Week Two. 25th February.

I wanted to get into the print room as soon as possible, and as I was aiming to continue with the direct prining, I was able to go to the print room very early. I started mixing Acid dyes, as this colour pallette was very different, and much more diverse than the last this was not easy. As opposed to natural dyes (which i very much like working with, but are not suitable to this technique), Acid dyes do not have a fantastic depth of colour naturally, and it is quite difficult to achieve a good tone and depth of colour without the colours looking very artificial and flat. For the first colours I used:

ratio 1:100 dye to water.

1. M Blue BT
2. Turquoise (AN) & Black 2B
3. Orange II & Bordeaux RL
4. M Yellow R & Black LB

ratio <0.5:100 dye to water

1. Rose 2G

I printed a few samples with these dyes using this image as a reference point:



By turning the image on its side I could viualise it as a pattern rather than an image of a landscape, it changes the image entirely. I used this image for a starting point because I thought the colours and patterns would translate very well into a print, especially using this technique.

The dyes that I used however, were too bright, with too many green tones, and did not give a satisfactory print.

I scanned these prints, aiming to use a technique I had towards the end of the last project, or taking a small area of pleated, and scanned fabric and creating repeat pattern. However, I did not iron the pleats in because I had discovered that the more irregular the pleats, the more interesting pattern is achieved.



Here are some of the designs I created:







I was not happy with these, neither colour nor form, although I still want to pursue this technique.

From my drawings I bagan to experiment with possible repeat pattern ideas, wanting to combine direct printing with a more structered pattern, to make it less random.