Third IRO experiment. Still not as good as IRO

Okay, still being influenced by the IRO video I tried another piece.  Still scraping the thickened dye on with a credit card, still using a squirt bottle (Did I tell you that I use the squirt bottle from my hair dye?  Waste not want not.)  Still being silly enough to move the piece while it is wet. (In my defense I made these three all at the same time so I didn't know how bad of an idea it was.)  Still working wet on wet.  The new thing is that I used black and red dye to draw lines and I tried a bit more complex of a design.

Before the detail shots did I ever tell you why I use a credit card to scape on the thickened dye?  Primarily because it is faster when you are laying down a solid color.  If the space is small, then cut the credit card in half or fourths.  If you want to paint with highlights and shadows then a brush is  your best bet.  Okay, now the details.  Watch for the same mistakes of smears, smudges, and bleeding.  Will I ever learn?

Brought to you by Judith

Second IRO Inspired Experiment

I made these two at the same time that I made the geometric piece so they share the same problems of the black lines smudging, smearing, and bleeding.  However I like them better than the geometric one simply because of the fluid lines.  Well, I also think the color combination is better too.  I think they turned out well enough to turn them into a diptych. Maybe if I quilt in black heavily around the black dye drawn lines it will help to contain the smearing, smudging, and bleeding.

They are both 60 x 18 inches of close woven cotton. I love this fabric because it just takes the dye so well. See how bright those colors are? Again I drew the shapes with a pencil before I started scraping the thickened dyes into the shapes.  I was free in following the lines since it was just a collection of fun flowing shapes.  I was also free with the thickness of the dye layers intentionally creating texture.  Knowing I was hoping to get the shading from the different thicknesses I always tried to scrape to accentuate the flow of the shapes.

You will notice that the squirted black lines are different in the two pieces.  The one on top is more free with the line placement.  The lines on the bottom are closer to outlines.  In person I like the top one with the free lines better but in the pictures I prefer the bottom one with the outlines.  Do you have a preference?

Here are some detail shots.

Brought to you Judith.

First IRO Inspired Experiment

Beth and I got together to try the drawing and painting with thickened dyes technique that she found on the IRO YouTube video.  Here is an image in case you forgot how magical their fabric looks.

I had found two images on the internet that I thought would translate well using the painting and drawing with thickened dyes techniques. The first was very geometric.

 I drew on the cotton fabric with a pencil first to get the overlapping shapes I wanted.  Then I scraped on the thickened dyes with a credit card.  While it was still wet I used a squirt bottle to lay down the black lines.  I then covered it with plastic, moved it to batch, then after an hour rinsed it out.  Here is the finished piece all washed, dried, and ironed.  Detail pictures follow.

See all the yucky smears? I moved the piece while it was still wet.  Not a good idea.  And did you see the black shadows around some of the lines?  That was because I rinsed it out while the dyes were still wet and they tranferred.  And did you notice the bleeding of the black lines?  I think that was caused by working wet on wet but it could just be because I squirted too much dye onto the fabric.

On the positive side, did you see the lovely shadings in the colors?  That was because I used credit cards to lay down the colors.  I was quite sloppy with the dyes and left extra dye along the credit card lines. Where the dyes were thicker the color is stronger.  Love it!

Judith

Another Line Added to the First Experiment

I wanted to add another line to the daylily drawing but I knew I was really bad at using the syringe to draw lines.  So first I practiced drawing with the thickened dye.

Still not great but getting better.  I learned that whether I am putting pressure on the plunger or not, the thickened dye will ooze out.  So I started using a drip rag to wipe the tip of the syringe between drawing with it.  That helped.  I also tried starting off the edge of the fabric so the blob would be somewhere else.  That also helped but it is not always a choice.  I was not particularly pleased with the quality of the line.  Too thin for the emphasis I wanted to give the flower.  Now the syringe I was using is the kind of syringe with the really tiny curved tip.  I might have gotten better results with a syringe with a larger opening--like a syringe for giving children their liquid medicine.  But I think I may be done using a fine tipped syringe.

Here is the daylily painting with the added dark line. I do like it better.  Not perfect but better. And here are some detail pictures.

You know, putting much more emphasis on the flower even makes the more impressionistic background look a little better.  However, the black lines in the background should just disappear. What a mistake! They only emphasis the stems and leaves going no where.  Didn't need/want that level of clarity for the background.

Judith

Painting with Thickened Dyes--Quilter Beth

I finally had a chance to try painting with thickened dyes this weekend. I have to say up front that I am NOT a painter in any way shape or form. That will become abundantly clear after you see my attempt at this technique. It was VERY intimidating to try this technique after seeing the beautiful work of my fellow resident artists. 

I looked through my sketch/idea book to come up with a drawing I could paint. This drawing was inspired by photographs I took at an exhibit of Chihuly  glass. I LOVE the flow of the molten glass and tried to capture that in my piece.  According to the tutorial, the thickened dye should stay wet so it can batch properly. That was the hardest thing for me; I’m sure it didn’t stay wet. I tried to cover it as I went with small pieces of plastic, but that was next to impossible for me. 

I let it batch overnight, and this is my rinsed and dried piece. I guess not keeping it really wet didn't make a big different in the end, because the piece kept great color. I'm hoping with some quilting and thread painting it will be something I can use.

 I wanted to test the colors on a piece of cloth before I painted anything, so I used this next piece for testing and cleanup. (It was soaked in soda ash first.) It isn't great, but I did find that I LOVE the texture the wrinkled fabric and paintbrush made. I will be trying that again with a more controlled color palette.

I’m glad I tried this technique and now have it in my arsenal of tools, but it is not one I anticipate using frequently. I find that I have much better control (and WAY less mess) when I color a drawing on fabric using fabric paint.