method of sponging the paint on didn't work and I ended up painting the cardboard with a brush.  I mixed paints with gay abandon and because I hate to see good paint go down the sink every last bit was wiped onto some calico to make a serendipity design that I'm sure will come in for something or other.

My course notes encourage me to print layers to develop my designs and to try different paper so next I took the piece of work I did with the roller and embellished it.

This was so worthwhile.  Once again I chose household items and although the pattern is very simple it is interesting.  The colours work well together as well. I can imagine it printed on fabric as a repeat pattern and maybe made into a skirt like my batik one  (Project 3 Research point).  I love Islamic art and this print has that sort of feel to it.

I looked at my sketches and photos and went back once again to my photo of leaves mainly because I like it so much.  I have some hand made tissue paper with bits of woodchip embedded.  I took a dark brown piece and scattered some small torn bits of a paler paper on top.  I used  Heat and Form to create a design.  It was the first time I'd used this material.  You need to heat it close to a hot iron then embed the design into the soften foam.  I chose a selection of brushes (the handles) to embed and found the pad cooled too quickly to get enough of a design.  I reheated the pad and quickly used a knitting needle to make a pattern.  I then stuck the needle point into the pad to make depressions.

What you end up with is not the pattern you printed on the foam but the negative image.

My photo of leaves

Printed using Heat and Form

This photo looks much more orange than the reality.  It's a really attractive piece.  My confidence is growing all the time.

I could kick myself for not looking at Gwen Hedley's Drawn to Stitch before I started the printing.  I've just spent an hour looking and reading and it's truly inspirational and it makes me want to start all over again. Admittedly Hedley's resources are greater than mine but if I'd had the sense to look earlier my work might have been improved.  

My reading has given me ideas for painting on fabric particularly using discharge techniques.  There are so many things I want to try.

Gillow, John and Sentence Bryan, 1999, World Textiles, Thames and Hudson, London
Hedley, Gwen, 2010, Drawn to Stitch, Batsford, London

Project 4 Dyeing

Dyeing

This is yet another first.  I was encouraged to try dyeing in Part One but put it off because it was just another new thing to try.  Consequently I've had a Dylon cold water dye in Burlesque red kicking around so I thought I'd experiment a bit. 

 

I selected a whole array of fabrics:

cotton tape
acetate lining
fur fabric
muslin
curtain lining with plastic backing
scrim
curtain lining
felt
cotton tea towel
tee shirt cotton
sweatshirt material
calico
heavy wool thread
wool boucle
medium cotton thread

and they totalled 210 gms.

I ignored what the packet said about what would work and what wouldn't.  I tied a couple of pieces of muslin to get a tie dye fabric.  This was done in a very naive, novice way just to see what happened.

Most of the fabrics I worked with were beige but there was a big variation in the composition of it.

The effects were many and varied.  The tie dye was really lovely but the best was the curtain lining with the plastic backing - real texture.  What I thought was cotton thread seems not to be and the heavy wool thread felted beautifully.  The fur fabric remained largely unaffected by the dye as did the acetate lining.  The tape seems to have a synthetic edge that has resisted the dye.

The whole batch except for that which resisted the dye

My first tie dye efforts.

Scrim and muslin reacted in a similar way

The plastic backing on this fabric shows through and gives a very strange but attractive effect.

The threads took up the colour in different ways.  The striped thread and the tape is clearly not just one material.  The wool has dyed in a uniform way and the thicker one has felted.










I now have some experience with dying and a Burlesque red colour bag!

The art of embroidery

The art of embroidery by Francoise Tellier-Loumagne

My husband bought me this fabulous book for Christmas and I can't put it down.  The Introduction  reiterates the whole ethos of the OCA course I'm doing at the moment.  I find references to marks, texture, emotion and the idea that it's not necessary to get it right all the time.

"...it is much better not to aim for perfection of form to the detriment of movement and rhythm.  Mistakes, hesitations and reworkings can all contribute to creating expressive and contemporary designs"  p7

In the book I am encouraged to build up collections and then re look and re order just as I am doing and it gives a great deal of validity to what I'm working on.  In fact it almost feels as if the book was written just for me.

Whilst Tellier-Loumagne purports to be writing for the beginner there is much here to inspire artists of all levels and all art forms.  I particularly like the emphasis on the natural world from which Tellier-Loumagne takes inspiration and some of the photos are remarkable and will no doubt provide some ideas for my own work.

There is a wonderful image of a decaying orange that is likened to the Earth seen from space that is truly beautiful and immediately makes me think of how it can be expressed in stitch.  It puts a whole new perspective on the bottom of my fruit bowl.

