Back to School Update - Fibre 211: Printing on Fabric

This Printing on Fabric class was amazing. I knew little about the process before I began and learned so much. I am not sure how much more silk screening on fabric I will do, but many of the specifics such as dyeing, repeated patterns, and general design will transfer well. As I started working on designs, I came to realize how little I knew. It was also one of the most demanding classes I have taken. All I can say is thank goodness for the industrial revolution. 

The first assignment was to make a series of pillows using paper and photo stencils and pigment. The idea was to create a series of unique but coherent pillows. My original idea was to work with stencils of landscape objects and progress from a more representational scene to abstract. As you can see that idea evolved as I made mistakes and my instructor encouraged me to experiment with overlaying pattern a lot more than I planned. A very humbling but fun experience overall. 

The second assignment introduced dyeing and discharge to create an interpretation of a location of personal significance. I chose to do some wall hangings that I intend to use as a backdrop for my quirky felt sea creatures. The idea was to represent my take on the undersea scuba diving experience - one that is marvelous, fun, and surreal but a little edgy as well. The colours were chosen to match the felt creatures and I had a lot of fun experimenting with colour and design in way that I have never done before.

 The third assignment involved repeat printing, dyeing fabric, and printing with dyes. I started working with a maple leaf pattern on one yardage and then designed a second pattern that followed the seasonal changes of maple trees (brown yardage) to achieve a more striped appearance. Making a repeat pattern is a lot of fun but a detailed one is best suited to obsessive compulsives. Getting everything to line up and be clean looking is much harder than it looks. The other challenge is that you don't really know what the colours, and especially their intensity, will look like until the fabric is steamed. The orange turned out much brighter and the brown lighter than I intended, but I like it none the less.

 The last assignment was to create two objects of our choice, based on what we had learned. I decided to make a cotton table runner reminiscent of cave art for my own contemporary cave and and silk yardage dyed and printed with natural dyes to make silk scarves. The natural dyes were lovely but a little challenging to work with. I also learned that they faded with the washing requirements of the felting process so the final product was fainter than I expected, but still lovely to my mind.