Textile Construction #5 Makeover

For those of you who read the previous post on Textile Construction #5, you know that I was not pleased with the color of the piece and mentioned that I would attempt an over dye. Well, here are the results.


The color is not especially pleasing this is certainly warmer and more interesting. I decided to paint the dye on rather than do a dye bath. I mixed Sun Yellow dye powder into print paste and added Mixed Alkali to activate the dye. This mixture was gently applied to the face of the work with a sponge brush in order to leave some of the original color deep in the stitch lines. The piece was allowed to cure for about 8 hours and then hand washed and air dried.

As a result of this adjustment of color, the red quilting lines standout and while it is not visible in this photograph, there are spots of the previous color in the quilting and wrinkle "ditches" which add additional interest by highlighting the surface texture.

You can find the formulas for print paste and mixed alkali (and much much more) in a wonderful book by Elin Noble entitled: Dyes & Paints.

Weekly Textile Construction #5

The insights and lessons of doing a weekly small experiment continue. Like most artists, I generally only show my best work to others, whereas here, I am sharing the work with you no matter what the results because for me the important thing is not the specific results during any given week, but what I learn from doing that's weeks project.

As I began to think about TC #5 I found another piece of fabric I had made in response to the video on Committed to Cloth entitled Creative Fabric Dying. My results were not pleasing or interesting (or so I thought at the time) and the color was bad. It was done using a piece of fabric that is not my usual fabric and it is kind of thin. However, I feel my eye for marks is changing and I spotted a stack of strips I had cut from some of this fabric and decided to attempt to use the discarded fabric in a piece.

The photos show clearly that there is a front and a back to this fabric. I liked the back. I selected three three strips, each with a different pattern.

This is of the front of the fabric.


This shows the back of the fabric. There are much stronger linear markings.



This shows the 3 pieces I choose to work with.


I pieced them together and turned the unit 90 degrees clockwise.


Here you can see the Unit. I then choose to keep things simple by using red, yellow and green thread to quilt and add details and texture.


After quilting I decided I needed another element and I discharged the 12 dots with Soft Scrub. The fabric discharged to yellow which worked well with the red/yellow spiral. Because I discharged the dots I had to wash the piece so there is more overall texture.

Observations:

1. The stripes created on the back of this fabric make me think of strip piecing. I think there are some nice possibilities here if the color were nicer.

2. I like the overlapping background spirals made by the quilting. A nice way to repeat an element.

3. I may dip this little fellow into another dye bath just to see if I can pump up the color. I'll let you know how that works.

The color in this study is so unattractive that I could not resist playing with it a bit in Photoshop. Still not good but perhaps better.


Next week I am going to return to TC #2 and attempt to do another piece like that but this time WITH INTENTION. Better color and the knowledge gained while making the first piece.