Friday, June 28, 2013

Shibori Painting Fabric Fun

There are many styles of Shibori, a Japanese dyeing technique.  The fabric can be folded, twisted, stitched, pleated or manipulated as you wish so that patterns are created when the paint or dye doesn't reach some parts of the fabric.  Here's what I did:

What I Used:  100% cotton (white)  Prepared for Dyeing or PFD. (If you use regular cotton, be sure to prewash it.) Dyna-flow fabric paint, PVC pipe, elastics, string.  If you use dye instead of paint the directions are a bit different.  Check out the attached You Tube video at the end of this post for some instructions.
 
Instructions:
Wrap the fabric around a piece of PVC pipe.  I used a rubber bands to hold the ends to the pipe. Tie string around the pipe all the way to the end securing all the fabric. Scrunch the fabric to one end of the pipe (photo).




Mist the fabric with water.  Apply the paint to the fabric with a squeeze bottle or a foam brush. I used two colors in my example, purple and brown.  Leave the pipe with fabric in a plastic container to drain and dry.  I let mine dry for two days.  You can speed up the drying with a blow dryer if you wish but make sure the fabric is dry all the way through before removing it from the pipe.


 
The beautiful results!
 
This piece needs a bit more ironing but I'm happy with the results.  I have two more in the drying phase, a purple only and a periwinkle blue one.  I'll be back to show you how to those came out. 
 It's always a mystery!
 
Peace,
Diane
 
FYI:  Here's a video I like from You Tube for Shibori Dyeing and Instructions on making a wall hanging with your fabric. Enjoy!

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Fun Monoprinting with Gelatin and Using TAP

We have had so much rain I think I'm growing moss everywhere.  The small veggies garden is planted and the flower gardens are looking good.  The hollyhocks look like they will be outstanding this year.
The Farmer's Market sales have been slow, but they should pick up in in July with the tourists coming to the lake.
This week I finally got the opportunity to "play with fabric" again.  Friend Kathleen came over and I showed her how to mono print on gelatin plates.  I did some screen printing with paint and some mono printing.  I tried my hand at using TAP transfer paper and I love it.  The fabric under the
transfer shows through, love that!  I've designed another wall hanging using the fabric I worked on.  It's in the planning stages but almost there.

Here are some samples of the fun we had printing. The first three are mine, second three are Kathleen's.  Last two are mine, last photo is of my finished fabric on my design wall.