Print Room Fun!!

After spending my morning organising and adding to my unit 10 folder I then spent the afternoon doing some more printing sample's to add to my tech file experimenting with different colours and fabric's. Firstly I had a chat with the instructor Kathryn about my exhibition and my final piece's, My original plan was to have a big scarf as my main exhibition piece, This will be a scarf not to be worn but just for show. I would also have 3 little wearable scarfs all the same colours which I could sell. We now came up with a new plan which is to do the same but the main scarf bigger (the whole length of the printing table 4.5m x 1.5m) and to do many techniques on it such as sewing needle felting's onto it aswell as other techniques. I will also create as many other scarfs as I can using different colour's and materials so there are more choices for if people would like to buy them. On to printing...

Firstly I bought some fabric just at A4 size as it is just to experiment with colours to see how the colours and the fabrics react and see what colour pigments look good on top of procian dyes I've not yet used in this project.

After I bought my fabric which is a mix of habotai silk light, cotton and white muslin I then mixed some procian dyes in cups to use to make my backgrounds. In my previous printing room blog post you can see I use bigger tubs to put my diluted procian dyes in but this time I used smaller cups with the procian dyes still diluted. I also used a bigger tub and filled this with water to place my sample in before dying it as I like the bled and smudge affect it gives when adding the dye to a wet surface, This looks differently on different material.

I mixed some different colours to which I used for my last batch of samples as I wanted to experiment and see which would look good as I have planned to produce a few different scarfs in different colours using different fabrics. My technique to dye the backgrounds for these samples were to soak the sample in water and rinse it out then place on a piece of news print making sure it is flat. I then use 1 brush for each colour and choosing which every colour I want I splat the colour onto the fabric and then it bled and smudged, Doing this many times with different colours untill I got the effect I liked. I then put it on the drying rack to dry.

 I did not take many pictures of dyeing the backgrounds of my samples but you can see them clearly in the picture's I have took during my time printing on top of these samples.
After the samples had dried (all 8 of them), I did some yellow and orange based and some bright pink and blue based, I started to print on them. Now this is a two man job as my screens are so big so I had some help with this. 

Using different colours with my screens really got me excited to create my scarfs as there are so many different colours I could combine and I think I have added my style to this project really perfectly. Because of time management I did not take as many pictures as I could have as I was very busy in the print room as the final day to hand in all my work is Friday. I will not be handing in my final pieces as I have not started them yet but I have time before my exhibition to do these as they are not to be rushed. My plan is to get all my sampling out of the way in the next 2 days as everything I want to put on my final pieces have to be sampled so I shall be a very busy bee. 

I have found using bigger screens so much more easier and gave me an idea of what industry is really like, Although carrying and washing my screens has been hard and printing is a two man job it has been easier in the way that I can do many samples at once and for my final pieces it will not take me too long to print. 

Above are pictures of the pigments I used today to print with...

Reddy Pink - Scarlet pigment and Brill red.

Coral Pink - Scarlet Pigment and Orange

Lime - Yellow and Green Pigment

All these colours are really bright!!

Here are a few pictures of the final outcomes from the print room today...

I am so happy with the outcome's of todays print room fun! I am really happy with my project so far and I think I have shown my skills really well and I hope my exhibition reflects me well. I now need to do some more samples with different and unique things for my exhibition piece scarf as they have to be in on Friday.

I really hope you enjoyed reading about my time in the print room and I am so happy everything is coming along so well!!!

Thankyou for reading and if you have any questions or would like to request to buy a scarf that I shall be making then please get intouch!