More progress....

Here I have added a bird cage which is part of the theme for this piece. Colour has been added to the lower half and also to the top left corner. Parts of the top left and bottom right (between the lines) then got discharged to give a contrast.

Then I painted the top right corner a dark brown which makes the central oval more prominent (more about this corner next blog).

After leaving any dye application to cold batch overnight, I always hose the cloth on my driveway (seen here from the deck above, and around, my studio). This hosing releases any surplus dye and avoids back staining particularly when I want areas to stay white. I don't pre-soak the cloth in a soda ash solution as the surplus dye will strike on the white areas. To avoid this I add the soda ash to the thickened dye solution instead. After hosing the cloth still goes through a washing machine cycle. Any one piece may have gone through up to 20 washes before completion.

All washed and ironed. More colour has been added to the top left and bottom right corners as well.
Yet more to do.....

More progress....

More happenings on my latest piece... Do you recognise Frida Kahlo?

Completed lino print using a black textile pigment on the lino, and the edges scraped with a piece of cardboard.

Initial application of colour using fiber reactive dye which has the advantage of being transparent.

More colour added, some applied from the original lino cut (the borders) then direct painting of the fiber reactive dye. I have cropped the image to remove the blue masking tape.

More yet to do...

Overheard while visiting a local gallery, a teenager making the comment that "modern art has gone downhill"... Well, at least he had an opinion!