.: Dying & experimenting with fabric

Wednesday 9 November 2011

Dying & experimenting with fabric

As i am also screen printing as part of this project , i needed to get into the print room and start creating a colour pallet which will also complimented my digital designs and overall my concept boards.I began by mixing up about 7/8 dye baths of colours which are used on my colour pallet from there i cut sample sized of my fabric which are ; Silk twill , Habita silk ,Cotton devore, Crep de and orangza by creating these samples i can add 5 pieces of fabric in the same dye bath and see which fabrics work the best with each colour dye.This is a good way to test as some fabrics can create a completely different colour than another.Once i washed and dried the fabrics i colour selected the best fabric and shade of colour.I then wanted to experiment with more busy background fabrics which would fit my theme much better so keeping the same dye baths i dip and re dyed fabrics to see if they improved the look .I then went on to using a more spontaneities technique by wetting the fabric and then just pouring dye on top mixing colours, also tying the fabric causing a tie dye effect.I also experimented with marbling , marbling fabric and paper these were a good effect but i don't think the colours linked.To finish my background experimentation , i took a selection of fabrics and then used discharge and illuminated discharge to bleach the background colour also add tonal qualities. The last experiment i did was with Devore cotton i did 3 pull through of my screen in Devore these proved very successful and i think i will develop this idea further.

Here some photograph of my progress , some images to follow.

First stage of dying - Colour pallet & Fabric selection