For this, the sixth piece for 2014, I have used a John Updike quote that I always remember being quoted at school.
"Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth without rain there would be no life....."
This piece was rather experimental -I wanted to try to give the effect of a summer rainstorm with the sun shining through the rain. Having used discharge pastes to create my background effects on my work all year - I wanted to try them to see how they worked with the subliminal contact inks ( transfer inks). I started by colouring the fabric by painting the inks loosely on paper then transferring them to the fabric with an iron. (All the information you read says that trnasfer inks/paints only work on polycotton or polyester / manmade mixes - I find they work fine on cotton if correctly applied) I then tried to use discharge paste sponged on to lighten areas - this did not work - the inks are fixed very well to the cotton fibre - only bleach had any effect and I don't like to use bleach on my work. So I painted some more inks to create the lighter areas to create the effect I wanted without the aid of discharge pastes!
As you can see from the enlarged view below, I used a machine triple stitch to accentuate some of the 'rain' lines as well as differing weights of threads.
Jean
Interesting to read about your process,Jean. In the end, would it have been easier to simply dye a piece of fabric? Beautiful colours and variations of thread. One learns so much from experiments that don't necessarily go how one imagines they will!
ReplyDeleteIn answer to 'would it have been easier...' - yes! but I learnt a lot about what will not discharge!
ReplyDeleteJean