Saturday, March 13, 2010

Experimental mode

I have been doing a lot of experimenting lately... kinda reminds me of when I took Melly Testa's class in 2007, only then I didn't know what I was doing. Now I have just enough knowledge to be dangerous, but my horizons are wide open too! Today I started to experiment with some fabric scraps, soda soaking and drying them, then applying some dyes with paint brushes. I plan to let them dry, then use soy wax to stamp some designs over them, then when the wax is dried I will overdye, then maybe repeat the process with another layer. I have a friend who sews professionally, and she asked me if I could create some batiked fabric, and since I haven't done much batiking lately, I decided it was a good project to get me back into it. So here is a picture of the first step:
I know... it looks pretty gaudy awful right now, but I wanted to start off with some really eye-popping bright colors to start with. Then when I stamp and overdye, I'll have some bright spots in a darker background... at least, that's the plan! No, Melly... I did not thicken the dyes! I wanted them to run together nicely... and if anyone out there knows of a source for wood block stamps that can be used to batik with, please let me know! I'm sure I could make some, but it would be so much simpler if I could just find some!
Meanwhile, stay tuned... more pix to follow!

1 comment:

Cate Rose said...

Can't wait to see what this becomes. It reminds me so much of work I did once with watercolor ink on paper. Beautiful!