Project 4, Stage 5, Template and mask printing

Here are some exampls of using templates and mask on both fabric as well as paper. For the first sample I used a freezer paper template and Decoularant spray. I like this spray better than bleach, although the smell is worse. The fabric is a handdyed piece on which I ironed the template, sprayed it, let it dry and ironed it.

 This green fabric is a sunprint using grasses as templates. The fabric was pinned on a board, painted with diluted Setacolors and grasses were added. After a couple of hours in the sunshine it looked like this:

 This picture is of a quilt I am working on - have to make another sample for my sketchbook. I placed foamies on a piece of fabric and applied paintstick to the fabric using an old toothbrush.

 Again paintsticks, but this time on a piece of paper. My template was a torn strip of paper. By applying paintstick to the paper - this time using my finger - and replacing the template I got these results:

Project 4, Stage 5, block printing

This part of the course will probably be one of my favorites. I love surface design :-). Here are some of the samples I made this week using commercial stamps. This first pink one is a piece of fabric on which I used different acrylic paints and different commercial stamps. On purpose the stamps are overlapping. This sample is approximately 12"x12" and as you can see because of the overlapping it can be made as big as you want it to be.

 This second one I made by placing a zapped piece of lutrador over the white fabric and than stamped it using a commercial stamp and yellow acylics. Because of the lutrador the print has a detoriated effect and that was the effect I was after.

 This next sample is a painted piece of wallpaper. I wanted to use a highly textured piece of paper in combination with an abstract commercial blockprint.

 Another paper sample of multiple commercial blockprints. I used a credit card to aply the paint to the background.

 This next sample is one of my favorites. I fused a piece of cheesecloth (scrim) to a white piece of fabric and stamped it with a commercial stamp. As a whole it is interesting, but when I partly removed the white background fabric and placed it on some blue paper the texture shows much more. When this idea is used for a bigger piece of cheesecloth and the cloth is stretched and pulled to give a much more uneven effect to the stamping I think I will like it even more.

This is a sample which I made using a rather unusual blockprint: an onion. The sliced onion was left to dry for a couple of days. I used Dyna-flow paint which I applied to the 'stamp'  using a foam print. I just love the results I got:

And my last sample of blockprinting. This time I used lots of found objects. They included a potato masher, a bath mat, a metal thingie out of an old computer and some punchinella. All unusual objects to print with, but in combination a very pleasing result.

project 3, stage 5

Not the most logical sequence <vbg>, but here is what I did for stage 5:

For this sample we had to use 2 primary colors and use them in different proportions. My first sample (top left) has equal numbers of yellow and red lines of chain stitches. Because red is a darker color than yellow, the red blends a bit more to the background. If you compare the sample with the one next to it - where I used 4 lines of yellow and 1 line of red - you see that where there is a lot of red, the yellow looks darker. It is the same color of pearl cotton I used, but the sample at the right looks a lighter yellow than the one on the left.
The left bottom sample starts with 4 red lines and reduces down to 1 line while the yellow goes exactly the other way round. To be honest I find this sample rather boring.
An other thing which we had to explore with this sample was to show more - or less - of the black background. With the chain stitch there is always some background visible, so I had to do something else with it. Instead of static straight lines, I decided to use wavy lines. All 5 lines start at the same spot, but they travel away from each other further down. Of the 4 samples I made this one is my favorite. It is the most dynamic of all.

Project 2, Stage 5 embroidery

This is a continuation of yesterday's post, only this time the samples are done with machine embroidery. I experimented with different designs - and not surprisingly they gave different results.
Starting with the top row from left to right. The zigzaglines were done with white (rayon?) thread. The thread does not have a brand name, so this is a guess. I like the way the lines cross. Difficult to see on the scan, but the color changes a bit where they cross as the density is higher there. Next sample is not a succes. I tried one of the fancy stitches on my machine but I am not impressed with this one. But the triangles gave me some further ideas. The wavy lines were done with yellow Madeira, again a rayon thread. I like the way the color shows more dominance where the lines are close together (the left side). Next one - the one most to the right - is one of my favorite designs. A great filler. I used 2 yellows on it, but that does not show very well. The color on the cones were orangy yellow and lemon yellow, but in this sample they look a lot alike. By playing with the length of the zigzag and the length of the connecting lines this design can be made more - or less - compact.

Bottom row at the left is one of the triangles I played with. I used a yellow and a blue rayon thread and were they overlap you can see a bit of greenish. The same triangles in white are next to it. Here again, the density influences the strength of the color. I really like this effect and of all the samples I did the last couple of days, this one is my favorite. Next to that is a combination of dark blue metallic thread and a lighter rayon. It does not show very well on this scan, but it is a nice one. Nothing special, just nice. And the last sample for today is a two colored yellow one. I did this one with straight lines to compare it with the way lines in the top row. Same with this sample the difference in yellow does not show much and I have to say I like the wavy lines more than the straight ones. They give more dynamic to the design.

Project 2, Stage 5 embroidery

Missing in action? Well not really. I have been revamping my website - not yet published - and working on some quilts, but today I started working on embroidery samples. Both samples were done on snowdyed fabric. For the first leave I used a combination of threads: pearl cotton 8, handdyed embroidery floss, metallic Sulky thread, embroidery linen and  jewel effect from DMC, a polyester thread. Yes, some of the supplies I had ordered, had arrived.

The shiny effect of some of the threads got lost a bit with the scan. I used a combination of outline stitch and random herringbone stitches or cross stitches.
For my other sample I used a double running stitch and filled the leaves with satin stich. For this sample I used pearl thread 8 in various green/yellow colors.

Of these two samples I like the overall effect of the second one best. The color coördination is better with this one too. What I do like of the first sample is the shiny effect of the jewel effect DMC.