Here we are … some of the fabrics I printed last year and just washed out. I’m rinsing out about three pieces a day so even this is taking time!
I printed this one with a gocco screen. It started out as an eraser which I carved to make a stamp, printed to make a repeating pattern then I scanned it into the computer and enlarged it and printed it out. I then overprinted it with a screen made from a letter. This is the washed out version – it doesn’t actually look much lighter than the original (some of them lost quite a lot of colour). I think this is logwood. Most of these are printed on silk.
This one is a screen made from a photo of a tree. I printed and overprinted it in three colours of natural dyes. This one did wash out quite a lot but I kind of like the subtle effect. This is the unwashed version:
And this is the washed out one. Quite a difference, as you can see. But I quite like it in parts.
This one changed the most. It consists of two screens. One is a gocco screen made from a stamp I carved of a bird’s foot. I printed this one first. Then the second screen is a blank screen with roughly torn masking tape stuck across it – it is supposed to look a bit like cracked mud.
This is the washed out version – I like it more because you can see the bird prints more clearly. The mud cracks are in two or three different shades of brown – this is just a detail of the whole piece.
I don’t think I have a ‘before’ photo of this tree, but it is clay painted using ochres from Clearwell Caves, some caves in the Forest of Dean which are also ancience iron mines. I used soy milk as a binder. The ochres seemed to wash out a lot less than the natural dye extracts I used. It is painted on cotton organdie which is semi transparent so is a bit difficult to photograph.
That’s all I’ve photographed at the moment – more to follow!
6 responses to “Natural dyeing – the results!”
These are great. I love the trees in shades of brown.
Thanks, Vicki! I was trying to get the feeling of depth in a wood… I will probably do something more with it but it’s a great background
What is a gocco screen? I love what you’ve done here. They look really wonderful.
Have a look at my page of links – they’ll give you all the information you need! https://lizplummer.com/blog/print-gocco-useful-web-links/
These are beautiful,especially the logwood
Thanks, Helen, I like that one too.