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

IRO Design Silk Painting Process

This video describes how Peg Russell and her company, Iro Design, create their one-of-a-kind handpainted clothing and accessories in the South End of Boston, MA. See her full range of creations at www.IroDesign.com

Of course, Beth and I wanted to try it. They used silk dyes that had to be set by steam.  We wanted to try similar techniques using MX Dyes on Cotton.  Next posts I will show you my multiple attempts to get it right.

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

First Experiment Drawing with Thickened Dye

Remember how the painted day lily looked in my last post?

Here is how it looked after I drew on it with thickened orange-fushia dye.

And here is what it looked like after drawing on it with the thickened lemon yellow-turquoise thickened dye I added after the red had dried.

After rinsing, washing, drying and ironing, here is what it looks like finished.

The green is barely visible.  The red stands out nicely.  The blobs did not magically disappear. Do you like it better or not so much?

Method:
I used a syringe with both the red and the green dyes.  I used a thickened print paste that already had the soda ash in it.  I mixed up only tiny amounts of each color since it already had the soda ash  and would not last long. I applied the dye to dry material.  I let it stay in place and uncovered to batch for several hours till the drawing had dried.  I was afraid if I covered the fabric up to batch that the dye drawing would spread out or smear and if I moved it while wet or tried to rinse it out before completely dry then the wet dye would mark other areas of the fabric.  Just precautions.  Maybe   I was too cautious but I thought better safe than sorry.

Lessons learned:

1.  Drawing with dye (without blobs) is harder than you think.

 2. The red seemed too thick so I added water.  Then it was really blobbing when I drew.

3.  I didn't add water to the green since I blamed the blobs on the thinner consistency of the red.  I think just as many blobs.  Hmmmm...

4. Less blobs if I actually touch the syringe tip to the fabric rather than holding it above.

5.  Less blobs if I remember to quit using the slow even pressure on the  plunger when I am not actually drawing.  Yep, for some reason that created a glob of dye just waiting to touch the fabric and become a blob.  Who knew?

6.  Darker lines show up better than lighter lines.  I intentionally made the green lines lighter because I wanted the background not to compete but then they seemed to make little difference even before the washout.  Although it did look really good on the unopened flower pod in the upper right corner didn't it? Well, at least till the washout.

7.  Fuchsia takes a long time to dissolve without leaving fuchsia dots.

8.  Practice a lot more before working on something I liked.

9.  Since it is still not fabulous (can you even make a silk purse out of a sow's ear?) I wonder what it would look like if I drew around the flowers and leaves in really dark as in almost black lines?

Next Experiment!

Judith

A Month of Painting and Drawing with Thickened Dye

I was so inspired by the work of Ayn Hanna when I saw her work, Bridges, at the Quilt=Art=Quilt show.  Check out the portfolio on her website, especially the "Dye Drawing" and the "More Textile Painting" tabs.  I mean I love all her stuff but those two techniques are the ones I want to focus on this month and in my own surface design growth.  So I am taking you on my journey as I experiment.

Talking about a journey, I thought I would start with my first attempt at painting with thickened dyes.  Our playgroup named Five was meeting and we were going to paint with thickened dye.  I was not really interested but was willing to play along.  I found a picture of a daylily from my garden that I was willing to try and paint with the dyes.  Here it is.

I disliked it soooo much that I just washed it out and hid it away.

I just happened to run across it after I decided the topic for March.  Don't you love it when serendipity happens!  Anyway, since I already dislike it I thought it was a great place to start drawing with thickened dyes.

Next comes the experiment.

Judith