Stencils and masks

Remember the post I wrote here about stenciling? Well, I got a brainstorm the other night (I do some of my best thinking when I'm laying there, unable to sleep!). What if I masked off an area of fabric with freezer paper, then stenciled the area in between the masks? I'm sure this is not a new idea, but it just captured my imagination! So today, I decided to give it a try:

I drew a curved line across a piece of freezer paper, then cut it with my rotary cutter. I spread it out to create an opening for the stencil, then pressed it onto the fabric which I pre-soaked in soda ash solution and dried. I positioned the stencil over the left side of the fabric covering the opening between the pieces of freezer paper, then I daubed on thickened black dye with a foam brush. Once I reached the other end, I carefully lifted the stencil and wiped off the dye from both sides. Then I carefully laid it over the undyed portion of the exposed fabric, and repeated. Afterward I carefully lifted off the pieces of freezer paper. So now what? Truly, I have no idea... YET! I am totally in experimental stages with this technique, and I'm just letting myself play with it to see what I can achieve using stencils and dyes. The freezer mask was a brain-storm, and I think it is a good mix of the two techniques to create interesting fabric. More will be revealed...