Wednesday 27 April 2016

Playing with colour

We both create and use hand dyed fabrics in our textile work and one of our favourite techniques is painting with thickened dyes, often using resist marks, to produce unique fabrics.


Is there still time for tea?  Hazel

As we don't have a dedicated print studio we use portable print boards, balancing them either on trestle legs or the table top.  This gives us a padded work surface at the correct hight which makes the whole process much more enjoyable and prevents back strain.



If you want to make your own portable print table here's how:

you will need:
    • a piece of chipboard (approx 1.5-2cm thick) cut to a manageable size - this is a balance between what you can lift and store easily (and get in your car), and a big enough piece to allow a reasonable size fabric to be printed - eg  1.2m x 80 cm would allow you to get 2 fat quarters or 1/2m fabric on it, but you might be happy with smaller than that (don't use MDF - it is very heavy!)
    • enough synthetic material such as felt or old synthetic blanket (smooth) to cover the board on one side with a 5cm overlap all round (we use two layers of felt, but blanket is thicker so one layer would probably do). Synthetic is important - this layer provides 'give' and something to pin into, but mustn't retain moisture and get soggy as cotton would.  (needle-punched polyester wadding would work, but not the old 'fuzzy' type. eg     http://www.fabricland.co.uk/felt__1.htm - polyester felt £2.99/m)
    • staple gun

Position the  board centrally over the felt or blanket and staple the overlap evenly to the back of the board - Start in the middle at the top, then middle bottom, then opposite sides, then work evenly round till it is all attached and stretched firmly and evenly.



Then all you need is a drop-cloth (old cotton sheet, piece of drill or calico) to absorb excess moisture and keep the board clean, and you're set up for printing whenever you want to.



No comments:

Post a Comment