Screening the two strips

My silk/linen fabric order from Thai Silks, USA, has arrived. It took just six days from ordering to its arrival here in NZ. Definitely no complaints there. As I rolled it on to a cardboard tube I contemplated how all this lovely white fabric might end up, all transformed into something stunning (or not!?).

There has been more progress on my two long strip pieces.

Here I have placed my very large silk screen over the two strips. The strips themselves are covered with pieces of glass (edges taped for safety) and the frame is just a few millimetres or fractions from the glass. Viewing the design already on the strips I can reliably paint on the screen with a dye wash.

Once the dyes on the screen had dried I lifted the screen off so that I could remove the glass pieces. I sometimes wonder whether I will ever forget to do this, and screen everything on to the glass!

Here is the screen after screening with a dye colour mixed with sodium alginate (manutex).

More next blog.....

Two long strips....

In my last blog I mentioned that I had ordered more of my favourite silk/linen fabric from Thai Silks in the USA. Hopefully this will arrive sometime this week. While checking through my fabric stocks before I knew that I had to make this order, I discovered that all I had left of this fabric was two long strips 14cm/5.5" wide, obviously off-cuts from earlier works. Initially I returned these into storage... and then had second thoughts. These two pieces could offer a nice challenge.

So.... after placing them side-by-side lengthways on my display wall and contemplating them for a few days, I made a start.

First I printed a block design that I had prepared sometime ago. Pieces of dense foam were stuck on to a block with double-sided carpet tape (which is so sticky there needs to be a warning!). I then added some printed circles. Both applications are with thickened Procion MX on to the soda ash soaked fabric. It is somewhat difficult to see these long strips of fabric because of the background, but they will show up better next time.

Next I painted some coloured shapes on to a silk screen, and once dry these were screened on to the fabric.