Soy Wax and Screen Printing, vilene interfacing

Today I'm going to look at creating a vilene interfacing screen design using soy wax. As far as I can see there are two real advantages to using this method. Firstly, if you like the design, then it will last for a long time and will not tie up one of your screen printing screens, especially if you don't have that many. Secondly, if like me, you like to overprint onto fabric that has already been dyed, you are only going to be printing the positive image rather than the negative one. Perhaps that is more easily explained with a photo I took of a piece of silk noil where I printed the left hand side with an ordinary soy wax screen (the negative) and the right hand side with an interfacing screen which was similar in design (the positive).

To create the design, first cut the interfacing to the size of your screen aperture, with a little overlap so that you can tape it. Using your melted soy wax and one, or more, of your mark making tools, add the wax to the interfacing. I simply used a paintbrush for this one, although I have stamped with simple shapes, like cardboard tubes, in the past. You will need to look carefully at the next photo to see the wax on the interfacing because it is almost the same colour. I tried to get in as close as possible so this is only part of the full design.

When the wax is dry, which doesn't take very long, lay out the interfacing onto a sheet of plastic and paint over the whole of the piece with emulsion paint, including painting over the wax. You will probably need to do at least two coats so make sure that each coat dries before painting the next one. Again, not easy to photograph as the only paint I had was white, I also took the photograph after only one coat so that it would still be possible to see the wax design through the emulsion. You could use any colour you have to hand as all the emulsion will be doing is to seal off the interfacing where there is no wax. 

You do need to be patient now to make sure that the paint is completely dry because the next step is to wash out the wax. To do this, simply wash the interfacing in hot water. Rub the areas of the design gently so that you don't tear the interfacing and you will find that the emulsion that was over the wax washes out easily and then the wax itself will wash away too. Unless you have hands that can stand extremely hot water then I suggest using gloves for this process. When all the wax is washed out, dry the interfacing and if, like mine, it's a bit crumpled, just iron it. This next photo is of the interfacing washed out and taped to the bottom of the screen. The design shows up really clearly now.

Print as normal onto your chosen fabric (soda soaked). This was a piece of silk that had been previously dyed.

And after washing out.

Once you've finished with the printing, remove the interfacing from the bottom of the screen and wash it out. Leave it to dry and then store it for later use.

This may seem like a rather long winded way of making a screen but, with the exception of creating a thermofax screen, I have found it one of the best ways to get a design onto fabric that would be difficult any other way.  I used a screen made this way to print onto this piece of cotton fabric.

And the same screen used on silk noil which was made up into a skirt. 

This particular screen was made a couple of years ago and has probably printed about 4 yards of fabric so far and is still very useable. Some of the emulsion has started to deteriorate recently but I think it's earned it's keep. You can see where some of the emulsion is coming off in this photo. No problem at the moment, just additional texture!

Next up on Friday, using acrylic paint to create a design on your interfacing.

Soy Wax and Screen Printing, tape resist discharge and other bits

A couple of years ago I was doing a monthly dyeing and printing class with Linda Maynard at the Bramble Patch. We were supposed to do discharging but, unfortunately, Fridays never seemed to provide the weather we needed to be able to get the fabrics dry and then be able to open the windows to avoid being overcome by noxious fumes, as we ironed. Fast forward to a heatwave here in the UK and I managed to find the time to try out discharging with a soy wax screen.

I had dyed a piece of silk noil with black for that particular part of the class and it has been sitting there for all that time, waiting patiently. There will not be much in the way of process photos because I have never been able to see what I'm doing properly when wearing my mask. My varifocals always seem to get pushed about into the wrong position. My discharge agent of choice is Formosol which comes in powder form and is mixed with print paste for screen printing. I have used Jacquard Discharge paste in the past but I like to be able to mix up the amount that I need for one session, rather than have it hanging about. Personal opinion only but I also think that the results I have achieved with Formosol are better.

I began with a screen made with a tape resist, as in the last post, but this time I angled the lines and crossed some of them over each other. I then printed the whole piece of fabric using only discharge paste.

The method for using discharge paste when screen printing is exactly the same as for normal printing.   One thing to remember though is that the fabric should not be soda soaked. This is the fabric pinned to the print table and printed with the discharge paste. As you can see, because the weather was so warm, it started to discharge even before I hung it out to dry. The fabric was actually black although does have a brown cast to it in the photo.

I also had a small piece of cotton that was the tail end of a deconstructed piece and very uninviting ...

It couldn't look any worse so I discharged that too. You can't see the discharge paste on this.

When you have finished the printing process, it is important to let the fabric dry completely before the next step which is the ironing. The discharge process is activated by heat and steam so make sure that you fill up your iron before you begin. This is also where the fumes are at their worst. Work in a well ventilated area and use a mask! I confess that, as my work area is well ventilated, I often don't use a mask but, because I am currently suffering from a virus that affects my breathing, I decided that it was better to be safe than sorry this time.

