Module 1: Chapter 7: Texture in Stitch

Module 1: Chapter 7: Colour and Texture in Stitch PART 1

I liked the leaf lino cut that I did previously, so decided to make more to use in this stitching chapter.   These are the leaves I selected as it's a pretty good mix of shapes. I kept the background rough and decided to enhance this background with straight stitches.

 

Two of the prints prepared for stitching

 

 

The finished pieces.  A few variegated threads were used, and the prints were tinted with acrylic paints mixed with Liquitex Fabric Medium.  The result reminded me of the black and white photos that my dad used to print, then colour with very dilute inks.  It's a unique and distinctive look, and these tinted leaves took me straight back to my childhood.

 

I frayed the edges - which showed that the prints weren't straight with the grain of the fabric! - then mounted them on African Bark Cloth from Uganda.

 

 

 

I wanted to use a mix of the dyed fabrics I produced, so laid strips on a calico background and stitched them down with machined lines.  I cut leaf shapes from the two green fabrics I did manage to produce, stitched them down, and laid pieces of net over as the edges are raw.  I decorated this background with straight stitches and chain stitches.  I think the result is quite pretty.  The colours blend beautifully together, and there is a good contrast of light and dark.

 

 

Next I tried a few strips with frayed edges as a background and chose some foliage to stitch.  The thread I used is an artificial silk thread that I bought at the Stitching and Knitting Show at Alexandra Palace this year.  The seller wouldn't tell me what the thread is made of, but it has the look and feel of rayon.  It has a beautiful sheen which doesn't really come across in the scan, but the colours are delicate and the finish attractive.  The scan looks quite 'flat', but the sample has more life as the light reflects off the thread, and the green/cream colour is brighter.

 

 

 

A few more stitched textile samples:

In one wood, there's a seat carved into a fallen tree.  There are a couple of straight cuts, and leaves have accumulated in the dips. 

 

A leaf....

 

A winter tree with leaves...

 

Tree bark, a combination of a machine embroidery stitch and hand stitching with fragments of hand-dyed silk (cruelty-free) and tulle netting.

 

 

 

Module 1: Chapter 3: Texture - additional

When I went back to the post for Chapter 3 to add in something I'd forgotten, I found that a lot of the photos were missing.  I don't understand why, but they do appear in the published blog.  I don't want to 'edit' that post to add in the following in case the existing photos disappear - hence this additional post.

At the Stitching, Sewing and Hobbycrafts Show in Exeter this September, I did a short workshop using a product called Powertex.  It is a liquid that, when worked into the fibres of a fabric, dries to a rigid finish.  I bought the transparent version of this liquid and experimented with it on dyed silk and dyed crepe bandage.  I cut the bandage into the shape of a tree with roots, and scrunched the silk to make an uneven woodland floor.  The fabric is indeed rigid, and the 'tree' stands up on its own.  After 3 weeks, the fabric is even weatherproof and may be used for garden ornaments.

This method has some potential - bowls, vases, ornaments etc.

Module 1: Chapter 6: Colouring of Materials

I have an A3 sketchbook which I used for my work on Procion Dyes.  I have turned the book around and am using the reversed book for Natural Dyes to keep all the dyeing information together.

Natural Dyes.

My first venture into using natural dyes has given me a real appreciation of the convenience and controllability of Procion dyes!  I have a couple of books on the subject, I have downloaded fact sheets from the web, and I bought a starter kit from Aurora Silks in America.  (As a life-long vegetarian with strong vegan leanings, I only use Peace (cruelty-free) silk, which unfortunately, is expensive and only available from America.  (I have bought some Peace Silks from Offset Warehouse, but they don't always stock it and don't have a wide selection.)

I decided that for my first attempt I would use materials from the kit as I thought this would be simplest.  However, I found the instructions unclear.  The measurements are in ounces and teaspoons, and as quantities of mordant and dye are calculated as percentages, neither ounces nor teaspoons ar convenient as a unit of measurement.  I decided I would use grams, making the percentage calculations easier, and referred to the books for clarification of the instructions.

