Another one of those weeks.  Plans gone all awry!  Creativity blocked!  Work a bit stressful!

So, to cheer me up and free me up a bit of web wandering.

If you are also blocked, try these:

• First up try this blog from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, who, according to her blog, is a self-taught mixed media collage artist and avid scrapbooker.  http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/2012/04/stencil-hop-wedding-ring.html At the bottom of this link is a nifty 'how to' video.
• Then there is Jenn Mason, from Cloth Paper Scissors - stencils don't have to be used just for 'stenciling' http://www.clothpaperscissors.com/blogs/jenn/archive/2012/04/26/stencil-loving-collage-a-blog-hop-and-tutorial.aspx?a=cr120428 . 
• And here is one for my blogging friend at 'Threadnoodle' - edible stenciling  http://paperandcookies.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/crafters-workshopbalzer-designs-blog.html

And now I am off to pot on the tomato seedlings which have gone a bit leggy.

This City and Guilds course is all about surface pattern and design - the final outcome is a meter of fabric that could be put into production.

So it is mostly about printing, pattern research, dying etc.

But I was just itching to get the machine out and give it a good whirl and cook up something with it.

So, I put together my ingredients:

• Soluble fabric - I prefer the 'film'.  It looks like clingfilm, you can draw on it with a waterproof pen, but the pen disappears along with the 'film' when it gets wet
• Scraps of organza (all cut into rough squares and rectangles)
• Multi colour sewing thread plus green for the bobbin
• Waterproof marker pen (to write on the soluble film)

I traced the design I had used on the PVA fabric experiement and the subsequent print block I made onto one piece of the soluble film.

I then laid another piece of film the same size down on the table, and began to build up layers of organza a square at a time (this should ideally be 2-3 layers thick across the whole sheet but I skimped a bit and put only 1 layer down in places).

I then laid the drawn piece of film on top and pinned the whole lot together to keep the organza pieces in place (you can just about make out the design in the photo below.  The film is tricky to photograph as it reflects the light).

I then set up my machine for free hand machine embroidery - in my case I can drop the feed dogs and I have a very neat embroidery foot.  I used the multi colour thread on top and a plain green in the bobbin.


And then I 'sketched in' the shapes I had drawn on the film.  I just wiggled the machine back and forwards to 'colour in' the shapes.

the 'right' side with the multi coloured thread

The 'wrong side' with the green thread.  The 'plastic' is the soluble film.

When it was all done, I washed away the film and snipped around the leaf shapes.

And there you have it.

Rather pleased with the reaction to my PVA experiment and the simple leaf design that I had created, I thought I would explore it a bit further and make a print block using a very similar design.

I love using sheets of craft foam, the cheap stuff you get at Hobby craft and similar.

I drew my design using a pen that would not rub off too badly, and then I cut it out.  In this case, because the design was a bit intricate I used a craft knife, but I have created blocks with simpler designs just using scissors. (I have also burnt this stuff with a soldering iron, but you need to work in a very well ventilated area if you are going to do that.  It gives off a rather nasty whiff).


Then I stuck it to a bit of card - and voila another print block ready to be pressed into action.

Again, I found the technique described in Sew Wild, the book Daughter had bought me for my birthday.


Basically you apply PVA glue to fabric in the way that you would apply a hot wax - to act as a resist to a dye or a paint.  I applied the glue by decanting it into a much smaller bottle with a very fine hole to control the flow of the glue onto the fabric.

I also kept the glue warm to make it flow more easily.  I had a pan of warm water on the stove and heated the glue up by heating the water when it began to flow less smoothly (so like wax you do need to keep it warm, but it does not set so quickly).

It was also surprisingly hard work to apply the glue - by the end of a solid 2 hour session to apply the glue to these two pieces of fabric my shoulder was stiff and my hand ached a bit - from squeezing the bottle of glue.

