A Day In The Life - Long Weekend

Sorry I've not posted in a few day's I've had a bit of a break from blogging/preparing for my exhibition, even though my exhibition is on the 23rd of this month, It was a well needed break. Although, back to reality now. Friday was the day I finally got my holographic heat transfer material onto my big scarf, I had already cut out many circles out of the material and was ready to use the heat press to stick them on. I thought this would take longer than it did but it only took an hour or so, Thanks to the good people in the print room for helping me getting the backing off of the heat transfer. The heat transfer was to put in the circles from my design I printed. In each circle there are 3 little circles (where the heat transfer will go) however I decided to put the heat transfer in only 1 or 2 circles rather than all 3 of them as I did not want it to look too much.
The heat press is set at 180 degrees and to a timer of only 18 seconds, This is enough for heat transfer, pressing fabric and what ever else you may need to use the heat press for. After peeling the backing off the heat transfer I then placed them where they needed to be and used the heat press to stick it on. Here are a few photo's.

The outcome of this looked really amazing. My plan for this big scarf is to make it look really amazing and wacky. To sew loads of things onto it and for it to look as tactile as possible. This was a good start.

After a nice shopping filled weekend off doing college work and blogging, we come to today, Monday. Today I have hand sewn on some angelina fibers and needle feltings I created. Sewing them on using a sewing machine would be much faster and secure, But I don't have a sewing machine at home and after hand sewing them on I really loved the way it looked. 

I love how this is progressing into something more tactile, I shall be sewing more of these on my scarf tomorrow and created more needle felted jewelry. 

Thank you all for reading x

A Day In The Life #5 - Printing Silk Scarfs

My plan for today was to go to college this morning to cut out my holographic heat transfer material for my big scarf as I need to do this first before I can start sewing on my needle felting's. When I got to college the print room was free and I was able to print which is a bonus as I want to get everything printed as soon as possible then I can concentrate on other things such as my needle feltings for my scarf and for in my petri dishes and also for my rings and earings which came today!! So excited about that!!

Today I printed two small scarf's, one silk and one muslin, using very different colour's. The first one was my silk scarf. I started off by masking taping the silk down to the print table which I had previously cleaned and dried. 

The first colour I printed was a turquoise and blue colour and after I printed it, it looked like this.

After I had printed blue I washed my screen and squeegee and put them to dry, I got out my second screen and put some clean gloves on and got printing, This time I printed a bright pink colour.

I really like how this one looked after the second screen but I was struggling to think of what colour to use on my final screen. I decided to use the silver pigment, Although I had not used this before or sampled it I thought it would look good so I went ahead and used it.

The end product looks really amazing the silver pigment gives such a good finished look and I am so glad I used it!! I washed my screen and squeegee and put them to dry and took the fabric I just printed into the classroom to dry, I then washed and dried the table.

The next scarf I printed was one I dyed, pressed and washed yesterday which is the orange and yellow muslin one aswell as an off cut from my big scarf which I had dyed a few days before. I started off by masking taping the fabric's to the table, I then got my colour's and first screen ready and started printing!! The first colour I used for these fabrics was a coral/orange pigment I mixed myself. 

Leaving my pigment to dry on the fabric I took my screen and squeegee in the wash room to clean and then placed my screen in the drying cupboard. When it was time to do the next screen I went for a bright pink and hoped it would look alright.

You can not really tell on the picture above but the out come of the second screen looked really good and bright. The pink and orange really complimented each other on the background colour of my fabric. I next printed a purple pigment after I had washed and put my screen to dry and got my last screen out. 

I really liked the outcome of this scarf, perfect for summer! When I took it off the table and into the class room to dry, The colours look really beautiful when the fabric floats! I am so happy I got to print today as printing a little every chance I can get makes my time management better and means I can focus on my needle felting.

The jewelry making earings and rings I ordered came today and so did my petri dishes for my exhibition. I was so happy when they came as that means I can focus on doing them and I now know the sizes so I can needle felt for them now. 

I am really happy with the work I have completed today. My plan for tomorrow is to maybe go into college (Its my day off) to use the heat press if not then I shall be spending the full day doing some needle felting so I can use the heat press on Friday at college and also use the hot glue gun for my rings and earings.

I really hope you enjoyed my blog post and if you have any ideas for my exhibition or any feedback please feel free to get in contact with me, You can see how to find me on my about me page or just leave a comment on here. 

Thankyou for reading. Come back tomorrow!!

A Day In The Life #4 - Printing My Big Scarf

Today has been the big day!! I've finally printed up the main part of my exhibition which is my big scarf!! Keep reading if you want to know how I did it and see how it looked in stages.

To get started I washed down the printing table I was working on and dried it too. I then measured to where my screen would be once placed on the registration bar and laid my fabric in the correct place on the table so my fabric would be clear of 1 inch on each side so I can clean the ends up on the sewing machine at a later date. I used masking tape to tape my fabric down, making sure its straight and its pulled tightly. 