The basics, as I believe them to be after one attempt, are:

1. Always wear gloves.
2. Weigh the fabric - in grams!
3. Fabric needs to be 'scoured' to remove any finish.  SILK: Immerse in hot, soapy water using a neutral ph washing powder or liquid.  Bring to the boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes.  Save the water and use to rinse the finished dyed fabric to restore the original shine and lustre.  Rinse and leave to dry naturally.  COTTON: Add 5g sodium carbonate per 100g fabric to a bucket of hand hot water.  Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes.  Rinse and leave to dry naturally.
4. Results vary depending on whether the material is animal (silk, wool) or vegetable (cotton, linen)
5. The fabric needs to be boiled and simmered for about an hour in a mordant, which attaches to the fabric and holds the dye, making the colour permanent and light-fast.  The most commonly used mordants are alum, iron, copper and tin.  (Chrome may also be used, but it is harmful to the environment, so I won't be using it.)  The choice of mordant affects the colour.  The mordanted fabric may be stored in the solution in a plastic container.
6. The dyes come in different forms.  BARK: If bark is used, it may need to be soaked overnight, then put into the leg of a pair of tights and boiled for around an hour to produce the dye water.  The tights-bag may be saved and used again, producing a less intense colour.            FLOWERS:  are put into a tights-bag and boiled.  EXTRACTS: simply dissolve in water.
7. The colour will be effected by whether the water used is hard (alkaline) or soft (acid).  I live in an area with extremely hard water, but I do have a water ionizer, so can produce acid water.
8. The results are not as predictable or consistent as Procion dyes produce.  There seem to be an enormous number of variables for each dye; the fabric used, the water (acid or alkaline), the mordant (alum, tin, copper, iron, chrome, or any combination with or without cream of tartar) and the dye itself, which as a natural material, will vary from batch to batch!
9. Surprisingly, green seems to be a difficult colour to achieve.  The majority of recipes for green seem to involve over-dyeing indigo.

I will learn more as I do more dyeing.


Rust Dyeing

 

Cotton fabric soaked in salt for a few hours, then wrapped around iron nails and other pieces of rusty metal then left in a plastic bag for 4 days.

 

The results are beautiful, but the fabric can only be used for ephemeral items as the rust will eventually destroy it, making it unsuitable for heirloom items.

 

 

 

Top photo: Mordanting Fabric: Silk fabric boiled for an hour in Alum

Next: Silk fabric boiled for an hour in iron.  The fabric has turned very dark, possibly because the iron is alkaline and our tap water is very hard - also alkaline.  I'll try using acid water (lower ph) another time.

Next: Preparing Bark, flowers etc for dyeing.  Some bark needs to be soaked overnight.  Stretch the leg of a pair of tights over a bowl and insert the material.  Tie the bag off and boil to produce dye water.

Bottom photo: Logwood bark having been soaked and 'bagged' ready for boiling.

 

 

 

These are the results of dyeing with Fusticwood.  The top row of three shows silk mordanted in Alum 25%, a mix of Alum and Iron, and Iron 1.5%.  The third sample is supposed to be olive green!  Having read more, it seems that the iron mordant can be added with the dye rather than pre-boiling.  I will have to try that as greens are difficult and I'd like to produce one.

 

The lower three rows are various cotton fabrics.

 

 

 

Top fabric: Heather flowers bought from George Weil.  I soaked the dried flowers overnight, then boiled them for an hour to produce the dye water.  The cotton fabric was mordanted with Alum.

 

Lower fabric:  Teeccino Herbal Coffee.  I left some mordanted fabric by the kettle and every time I had a cup of Teeccino, I left the hot, wet 'teabag' on the fabric.  I rinsed the fabric every few days and after about 3 weeks, the fabric had reached this stage, producing quite a nice fabric.

 

 

 

Above: Logwood on silk.  The colours are too dark to be seen clearly in this photo, so scans are below.  The second and third samples are very similar, so just two scans.

