The original three year old painted paper.  

Another today print from old stuff. Notice the difference in texture from the light and dark stamping.  

Same painted paper but printed three years ago when the paper was originally painted!  

Printed today about 15 minutes ago from 'old papers' 

Disperse dyeing!

Micki has asked me what I meant by 'old papers' so I am going to do a quick explanation of the disperse dyeing process. So for all you to whom this is old hat stop reading now or be bored out of your tree.

I buy powder dyes and make these up into a liquid like ink. This liquid dye will last for ever if mixed properly to begin with. Disperse dyes are used to dye man-made fibres and the technique is different to normal dyeing. For a start one paints one's design onto paper. I use copy paper for this and the best paper I find is continuous sheet printing paper. It is just the right thickness. It is no good using thick paper as the heat won't penetrate it. You can paint anything you like, or stamp or write with a pen. Anything that takes your fancy but remember if you are writing that the word/s will appear backwards unless you mirror image them. I find the easiest way to do this is to write on the back of the paper with a pencil or crayon and then turn it over and copy it onto the reverse side using disperse dye. When you have painted the papers then you let them dry. It is important to let them dry thoroughly. When dry you then iron them with a very hot iron, face down onto the fabric you have chosen.This might take a minute or two or five as it requires a lot of heat to set the dye. You can use more than one piece of painted paper on one piece of fabric. Dyeing and over dyeing. You can cut out shapes to use and you can scrumple your fabric and then dye it so that you get different effects. There are no end of things that you can do. And what is brilliant is that the papers can be used over and over again until they are too faint to print. Plus they will last. I was using papers I'd painted three years ago and they were still doing the job! This is what I meant by old papers! I use poly/cotton on the whole as it takes the dye well but any man-made will do. I don't like inserting pictures as they go all over the place so I will post pictures and comments above. Do ask questions as this is only a quick explanation. I love this method of dyeing as it is so quick. If I want a quick motif or pattern this is the way to go!

Moving On!

Didn't find my samples even though I asked my angel for help so I shall have to do some more. I started a few pieces which didn't take long to do so I will work out what I need and have a few evenings hand stitching. The old papers from disperse dyeing that I found, sidetracked me and I had to try printing them out. I have called the resulting mess 'Chaos' as that is what my workroom looks like now and what the pieces of fabric reminded me of. But it gee'd up the spirit and I feel resigned to not having found my samples. Sometimes we just have to move on...and I have. What is interesting about disperse dyeing is that the colour of the papers are never the same as the dyed fabric. But they are lovely in their own right and worth keeping for making journal covers or using in collage work. When I have got this workshop under my belt, samples done and dusted, then I will have another go with disperse dyes and be more organised. I found some gold and copper foil in my search so I can have fun with that too. There are always silver linings!

Chaos #1. Disperse dye on poly/cotton using old papers. These will be used as backgrounds and I will add to them.  

Chaos #2 A piece of disperse dyed fabric using old papers that I found in my search for the samples.  

Blue painted paper with bleach dropped on it.  

Painted paper after cling film has been laid over it.  

As I haven't found my samples I have been having to do more. These are painted shapes filled in with stitches. Look like maggots to me! Or caterpillars!  

Painted fabric stitched over using fly stitch.  

Painted greaseproof paper sewn together with herringbone stitch. I can see great applications for this. I shall do more. This was just a sample.  

Why am I posting this odd picture? Because this is a lantern in my garden that only works if it has had enough sunlight. It hasn't worked all winter but tonight its glowing like a good 'un! So we had sun today! Ain't that grand!  

Not the best of days!

This isn't the best of days for blogging as I am still searching for my lost samples. My mind can only focus on their loss so I am going to go now and turn both my workrooms upside down. Sadly I fear that because I can't actually remember seeing them the last time I had a large scale re-organisation they might have gone walk about. It is very common for students to 'borrow' stuff and unless you remember who has borrowed what it is unlikely to be returned. Not all students are like this but some are. But before I start maligning past students I am going to go and excavate! Wish me luck!

And a half started silk painted piece of ribbon embroidery. That gate desperately needs some dirt and moss on it! I have never seen a gate so white! What ever was I thinking of! And not brilliant compostion. But perhaps it can be saved! What do you think?

A very useful box of hand-dyed wools which I did last year. How they came to be in the attic I really don't know.  

I found this design board which I did as a mock up for a City and Guilds Fashion Design course. I was into leaves even then and some of the ideas I think I will extend and use.  

Attic finds!

Today I went into the attic as a last resort in finding some samples I needed for a workshop I'm doing at the end of the month. I found lots of interesting things but not the samples. So now I will have to turn my workshop upside down again as I know they must be somewhere. This is so annoying as I don't have time to do them again. They weren't where they should have been which makes me wonder if I've had them for a class and then not put them back or horror of horrors, lost them! At least I have three weeks to find them in!

Shopping Night!

Today was the evening we go shopping at Asda. This picture was taken in the day time but its just the same only dark. Food shopping is such a bore especially when one hasn't eaten and is dying of hunger. I always end up buying more than I actually want or need which is bad planning on my behalf. I start with a list but it gets superseded by the choices around me.
And then of course there is the book section. Tonight I bought another Dan Brown book. I do enjoy them and I can't wait to get started on this one. After all that boring shopping I deserve a book! And they are so cheap...cheaper than Amazon even!