sample sheet

Yesterday I finished my large scale printing.  I had dyed a single sheet a light turquoise using reactive dye (Procion) .  I then screenprinted with saturated colours (reactive dyes - red, orange, purple, green and blue) and discharge paste.  I mixed the images and mixed the dyes.  It was experimental, the colours were outside my comfort zone and the result is a mixture of achievement and monstrosity. The images were half tone photographs,drawings and pattern.  

 



I like these sections which appear as abstract images.  But overall, the entire cloth is too busy and the colours appear dreary - it took me a couple of weeks to complete and I think the print pastes were past their best and it was too long a gap between screenprinting and steaming.  I have sharpened the colours of some of these images using Photoshop.  I want to use them further and I will try sublimation printing and digital printing.

 

 

I've been reading Joanna Kinnersly-Taylor's book 'Dyeing and Screen-Printing on Textiles (A & C Black, London 2003).  It is a very useful, informative reference book of dye recipes, techniques and ideas. 

 

I am interested in the relationship between feminism and craft.  Woman's Hour celebrated the 50th anniversary of Betty Friedan's book 'The Feminine Mystique' by contrasting the attitudes to craft in the 1950s and the present day.  The perfection and conformity of laborious home crafts were part of the woman's lot in the 1950s.  Today's craftworkers are more expressive and creative, they work quickly and enjoy the experience.