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.

Needle Felted Petri Dishes - Tactile Sampling

It has been decided that my main scarf I shall be making which will be purely for my exhibition will be as tactile as can be. Taking this into consideration I had an idea of sewing some needle felted creations onto samples I had already created to see how it would hold and look like. I took one of the needle felted petri dishes I made a few week back and hand sewn it onto a silk printed sample. 

This is what the outcome looks like. I really really like it and I shall make some more of these petri dishes enough to put out for my exhibition and to sew onto my scarf. I hope you all like it and if you have any other ideas for my exhibition please comment! 
Thankyou for reading x

Creative Business Cards Completed!

Things are finally starting to come together, As the hand in date is tomorrow as you can imagine things are getting a little stressful and heated but trying to think positive and stay calm is the best thing to do. If you read my blog you know for my creative business cards I created some needle felted cells to relate to my theme. This morning I have finally finished them, I decided to buy some labels with string attached to them and hand write my information on the tags, I think this gives the creative business cards a more personal touch to them.

All in all I have created 13 of these business cards as the minimum was 10. Personally I do think I should have done more but managing my time and prioritizing was what made me stop at 13, I can always do more if I run out of them. I really like these business cards and I think they are very unique. I am proud of what I have created.

I hope you have liked this short but sweet blog post just to update you on today's creations. 

Thank you for reading.

Where I Find And Log My Inspiration For Projects!

The world of social media is amazing for finding inspiration for projects, patterns, artists, You name it, It's on it! I think it is really important you log your inspiration, Yes in a sketchbook is fine, as it is fundamental to have a sketchbook on going through your project but theirs something more about having a ways to log things on the internet! Maybe it's because a sketchbook's pages can run out and sure the internet can be slow sometimes and even disconnect but it will always be there! First thing's first, Pinterest is sha-mazing for us textiles fanatics!! Its full of inspiration for patterns, knit, weaving, felting, sewing, It also has tutorials and even free patterns to cut! To use pinterest is easy peasy! You create your profile, You can chose a username and you create a password and what not then your on!! Now to the fun bit, You can create boards to organise the things you 'pin' (this means the thing you put on your profile/board's weather you add the picture/link on yourself or weather you re-pin from someone's board's). It pretty easy to follow people that's interested in the same things as yourself as their are sections you can browse. Its pretty easy to use and very addictive!! Check out my pinterest here to get some inspiration!! Secondly I like to use tumblr, This isn't necessary as pinterest is more organised and better for pictures but I like to use it to type things up, for example if I get an idea for my current project I can just write it down on tumblr. People do use tumblr for a more personal type of blog but you can search anything you want and you will find lot's of it! I've just made a new tumblr purely based on textile's so if I get fed up of being on pinterest or writing blog posts I can simply just have a look on tumblr, It's kind of hard to describe tumblr to you but you should defo sign up and have a look around, have a look here at my tumblr to get the idea of it. Finally, last but not least, Blogger! Blogger has been a life saver when it come's to keeping a journal of my textiles life! I like to write posts at least 3 times a week updating you guys on my current project and giving you tips and tricks on how to do things along the way! It will also be nice in a couple of years to look back to and see how far I have come and gained more skills in textiles. I hope this has helped everyone! 

Thankyou for reading.

TUMBLR!

Hey everyone, So after about a year I've got back onto the Tumblr hype.

For those of you who don't know what tumblr is, It is a social media platform were you can post photos, GIF's, Questions and follow other people who you are interested in. 

I have set up my new tumblr for a place to put inspiration for project's, College and what have you. It's not based on anything specific but it shall be something I can refer back to when I need Inspiring just like my Pinterest is.

Check out my new tumblr here.

Where else you can find me?
Pinterest - here.
Instagram - becleaa
Twitter - here.