Over the course of a few weeks, I’ve assembled a group of 13 silk screens with dye drawings. It was time to get to printing all of these out on cloth. Sunday became the day for the 6 hour long printing session.
printing out one of my silk screen dye drawings onto cotton cloth
One of the things I love about the deconstructed screen-printing process (DSP) is how little control I have over how the image will release from the screen, and therefore end up creating “on the fly” as the dye is being printed out.
This includes deciding to add color directly to what’s been printed, or using a colored release paste to add some contrast to the image as it’s being printed, or maybe even over-printing the cloth with a second screen/different drawn image to add some interest.
art cloth with multiple layers of printed dye drawings
Depending on how these turn out after washing, they may become bases for new stitched textile paintings, or be cut up and assembled into Hanna-Dyed pillows, or even left as whole pieces of art cloth.
black dye line drawing – deconstructed screen print
I may have to work on resolving this black and white image into a finished textile painting – I’m really loving the drawing in this one.
2 Days left for early bird registration for my Eco-Dye Playshop in October!
If you’re considering joining my Eco-Dye play shop, there are 2 days left to register at the early bird discounted rate.
wool eco-printed with maple and eucalyptus leaves
We’ll be dyeing & printing cloth with natural plant materials – it’s easy, fun, and addictive! Only 3 spaces left. Full details and registration located here.
I’m headed back to the studio now to wash out the cloth I printed this weekend and finish printing the rest of the screens. After all this printing, I’m itchin’ to get stitchin’ so hopefully I’ll have some pieces that are good bases to evolve into finished work.
Happy stitching,
I *do* wish i could take workshops with you!
Oh Arlee, the feeling is soooo mutual! I’d love to get to Canada one day, never say never 🙂
Fantastic results. Wish I lived closer for workshops – being on the same continent would help!
Thanks Maggi, yes, it would help to be on the same continent wouldn’t it 🙂 It is definitely on my list to get to spend some time in the UK seeing some of the great textile work and artists and taking some classes there. I am so inspired by the wonderful contemporary textile art I see coming from artists in the UK and all the great workshop possibilities – I’ll get there one day soon I hope!
love that B&W dye line drawing!
that’s my favorite too…i actually decided to do some more direct dye drawing on that one before batching it…we’ll see how much of that it “holds” after batching and washing
I love the black line drawing.
What’s your favorite black dye to use for deconstructed screen printing?
Hi Barbara – I use several of the black dyes from both Pro chemical and Dharma Trading and I always mix 2 or 3 of them to create my own blacks. I find mixing them results in a much richer black, and depending on which ones I use, I can get a warm or cool black. Jet black, cotton black, pro black, and just plain black are some of the ones I use.