I then got my pigment's together, As I am recreating one of my samples I am using the same colour pigments I used on that sample.

ignore the back colour as I did not need this or use this for my exhibition scarf. 

Once I had my colour's sorted it was time to print, As my screen's and fabric are so large I had to have the help of kathryn to help me print my screens also because I had not used the registration bar before. First off I printed the pink pigment.

After I had printed this colour I was so excited because it was finally coming to life, I washed and put my screen to dry while this pink pigment was drying, I then got my next screen and got ready to print again this time in blue pigment, This will go over some of the pink at a slight angle to make a purple colour with a blue shadow and also just be blue in other places it is printed.

 I then used my third screen and printed the cells to my fabric and this is what the end product looked like.

I am so so so so excited and in love with the outcome of my big exhibition scarf I can't even put it into word's, The colours are just beautiful and I am so proud of the print. I now need to add my mixed media onto the top of it, Such as sewing my needle feltings onto it and adding my holographic heat transfer, Also using dissolvable fabric and angelina fibers to sew onto it. I still have my work cut out but the end product will be so so worth it. I got gave so many packets of angelina fibers today from my tutor it felt like Christmas!!

After I had printed my big scarf I had time to print one of my normal sized scarfs which I shall sell at my exhibition, The one I chose to print was the orange/pink coloured light silk scarf. I started by masking taping the fabric down. I used similar colours but not exactly the same as they were different shades and instead of doing my cells green I did them a coral colour for this scarf. Here are the pictures after each screen print although I failed to get one of the end product, However I know you shall see it in a future blog post.

I did not get a picture after printing the last screen so I am sorry about that. After I took this off the print table and hung it to dry I instantly fell in love with it, The way the pattern and colours move on the floaty silk amazed me. I am so happy with the work I have done today and I cant wait to produce more.

My to do list from tonight is...

- Sew my needle felting's onto my big scarf.

- Do more dissolveable fabric on the sewing machine.

- Use angelina fibers and interfacing to create more mixed media for my big scarf.

- Use my holographic heat transfer material on my big scarf.

- Print up my other smaller scarfs and dye more material.

- Buy Petri Dishes and Jar's

I hope you have enjoyed tonights blog post, Come back tomorrow to see what I've been getting up to tomorrow.

Thankyou for reading.

A Day In The Life - #3

Today's day in the life blog post consists of me dying up fabric, washing and pressing my fabric, Helping out my friend print onto her fabric and needle felting so keep reading if you want to see and read in more detail what I did.
Up and out early this Monday morning, 9AM start at college, I started off this morning by dying the fabric that was the off cuts from my big exhibition scarf, as they are different sizes they shall just be little bits of fabric for headscarfs or what ever people would want them to be, waste not want not, I'm not one to chuck fabric out. 

This length of fabric in the picture above is one of the off cuts from my previous pieces of fabric, I found this wasent long enough for a scarf so I dyed it some bright colour's to use maybe as a headscarf. After I had dyed this and put it to dry, The colour's left behind on the printing table were so so amazing...

I decided to use another piece of cut off fabric to lay on top of this dye, To see how the fabric would pick up the colours and see what it would look like.

After just one press on the dye this is what the fabric looked like, I really think it looks really good, I put this fabric to one side and used it after I had dyed some fabric, each time I would lay this fabric on the left over dye on the print table. After I was happy with the outcome I pressed and washed it and used it as a headscarf for my own personal use as it was not suitable for anything else.

Excuse the mirror selfie, the apron and the sweaty face but this is what the final outcome of my improvised head scarf looked like, I am going to keep this for my self as I would make it neater and longer if I was to sell it but I personally like it how it is.

After I had cleaned up my space on the table I had a think of what I could dye up next and decided to go with silk scarfs, As I will be selling some scarfs some people will not want crazy wacky colours therefore I shall print some on just white backgrounds and some on block colour backgrounds. After cutting my silk scarfs out I filled 2 buckets with water and measured out some procian dye mixing them to make lighter or darker shades and testing the colours with little silk swatches. I left my silk in the buckets (each had their own bucket as they are different colours) and left them in there untill the end of the day when Kathryn will take them out and place them on the table to dry over night. 

After I had done all this I helped my friend Thea who's blog you can find here. To print one of her fabrics up. I have never used the registration bar to screen print, tomorrow I shall be using it to print my own fabric up. Today I used it for the first time to help Thea print her fabric up and I was so amazed at how easy and quick it is, It will really help me with time management to get my final pieces printed before the exhibition. Here are a few pictures of me and Thea printing her fabric up...

After we had finished printing this fabric up I still had an hour left of college, I decided to dye up one more piece of fabric, Muslin this time, Using orange,Yellow and Pink colour's. 

This was really simple to do, I just wet my fabric by painting on water then splatted the dye on the fabric with paint brushes. It leaves such a lovely effect when the fabric is lifted off the table. After doing this I then pressed and washed all my fabric I had dyed that day. Early this morning I also pressed and washed my big exhibition scarf by using the heat press then putting it on a quick rinse in the washing machine. 

