The past few weeks, I’ve been playing with fabric dyeing and painting for the first time. So for my printing journaling, this is my first project entry, based on Meadow Grasses.

In her book, “Hand Block Printing and Resist Dyeing”, Susan Bosence mentions for inspiration, begin with subject matter that describes where you are. Camera in hand, I took some ‘micro’ type pics from the backyard. One, was a clump of grass growing tall against the corner of the house. The green and cream colors along with the simplicity and strength of the grass appealed to me, so that is where I started. Not to mention, the only colors I had to use were turquoise and sunflower yellow. lol. These dyes are grocery store bought direct dyes, not fiber reactive. So, they have a will all their own. Here is a pic of the prelims. Original photo, artwork, stitches (because of the blue background) and some blocks.

The block on the bottom left is for the grass buds (hasn’t been printed yet because I was waiting on some fiber reactive dyes and supplies). The block on the right was printed in mono fashion. It’s made from electrical cord and sunflower seeds. Problem #1, sunflower seeds crush (even when hot glued down. lol) Problem #2, the vinyl grooved housing for the electrical cord causes “globs” of paint to print. Fortunately, I only did one width of the top edge of the fabric with this block, so it will make a fun summer border piece.

The fabric I’m printing on is bleached, cotton muslin sheeting from Walmart. About 5 yards, 45″ wide. Okay quality at a cheap price.

First, I washed the fabrics in grocery store version of washing soda (soda carbonate).

Second, while the cotton sheeting was damp, I painted and stamped some leaves and flowers with DEKA resist, some were thickly applied, others moderately applied. Let dry overnight.

Third, mixed up very warm water dye bath of turqoise. I don’t have a way to heat the water, other than tap hot and microwave hotter. So, it’s not as hot as it probably should have been. Into this dye, I put the now resisted, woven sheeting. I let the fabric sit in the dye for 36 hours, because it just wasn’t taking it very well. It was evenly dyeing, but not a good absorption of color. This fabric was taken out, run through the washing machine without detergents in cold water wash. Dried on hottest setting of the dryer. Even paler dry.

I decided to try dyeing some cotton knit sheeting that I had (left over top sheets to a king bed. lol) This took the color beautifully! Nice rich color even though the dye bath was cold. I left the sheeting to dye overnight also. I suspect there’s nylon or something in that fabric??? Washed and dried, and it still just as pretty. Wishing I had used the resist on it, but alas, the resist washed out of the first woven sheeting in the warm dye bath and the marks are barely visible. Poured the dye bath off into a five gallon container for later use.

No pics to this point.

Fourth, I mixed up the yellow dye concentrate, in a seperate plastic tray, I folded up some flannel scraps, making sure there’s a bit of a bulge to the middle of the folded fabric (humped a bit in the middle). Over this, I poured some dye concentrate. Tried printing a bit, but it was too loose. Went to the kitchen for thickeners. I only had cornstarch and unflavored gelatin. I added some cornstarch to the printed pad. Made a neat paste. Printed some leafs with it, using a foamie – precut stamp, then I decided to try the gelatin, mixing some concentrate with it, let it sit for a bit, it wasn’t thickening, so I added a couple of ice cubes, started to “thicken” as I painted, so I quickly proceeded to loosely paint some ‘dancing flowers’. I let this sit overnight without rolling up. What I think started a neat ‘haloeing’ effect. The image on left is wet painting to the right which has dried. Notice the haloe from the gelatin? On the right image, it looks kind of like an dry, oily patch. It get’s better….

Fifth, I printed with some green textile paint (ceramacolor paint with textile medium added) using the sunflower/wire block. I did not like the lack of control with the block, so I only did about a foot or so of the fabric, full width. Let it dry for several days. The printing was getting better by the last image. If the worktable had been padded with a thin layer of cotton batting, felt or flannel, I think this would have gone a bit better. The vinyl and newsprint was not enough to give a sufficient ‘cush’. Foam stamps work well because of they have ‘cush’ built in. So, in the future, I’ll probably use two lengths of flannel under the vinyl.

Sixth, I repoured the original turquoise dye into the utility sink and put the woven sheeting back into it, letting this sit for 3 days. When my son reminded me with “If your looking for your turquoise fabric, it’s in the downstairs bathroom sink”, I remember to rinse it out. I ran it through the washing machine, cold water only rinse, and dried it in the dryer. The paint sits on the fabric in spots like dried acrylic paint. Guess it was too thick? lol. But, the gelatin had a really awesome effect! Wherever the gelatin was, the turqoise dye took right to the fabric, making it dark in those areas. The cornstarch had some effect but not as strong as the gelatin, wonder why? Does the cornstarch and gelatin have softening – absorbency properties? Feel free to let me know. Novice Here <--- The rest of the fabric still did not overydye too well, which resulted in a strange, original yellow, turqoise showing, but with a darker halo of turqoise around it. This was a neat discovery that I'll use more in the future.

Here is a pic of it:

Here’s the original before the last turquoise dye bath:

So, I am back at what to do for stage seven as the fabric sits again for awhile atop the work table. I’ve finished carving the block for the grass flowers which originally I thought of making yellow.

There is still some yellow dye concentrate, without thickener, sitting in a tin coffee can (slowly beginning to rust). Hey, gotta try all adversities. Instead of printing right away with this block, I am tempted to try the gelatin method again. The depths are really sweet. So, I may just have to reserve the final ‘overall’ block for later printing. I think it will be neat to continue layering some stuff first.

Today, I received the chemicals and pigments to make the block printing paste with an indigo pigment. I ordered them from Pro Chemical and Ink. They’re the flip side of Dharma. Not that Dharma is bad, I like their honesty and their education of their consumers. But coming from a printer background, I prefer Pro Chemicals ‘master printer’ mentality. You know, the not so free-spirited scientific minds that recommend particular measuring spoons and give you the chemical breakdowns of what you are using kind of people. After all, the only ones playing here should be me.

If anyone is looking for PFD fabric (Prepared for dyeing) and other blank textiles, there is another company I received samples from that seems reasonable enough. They are Test Fabrics, Inc. They ‘re selling point is consistently produced, high quality fabrics. For example, they test all of their fabrics as they come in to make sure things are as consistent as possible from batch to batch. So, when I finish playing and am ready to get on with it, this is where I’ll probably purchase fabrics from.