This was the inspiration for a rug

I'm starting to think about my theme book and there are references to themes in this book and the way a theme can be turned into an inspiration.  One example is the waters edge.  It is interpreted in three different styles, movement and light, textures and shapes and memory and the imagination.  

Organza pebbles - movement and light

Grey waters - textures and shapes

Secrets of the river - memory and the imagination

The reader is encouraged to amalgamate and develop more styles along the theme.  The suggestion is that the sky is the limit.

Tellier-Loumagne has a no holds barred philosophy towards embroidery that gives the beginner a huge resource that might otherwise remain untapped or be disregarded.   

If this book is intended to encourage and excite it is supremely successful.  I find I just can't read it before sleep otherwise I'm just buzzing too much.  Thanks Francoise and thanks Richard for sending it via Santa.

Here's just a little extra loveliness.

Railways tracks.....

...interpreted in stitch

Compost

If you can try to get hold of this book; it's a gem.

Tellier-Loumagne,  Francoise,  2006, The art of embroidery.Thames and Hudson, New York.

Project 4 Review

Project 4 Review

I've had real fun with this section of the course.  The effect of the use of the space and the concept of negative space seemed very obvious once it was pointed out but I became a bit tangled in the positive/negative idea once or twice.

In Stage 3 I had to select from drawings I'd already done and although I don't find it difficult to make selections I'm not sure how well I do it.  I was pleased with the drawing I did at the end of the exercise in which I took elements of two snips and made a completely new picture.  I left in a major mistake as a reminder to myself not to get carried away with marks that can't be erased!

I was happy to play about using my drawings as the basis for new work.  There's always more things I want to try and I'm finding that one thing really does lead to another. I never have enough time to follow all my ideas.  I learnt a lot about what works and what doesn't (particularly with pastels) and much about myself and the boldness with which I can work with unexpected comfort.

I still find it hard to be a fair critic of my own work.  I'm able to say if I like a piece I've worked on but not really know whether it has any merit.  Maybe that comes with confidence and experience both of which take time.

I feel that the working method I've been using will be the basis for lots of other work; it makes a lot of sense and leaves room for almost infinite interpretation and exploration. The need to pluck inspiration out of thin air is obviously not a course requirement!  Sweet relief.

I've been totally absorbed in this work and done very little research or reading.

Project 4 Stage 4

Developing design ideas

These design development are all taken from my selections in the last exercise.


1.

My starting point

I used Paint.net to manipulate this image. This ceases to be grasses blowing in the wind and suddenly becomes ribbons being twirled very fast.

Effect - Motion blur set at 200

I went back to my starting point and used the Dents effect....

Effect - Dents

Scale 200

Refraction 30

Roughness 45

This looks like an ink drawing

.......then I put a 95 motion blur on the top and it became a watercolour.

These effects raise all sorts of possibilities particularly with the silk painting coming up soon..  The lower one reminds me of the work I did about mingling colour.


2.

This is bleach on red tissue paper.

Another beginning........

....and another idea.

This took quite some doing but I'm delighted with the result.  I made four tiles and turned them to create a single image.  I can imagine this as a repeated block print.

I couldn't resist trying it in a dramatic black and white so I returned to Paint.net.  I like the faint hint of red that remains.















3.
This image doesn't present me with such obvious ways to develop as the first two did. I'll have to think harder for this.  I suppose that is the object of the exercise - selection is all.

The image is soft and quite gentle.  I decided to isolate the basic shapes and replace the softness with hard edges but use harmonious colours.  I'd no real idea whether what appears to be a mis match would work.  And really I'm still not sure.  I've changed the focus of the piece by lightening the top element and this has made a huge difference.  It may be this will grow on me; we'll see. One thing I have learnt is that time is on my side.  Sometimes an idea for an improvement occurs days after the work has been first made. 

4.

I like the texture and drama of this drawing and I wonder how much that is dependent on the colours. The drawing was developed from a computer manipulation so I returned to try the computer to try different colourways.

I was far from happy with what I achieved.  The images looked flat and uninteresting .....




....so I went back to my soft pastels.

This was better than the computer generated images but still unsatisfactory.  I reduced the points on the design and rounded them off in a nod towards the harmony I thought I'd get.  It is a pleasant enough image but lacking any sort of focus.  I'm sure the absence of a negative space is something to do with how I feel about this work. So I think the answer to my question is "Yes, the success of the design is colour dependent".

I returned to the colours I love, printed some tiles and did some sticking to make repeat patterns.

I didn't really know what to expect from this but I played about for ages.  It took me quite some time before I realised that I'd only made two different patterns! They do however, take on different aspects when they are turned around.

This is so much more comfortable than the pastel designs.