When I got home I decided to do some needle felting as Iv still a lot to do and I figured an hour or so a day will make it easier than letting it all build up. I did a few more bacterial petri dish needle felts and created some little needle felts which I would describe to look like looking down a microscope, These shall be attached to plain rings by the hot glue gun to sell in my exhibition, I am still trying to perfect these as I shall be making a lot of them for my exhibition. Here are a few photo's from today's needle felting session.

The needle feltings which are to sew onto my scarf I am not creating them as detailed and creative as the first ones I did as they will not be shown close up and I am trying to manage my time well, Although the ones which will be in the petri dishes are really beautiful to look at.

Tomorrow's blog post will hopefully be showing you how I printed up my big exhibition scarf as well as the fabric I have dyed today. And some more needle felting. So keep your eyes peeled!!

Thankyou all for reading! Come back tomorrow x

A Day In The Life - Needle felting and New Idea's

This morning I spent time doing some needle felting as I still have a lot to do. As I need to create bacterial petri dish needle feltings to sew onto my large exhibition scarf as well as bacterial petri dish's to put in actual petri dishes just for show in my exhibition. I then also had an idea to create some little items to sell in my exhibition to make my money back, I have ordered some jewelry making rings, earings and ear wire's and I shall be making needle feltings to glue onto these with the hot glue gun to sell at my exhibition. 

I gathered all the wool I had, not sticking to any colour schemes and set off to make some needle felted bacterial petri dishes, nothing too detailed, just some quickish colourful needle felts to sew onto my exhibition scarf. 

I only had time to do a couple of these. I then started to create a couple of little ring sized cell needle felts which I will glue to a ring and which can be sold. I did not get any picture's of these as I feel they could do with some improving but I shall write a blog post as soon as I perfect them!!

Sorry this blog post is only short and sweet as I've had a busy weekend and if you read my blog you probably know this blog post is a day late too, I hope you enjoyed it nevertheless.

Thankyou for reading x  

A Day In The Life - Dying Up Fabric

Today's blog post is a new series of blog posts which will lead up to my exhibition, Everyday I shall post 'A Day In The Life' which will give you an insight in my life every day up until the big exhibition day! Today's day in the life consists of new Tumblr posts and dying up my fabric for my big exhibition piece scarf... enjoy!

This morning I had a thought to my self, I decided that as my final major project is now over and all is left is to print my exhibition piece's, So I decided to make my tumblr blog a little more personal and not completely textile's based, This means I shall be posting non textiles post's and using it for inspiration for fashion and other things not just textiles. With this in mind I decided to change my URL from tthreadsforthought to threadsanddaisies.

Above is a little snippet of what my tumblr will be like from now on but don't be worried I shall still be posting many textiles based things. Follow me at threadsanddaisies 

This afternoon I went to use the print room to dye my fabric for my big exhibition piece scarf, The fabric I am using for this is white musin and it is the length of the big printing table in our print room which is 4.5 meter long. I had already kept my procian dye's from my samples so I was all set. The only problem I experienced at first was how I would wet that amount of fabric as I like to wet my fabric then splodge the dye onto it so it bleeds and smudges and gives an Klari Reis (artist) effect on my material. Soaking it in a bucket would mean a lot of water which would be a safety issue so I decided to paint the water on my fabric. I had help with this from the print room instructor Kathryn, She painted water onto my fabric while I followed her splodging the dye onto my fabric. I used the sample colours as I did my samples but instead of keeping them all at a strong colour I made a diluted version of them aswell. Here are a few photo's from today's print room activities...

These picture's above show me cutting the fabric, I cut it to the length of the table then cut it down a little bit so it was just the width of my print. I then got some water ready and started painting on my water then Kathryn took over as I followed her with dye.

As you can see here I used the dye's to dye the fabric by moving around the table doing one side at a time, I tried to equalize the colours out too. To put the dye on the fabric I used different methods such as just tapping it onto the fabric, flicking it and splodging it onto the fabric. This might seem like a bunch of made up words but if you've ever painted or anything like that you will understand what I mean. I also tried leaving a a few white part's as I did not want it all to be covered. 

As you can see on this picture I layered up the dyes putting one on at a time, Being careful of what colours I put on top of what as they can mix and make different colour's, This did work in my favour as I created beautiful purples and greens. 

 This is the finished outcome in the picture above. I am really happy to how it has come out. Although when it has been pressed and washed it will look more faded and blurred but this will prepare my fabric to be printed on to. I have really enjoyed doing this and I am glad I am making progress for my exhibition. 

After today I had a chat with Kathryn (Instuctor) and she said to make my money back from my fmp I should make lot's of things and sell them, such as earings and rings with my needle felted (smaller) creations on. So i've hopped on ebay and bought some plain rings and earings for jewelry making and tomorrow will be filled with all sorts of needle felting fun which I shall blog about in tomorrows 'A Day In The Life' blog post.

I hope you enjoyed reading my first a day in the life, I hope you have all had a lovely day. Come back tomorrow!!