 

 

Sample 1: Fabric weighed 20g.  Logwood used 15g.  Mordant, Alum 5g

 

Sample 2: Fabric weighed 20g.  Logwood used 15g.  Mordant, Iron 1.5g

 

Sample 3: Fabric weighed 20g.  Logwood used - 2nd use of dye above.  Mordant, Iron 1.5g

 

N.B.  The bottom two are supposed to be a smoky blue colour - they've turned out a pleasant mink colour.  Again, the iron mordant has produced an unexpected result.

 

 

 

Brazilwood on Cotton

 

The use of acid or alkaline water in the dye is supposed to affect the colour.  I used alkaline tap water in one dye batch and acid water from a water ionizer in the other.  The sample on the left in the top row was in acid water, and is very slightly more blue.

 

I mixed the two dye batches and continued to dye fabric hoping to get paler shades, but the dye lasted well!  The intensity of the dye didn't seem to reduce much through the 5 dye runs.

 

 

 

 

 

Above: Sun Dyeing with Lumi Inkodye

 

The instructions said the fabric should be machine washed on a HOT/COLD setting after exposure to the sun.  My machine doesn't have this setting so I washed by hand.  Product was probably left in the fabric as the bale blue 'crinkle' pattern appeared when I left the samples to dry.  I like the effect though, so I'm happy.  I reproduce the 4 photos below for more detail.

 

 

Fabric loosely folded from one corner

 

 

Folded vertically then twisted.

 

 

Randomly scrunched - lovely!

 

 

Pinched in the centre then twisted.

 

 

 

Above: Shadow Printing

The flat leaves worked well, but the more dimensional conifer leaves produced a blurred image.  The Inkodye works well, but they don't make a green or yellow - I want a green!  ( I believe Dy-na-Flow works well for sun dyeing - something else to try one day)

 

 

 

I used the silk I dyed with the Fusticwood with the Blue Inkodye to try to produce a green - it worked!  I used leaves again to produce the shadows together with a little fabric manipulation.

 

 

 

Again, attempting to produce green, I used the blue Inkodye on some yellow 'Spraytime' fabric by Makower.  The result is quite a pleasant teal blue, but not what I was after.

 

 

 

For my next dyeing session, I wanted to try the dye on a variety of fabrics.  I stitched a number of fabrics onto calico and dyed it in Cutch Powder.

 

 

 

The results are interesting and show that quite a variety of tones can be produced.  The fabrics used working from top to bottom on the left side are: Crepe bandage, cotton netting, Peace silk and the calico background.  From top to bottom on the right hand side: Open weave cotton, SuedFx, Scrim, Mulberry bark, muslin and hessian.  I particularly liked the colour and texture of the crepe bandage, so dyed a larger piece in the remaining dye water.  The colour is slightly paler, but still a very effective tree bark texture and colour.

 

My next experiment was with madder, using Alum as a mordant.  The resultant colour is absolutely gorgeous!  It's a salmon pink, but a very natural, autumn colour.  I am finding that, despite the difficulties, I far prefer the results the natural dyes are giving over the more 'chemical' and artificial colours that Procion dyes produce.  

 

 

 The autumn colour simply had to be used to make a little stitched sample!  I pulled the weft threads out of a piece of hessian, then used a machined zig zag stitch along the warp threads.  The background is one of the sun-dyed fabrics plus a piece of the madder on cotton.  I've also used some Firefly yarn which matched the colour perfectly and provides a little bit of shine.  (Sorry it's a tad wonky - it moved in the book after I glued it in!)  The colour in the scan is closer to the true colour than the photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used an un-mordanted fabric to see the effect of the dye on a printed white-on-white fabric.  The piece on the left was left unwashed after dyeing, the piece on the right was washed.  I was surprised at how much dye remained in the un-mordanted fabric, even after a wash.