The magic happens during the ironing process. Some say that you are supposed to hover the iron over the cloth, others that you should just press down rather than using a normal ironing action. I use a bit of both, particularly when my arm starts to ache from hovering. You can see the discharge happening and the good thing is that you can stop it whenever you want to, just lift up the iron. If you want to go a little further then iron some more. I was quite brutal with the cotton and you can clearly see where the dye that was not covered by the tape has lifted back to a very light colour.

The silk noil was a revelation. I hadn't considered how the nubbly texture of the fabric would have such an effect on the discharge process. You can see from this detail photo just how the texture of the silk noil creates a mottled look to the surface.

I also discharged some parts more than others to give a feeling that there was a light source in there. I am really pleased with this piece.

The next thing to do is to wash out your cloth thoroughly to remove all of the discharge paste. If you leave any in then the next time you  put an iron onto it, it will continue to discharge.

A word of warning, not all fabrics discharge well. If you are using a commercial fabric then you need to test to see if it works otherwise you could end up with no change. Turquoise is also notoriously difficult to discharge, if it goes at all. I had read this but once decided to try a piece of hand dyed turquoise silk. It looked as though it was working as it was drying and then, when I ironed it, the areas that had discharge paste on turned a lovely light lavender. After I washed it there was nothing there at all, just the piece of flat turquoise cloth that I had started with! If in doubt try a test piece first. 

As I had not used discharge paste with a soy wax screen before, I was interested to see if it caused any deterioration in the wax screen. It didn't. Everything was perfect after I washed the screen out, and that was after leaving it overnight as well.

Before leaving resists I thought I would experiment with some different ideas. I tried several commercial stencils, most of which were pretty useless;  I think they were just a little too thick. I did, however, manage to get some prints from this stencil.

As you can see, I don't clean off my stencils when I'm using acrylics and printing with a gelli plate!

This is a messy piece but I realised, after the first few prints, that it was actually easier to keep lifting the stencil, laying it in place and putting the screen on top of it. I'm not keen on the result but I think that may be because I printed with a dark dye onto a lighter piece of fabric. Perhaps if the colours had been reversed, the grid would have been more obvious. 

And finally, I tried placing a piece of jute scrim under the screen. After the first pull the scrim sticks to the screen. I had achieved some great effects using this method with a vilene interfacing screen but using a screen alone did not produce the clarity of line from the scrim that I was expecting.

I'll see what it looks like when it's washed out. 

Have fun experimenting with resists and see what you can find that works for you.

Next time I'm going to move on to using vilene interfacing screens, sometimes with soy wax, other times not.

Soy Wax and Screen Printing, tape resists

I really do think that creating resists with painters' tape is possibly my favourite method. It allows for the  creation of  organic shapes and also  gives  the opportunity to create  very precise grids, something for everyone. Combined with the simplicity of the soy wax design on the screen the results can often be very surprising. 

The simplest way to use the tape is to add lines to the bottom of the screen. You could just apply the tape as it is but, as I'm not  a fan of straight lines, I like to tear the tape in half first, as unevenly as possible. You can see the two halves of the torn tape below. 

I tape each half to the bottom of the screen, joining them at the straight edges. It's not necessary to join exactly, be adventurous but also be aware that if you leave a gap then dye will penetrate that gap. This could be exactly the effect that you want of course. I often overlap the straight edges to make the lines thinner. If you click on the image to enlarge you should be able to see where the two halves of the tape are joined or overlapped. Add additional lines until you are happy with the way that it looks.

If you are looking closely you may have noticed that I put the lines of tape onto the wrong side of the screen. My excuse is that I was concentrating on trying  to remember to take photos as I went along! This is how it should look, with the tape on the bottom of the screen.

Pin out your fabric and print.

If you are concerned about the bottom of your screen picking up dye from a previously printed area, you have two options to prevent this from transferring to the cloth, where you don't want it to be. You can either make sure that you carefully wipe the bottom of the frame of your screen or, you can put something across the previously printed area to stop that dye from being picked up. I normally use a paper towel. I prefer this to the wiping method because that is when I normally manage to drop my squeegee onto my work, as I'm juggling with a wipe cloth.

When you have finished all there is to do is to pull off the tape and wash the screen. If you want a much narrower line then it might be worth considering quilters 1/4" masking tape. You don't have to do lines, of course, as you can use the tape to make any shapes that you want.  I've got lots of ideas simmering away as I type, I just need to make sure that I make a note of them before I forget.

On Wednesday I'm going to be use a tape resist screen with discharge paste and also trying out commercial stencils and some found objects. I hope that you'll join me.

Soy Wax and Screen Printing, inexpensire resists 1

Probably the most inexpensive item to use as a resist for your screen is newspaper., something that most of us have around the house.

First, cut your newspaper to a size that will cover the whole of your screen area, with a couple of inches extra of overlap, so that you can tape it in place. You can then cut or tear a shape from the paper, depending upon whether you want clean edges or a more rough edge. I did a couple of torn shapes on mine and below is the paper taped to the bottom of the screen. You can see the wax image clearly through the lower void and this is what will be printed. You don't need to tape all the way round for this as the newspaper tends to stick to the screen as you print.

