Tuesday 23 September 2014

Printing, Dyeing, Stamp making and Embroidery - phew!

At last! Here are a few of the new techniques I tried out on my Hawkwood Workshop with Frances Pickering. I'm sure they'll be familiar to many of you,  but as I usually try to use only natural products,  I have to admit they were pretty exciting, and felt rather naughty to me! On reflection , I think  the benefits from being able to use recycled synthetic fabrics as well as natural ones gives me a whole new world to play with, if I  use the new things in moderation.

I must be honest - I started to put my book together during the weekend, but it it wasn't going as planned, so I took it apart. Starting again, armed with my new techniques.


I used heat transfer ink to paint this sunflower, and then applied it to synthetic fabric. The design has now also made quite a nice foam stamp. I'd attempted to use foam in the past, but couldn't get the level of detail I wanted. Frances' expert knowledge has now set me on the right path! Stamp making is also highly addictive - I'm rationing myself.:)  We also used abaca tissue, which I'm so in love with for painting and stitching now. The sketch is ink on fabric with a little stitching added.



I've also been experimenting with natural dyeing, which I haven't done for a long time. This is Egyptian cotton dyed with turmeric and blackberries, amongst other things.


 And finally, tah da! Some embroidery. This is a bit of a different style for me, for two reasons, firstly 'cos  I want to incorporate it into my work, but in a new way,  and two, because I've got some beginner students who want to learn all the basic stitches. I felt I really should have some  stitch variety in my sample folder, so  I stitched these! I must give thanks to the wonderful Sharon Boggon of Pintangle and TAST for many of the stitches I've incorporated. Sadly I've never managed to keep up with TAST, but I do follow it, and always recommend my class to visit Pintangle for wonderful inspiration, eye candy and stitch tutorials.

 This one is buttonhole stitches,  just using a random  variety of threads -


And this is chain stitch variations -


This was really fun to do. I surprised myself. Now I'm going to put all my new knowledge together........ What will happen next?...........

8 comments:

margaret said...

you have certainly done a few techniques here. Natural dyeing I have not tried, silly but I am not keen on messy!! Love to see some tast stitches, I too did not keep up but have kept a record of them and maybe one day, I do use some in the crazy blocks I do

Rachel said...

TAST is a great inspiration, even for those of us who don't actually take part. It gives me all sorts of ideas....!

Shashi Nayagam said...

Wow what cool results Jules. You certainly are on a roll

Jo Potter said...

Hi Jules,
Wow! This is such a beautiful printing idea. The printing on fabric method looks so natural, you could make some lovely country style cushions for the home and sell them. You need to get a shop, Jules! ;-)
I would like to have go at this printing technique myself.
Thank you for leading me to your lovely new blog, I'm now following and I will add you to my blog list. I totally understand about wanting to start again with a fresh start. Sometimes you have to in order to move forward.
All the Very Best of luck,
Jo. xx

Elizabeth Braun said...

Someone's been busy!=) Looks like lots of fun.

Thanks for your lovely e-card. I tried to e-mail you on the normal address, but it came back!=(

Gill said...

What fun!! I'd love to hear more about your natural dyeing adventures!!

Michelle May-The Raspberry Rabbits said...

Loving these techniques Jules. So happy you are having such a fun time.

Janice / Dancing with Sunflowers said...

What a wonderful weekend! I have one of Frances Pickering's books and am rather envious of all of you who attended this. Looks like you had the opportunity to sample lots of new techniques.