Week Nine. 19th November.

This week I pushed on with the direct printing I had been experimenting with. I carried out testers to ensure the colours were correct, on four different fabrics: Silk Habotai, Silk Taffetta, Sand Habotai, and Silk Slub.



The method for this technique on silk (or any protein fibre) is as follows: I found after experiment that the best dye ratio was 2g:200ml water. This produces a medium dye shade that is easy to control, and for this work, was not too bright, as I was aiming for subtle colours with depth. Weigh out 2g of chose dye, if mixing dyes to create your own colour then testing must be done prior to finalising your dyes. Dilute the dye powder with 200ml warm water until the powder is dissolved. (Note: acid dyes are poisonous, always use suitable PPE.).

Using a clean, dry screen, paint your chosen design directly onto the front of the screen. When this is dry, print the design onto your chosen fabric using a clear paste. I used a paste made from 200g Indalca with 20g Urea.
Once the fabric has dried, steam for one hour, and then wash by hand in cool water until the indalca has washed out.

After completing several sucessful prints working from my watercolour illustrations, I realised that the most sucessful aspects of the prints were not the image itself, but the effect of the dye upon the fabric. Particularly the areas where the dye stopped, creating an interesting contrast between the dye and the fabric, so I began to focus my designs on these edges.
This project had always focused heavily on colour use and placement and so this fit in well with the work I had done previously.