But I found it much easier to control the flow of the PVA than when I used hot wax a couple of years ago.  (The wax I found particularly frustrating as it flowed too quickly to start with and the design got a bit messy.)
Of course the flip side to this is that I had to leave the fabric to dry over night!  (The wax dries almost instantly).

Then when it had dried I applied Dy Na Flow paints liberally with a soft brush.


On this sample you can see the PVA resist with the paint colouring the fabric, but also colouring the glue.


It is even more obvious on this sample.  The rings are the glue and the paint has dried on the glue in a 'darker' way than on the fabric.

The down side of this technique is removing the glue!  I am very glad I used Dy Na Flow paint.  It sets really well and is very resistant to washing - and good job too since I had to wash it in very hot water, and then scrub the cloth on a board with the rough side of a scouring pad.  As with all resist techniques - removing the resist is a challenge.

I like the finished results, but would I recommend it?  Well, yes, but only if you can find a PVA glue that washes out more easily than the one I used!

Here are the finished pieces of cloth - again ready for a bit of over printing, as this is part of the City and Guilds course (you can see that the washing has faded the paint slightly, though in practice it is not as obvious as it would appear in the photographs).

Painted with Salmon and Chartreuse

Painted with Ochre

I like these cloths - the finished pieces are very appealing, especially the leaf pattern cloth which is more effective than the photograph. (Indeed, Daughter is very complimentary).

I will come back to these with the over printing when I have decided what to do.

I had a lovely book for my birthday from Daughter.



Full of simple and accessible techniques.  There is a U Tube interview with the author if you are interested.

One of these is to use 'wet on wet' painting to apply background colour to fabric.  The process is very simple.

I lightly wetted the dry fabric (in this case by sprinkling water onto the fabric).  An alternative would be to use a water spray - but could I find mine!!??

Then I boldly applied the paint using a brush.  In this sample I used two colours – Chartreuse and Salmon - from the Dy Na Flow range.





The second colour is applied while the first colour is wet.  Then the piece is put to one side to dry.  (In this case I left the fabric on the background plastic sheet).

I did a second sample using three colours - Brass, Ochre and Sun Yellow, again Dy-Na-Flow.

If you are anywhere near Weedon before next Saturday, when it finishes, then pop along to the Bramble Patch.

They are hosting a lovely exhibition (in aid of Macmillan Cancer Care ) which includes fabulous work by some of the students doing 'the day a month' courses (damn the day job, or I would be doing one too!).

And they have some lovely work by the wonderful Angie Hughes.

Feast your eyes on this lot.

The piece on the left is by Joan Mason, the details are given below.

I like printing and recently had a great success with paper templates, which I reported on this blog.

So, here's a good, simple idea.

I  used my normal screen (my screen comes from a Speedball kit but others in the class made their own screens using cheap picture frames from Ikea and net curtain netting - with great success).

Then I took a simple design I had sketched onto paper, taped this to the inside of the screen and painted melted soy wax onto the areas that I wanted to block from the ink.

You can just make out the image in the photograph below - the faint impression of the leaves is where I did not paint the hot wax (the pink and purple stripes on the net are staining from a previous experiment).



The wax sets quickly, and then I used it to create several prints, with much success.  Little cracks in the wax do let paint through (you can make out little green flecks in the image below) but that was OK.



You can gently wash the screen with cold water to remove the ink and re-use it, and then when you have finished you can wash it in hot water to remove the wax.

In threory you can get more pulls from this technique than with paper.  However, I think, no matter how gentle I am, washing will damage the wax a bit, but I will give it another go.

Anyhow, another technique to try.

Sometimes, as regular readers of my blog will know, life gets in the way of creativity.  This week has been one of those week.  I have hardly picked up a pen or pencil (for the sketchbook work for C&G) but I have decided on 2 of the artists I am going to research.

They are Enid Marx and Raoul Dufy.  But any suggestions for one more?

Meanwhile, this week's lowlights have been

• long journeys for day job - I feel wiped out now
• lots of work to do for day job - long days