A Little Craftiness

Do you remember this?

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I can't remember whether I've mentioned it before but, a few weeks ago, the four of us who have been doing the dyeing workshops agreed to take a section of our printed cloth, add to it and then cut it into 4 and swap. So that it's not too huge a task we have decided on a piece of fabric the size of a fat quarter (18 x 22 ins). I've been putting off starting a bit but I have been giving it quite a lot of thought. I do like the layered paint effects that Committed to Cloth and Ruth Issett use so I thought I would work along these lines as we have agreed not to overdye the cloth.

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The photograph above shows the cloth after two treatments. First, I did some shibori stitching and gathering and then applied bleach with a toothbrush. I left the bleach on for only a few minutes and then rinsed it well in cold water. Then, I used a text stamp I had bought at the K & S Show with Lumiere paint to print onto the surface. (The text stamp came from Dimension Fourth Ltd)

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I love feathers and have used a gull feather to print across the fabric, using the same Lumiere paint.

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These lovely marks are the negative images left where I had used the paper to smooth over the feather to obtain the print. They are almost more lovely than the positive images. (Excuse my shadow, I had to photograph this indoors).

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That's as far as I've gone today but I do intend to continue tomorrow. I am planning to continue printing but will introduce some complimentary colour, probably with some leaf shapes. I am so enjoying the printing that it is very tempting to keep going so I hope I don't wreck it by adding too much.