Stamping experiments

Awhile back, I purchased a couple of Adire gourd stamps to use on fabrics.  Today, I finally got around to working on my first experiment using the stamps.  In the past, I always loaded stamps with a foam brush, but I decided to try a slightly different method today, thanks to an inspiration from Kim Barron's blog post on tjaps.  First off, I mixed 3 parts of Dharma Trading's Superclear with 1 part water.  I poured 2/3 of the mix into a separate container and set it aside to use with other colors.  With the remaining 1/3 mix, I added 1/2 Tbsp of Aqua Marine Procion MX dye powder.  I mixed thoroughly to dissolve the dye powder.  Next I needed to create a 'stamp pad'.  I got a scrap of  "Warm and Natural" cotton batting, folded it in half and trimmed to fit into a plastic Stouffer's frozen entree container, which I use for a lot of my craft projects.  I could probably have used felt for this purpose, but had some small pieces of the batting handy.

Next, I spooned some of the thickened dye mix onto the batting and spread around so it would be a large enough area to cover the stamp.  Then I loaded the stamp and applied to pre-soaked and dried cotton that I had pinned onto a padded work surface.

So far, I really like how the batting worked as a stamp pad, and I will probably use that method to try some of my other stamps as well as the adire ones.  Next, I will probably try the adires with a new discharge stamp pad I ordered from Dharma Trading, which should be here in a few days.  I may try some of my cheap hand-made stamps with the discharge pad first.  Then I'm thinking I might try using my old stand-by discharge solution - dishwashing gel with bleach - on a pad.  I will do some side-by side tests with the purchased discharge pad and the home remedy and post pix so you can see the results, probably next week.  Meanwhile, I'm getting kind of inspired to get my stamps out and play around with them... maybe make some new ones as well, now that I have this new method of loading them!

    

Class pictures

July 21, 2007 - Class is over... I'm very hopeful about using what I have learned. Here are examples of some of the techniques I learned:
1)Decomposition screen print. I pulled several prints off the screen before it began to disolve. Here are the first 4.

2) Flour paste screen that I then overdyed with a light dye wash

3) Detail of the flour paste screen printed on a monoprint. This is the actual print direction - the one above was reversed when I uploaded the picture.

4) Here, I used a piece of fabric I previously dyed using Low Water Immersion to experiment with discharge stamping. Stamping was done with dishwashing gel that has chlorine bleach as an active ingredient. The stamps were created using craft foam and two-sided carpet tape. The designs were drawn onto the foam, cut out and adhered to plexiglass squares.