 

The turmeric in curries always successfully dyes any clothes it gets splashed on when I don't want my clothes dyed - so I thought I'd see what turmeric could do when I actually wanted it to stain!  I tried it on cotton and muslin and it did produce a strong yellow colour

 

 

Next, I bought a Mordant Pack from George Weil.  The pack contained Alum, Chrome (which I won't be using), Copper, Iron and Tin.  The accompanying notes have been glued into the Dyeing Book - see photo below.

 

HEALTH AND SAFETY NOTE:  The Chrome and the Copper are both poisonous.  Keep away from children and pets, keep in a secure container clearly labelled.  Always work in a well ventilated area and wear gloves and appropriate clothing. 

 

 

I bought 3 more batches of dye stuff, all of which are supposed to produce green - I'm still in search of this elusive green!  I used Tansy, Golden Rod and Weld each with a Tin, Copper and Alum mordant - and got yellow every time!!!!

 

 

A bit disheartened with the search for a natural green, so will try again in the future - and will maybe resort to Procion dyes.

 

Final dye batch for this chapter is Birch Bark used on fabric mordanted with Tin, Copper and Alum.  These last 4 dye batches do clearly demonstrate the difference that the mordant can make to the final result.  The tin produces a lighter and brighter colour.  The Copper and Alum produce richer, darker colours - but I would always do a test batch first as the results are definitely not controllable or predictable - at least with the level of knowledge that I have.

 

 

 

 

 

Module 1: Chapter 5: Playing with Colour

I chose three photos to work with, one that I took shown below, and two that I printed from the internet and now can't find again to include here.  They are shown on the design book page though!

 

 

The colours in this first photo are predominantly green, but with a strong yellow ochre as a focus colour.

 

The first strip to the right, has a red background, the complementary colour of green.  As red is a warm colour it advances diminishing the effect of the feature colours which recede.

 

The next strip uses a purple background, the complementary colour of yellow, the accent colour.  This works better.

 

The black background absorbs light so the feature colours are more prominent as they reflect light.  The black is also more appropriate for the woodland theme.

 

The photo on the right is a simpler colour scheme, green and pink, and is very effective.

 

 

 

I cut a small photo and a piece of glitter paper into strips and wove them.  I cut the glitter paper at an angle and this has produced s design with perspective.

 

 

 

The third photo is shown below.  It is this colour scheme that I used as a basis for dyeing fabrics.  I've chosen to experiment with natural dyes as I've worked with Procion dyes before.  The colours that result are very natural and reflect the colours in the photo well.  It is very difficult to get consistent results though, so can't guarantee that these colours can be reproduced!

 

  There are quite a few colours in this picture, and different effects can be achieved by using different selections of colours as shown by the three little designs on the right of the page.

 

Module 1: Chapter 4: Shape and Pattern

Shapes in Outline

I found a couple of shapes I liked in photos I'd taken, a made a lino cut from one, and made a stamp with some fine cord from the other.  The third shape, which is probably the simplest and best for development into designs, is from two of the ivy leaves in the collagraph I made.  I did a rubbing from them, then made a lino cut.

Solid Shapes

I chose the ivy leaf design from the page above to use in these design exercises.  Scans of the designs are shown below as the photos of the design book pages won't show detail.

 

 

Diagonal lines using Spectrum Noir pens, with a solid shape over.

 

 

Opaque silver shape was glued to the paper which had some lines drawn on it, then more lines were drawn over the shape.  A translucent yellow shape was layered on top.

 

The next two really didn't work and I ditched them.

 

Shapes of varying sizes spiralling from a central point with translucent shapes over.

Shapes of different sizes cut from a double sided paper, spiralling from a point.  Each shape has the same section folded back to display a third colour and new shapes.

 



 

The above design was traced, drawn in ink, divided into four sections and coloured in counterchange.

 

Torn silver paper was laid on brown card.  Two shapes were placed on top - one opaque, one translucent.

 

I cut this one in half horizontally to produce two smaller images.

 

This is my favourite!  It reminds me of the torn paper work of Matisse.  (Below this image I've included a larger piece I made previously in this style)

 

 

I think the following has worked well

 

Based on a letter of the alphabet, I made a bad choice.  This isn't pleasing at all!