Don't forget to save the pieces that were torn out.

It doesn't matter whether you are methodical in printing this design because only such a small area will be printed. You can be as random as you like or even line the prints up next to each other. I decided to space out the prints fairly randomly on a piece of previously dyed cotton.

I wasn't particularly impressed with the result so decided to overprint by using the cut out pieces to mask off the already printed design. Using the soy wax screen that had simple wavy lines on it, I positioned the larger cut out onto the bottom. You obviously can't tape the paper to the screen but as long as you hold everything in place carefully, the dye should keep the newspaper on the bottom of the screen. If you are concerned that the cut out might move then you can attach it with a temporary spray adhesive. 

Alternatively you can place the cut out onto the fabric, positioning it directly over the printed motif and then carefully lay the screen over the top, taking care not to move the newspaper cut out as you do

Once the cut out is in place, position your screen carefully onto the cloth so the cut out covers the shape that has already been printed. Print with a colour of your choice. 

The lime green was not a good choice as the lines from the screen are not very clear the colour and made the shapes stand out even more. Perhaps if I had used a darker blue it might have integrated the piece better.  Nothing is wasted and this will simply go into the box of pieces that need further attention. It may even end up getting tossed but not before I've given it a chance to redeem itself. Don't be afraid to give up on a piece, sometimes it just doesn't work out and I'm definitely not keen on the shape that I tore in the newspaper.

The newspaper mask can be saved it use again if you remove it carefully from the  screen and hang it up somewhere to dry. I did just that but doubt that I will use this one again.

On Monday I'm going to cover using masking tape resists. I prefer to use the blue painter's tape for this as it is not as sticky as masking tape and is easier to tear. It's fairly easy to obtain from any store that sells decorating items.

Soy Wax and Screen Printing, using resists

Before beginning to use resists I just wanted to show the result of the screen that I made using the tjanting. The printing is a little patchy (operator error) but it does show clearly how you can get very fine lines by using this tool. If it is a look that you want to achieve than I really would recommend purchasing one. 

And in case you are wondering whether the horizontal line is a design element, it isn't - I dropped the tjanting!

The first resist that I want to take a look at is the adhesive film (the kind that you cover books with). Because it has a paper backing you could make quite an elaborate design if you wanted to. Wouldn't something like this Notan design look great? 

However, time is short so, I have gone for simple squares and a rectangle. Cut out your design from a piece of the adhesive film, large enough to cover the printing area of your screen. Keep the sheet of paper intact except for the cutouts. If you are doing a complicated design use a craft knife to do the cutting so that you get a  clean edge. Don't remove the backing paper at this stage.

And keep your cutouts.

When you are ready, remove the backing paper and stick the adhesive film to the bottom of one of your  screens that has a soy wax design on it. Make sure that you get a good bond at the edges of the areas that you have cut out and that the film covers the whole of the print area. The film acts as a resist so the only thing that will be printed is the area that you cut away. Then just go ahead and print. You could be quite careful in where you place the cutout areas but I like the surprise that you get when you cut them out randomly.

For this I decided to go with an undyed fabric, silk noil, so that I could see the effect more clearly. and I just printed randomly over the fabric

I also did the same thing again but cut circles from the film this time.

Both these pieces need more doing to them but have a lot of potential.

Remember I said to keep the cut out pieces? Don't forget to remove the first piece of film from your screen, if you are going to use the same one. This time, take your cut out pieces, (I used the circles), and place them on the bottom of your screen. I used a piece of dyed cotton for this one.

And this is what it looked like after printing.

You could spend hours playing with this technique. Try it with different screens, with dyed or undyed fabric. Endless permutations.

I do hope that you are enjoying your journey with me so far. More on resists coming up on Friday.

Soy Wax and Screen Printing, more printed designs

Nothing new to learn today so you can sit back and just look at the pictures, and hopefully, spend time on your own creations. I've got befores, afters, and the fabric before it had been washed out. All are still on pre-dyed fabric.

This is a piece of cotton fabric that had been printed with an interfacing screen. I did  the first row of printing before I remembered to take a photo. I quite liked the colours but it lacked interest

This is what it looked like before being washed out.

I'm already liking this much better. Do you remember that I feathered the edges of one of the screens? This is the one and it has ended up making a secondary design where the two feathered edges met.

And washed out. Too much blue in there so I think this may get further treatment

This had also been printed with the same interfacing screen but in a different colourway.

Before washout it looks quite good

Unfortunately I should have used a stronger dye solution. That blue should be black or charcoal!

Have you ever dyed a piece which you are just not sure about, maybe it would work but it isn't speaking to you? That's how I felt about this piece of cotton.

Before washout

Drat, that feeble blue again!

I really like working with silk noil but I had had this one sitting in my box, being unsure, again, what to do with it. This time I only have a photo of the original and the piece washed out after being overprinted. I deliberately left the yellow strip down the middle unprinted as I have an idea what I might want to add to that.

Finally, remember that terrible deconstructed failure from the last post?

Not good enough yet, but at least better.

I hope to see you next time for using resists with the screens.