Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Ahhhhh: Color!

I find color so exhilarating!  In spite of all of the 'freckles' that you see in this photo, I feel happy just looking at these colors!


I've been playing around with multicolored interfacing stencils, as described in Jane Dunnewold's book "Improvisational Screenprinting".





Jane taught us this technique in our last class with her, and I fell in love with its versatility, semipredictability, and semisurprise.  Does that make sense?  Let me explain.  You cut a piece of nonfusible interfacing and paint an area with latex house paint, let it dry overnight, iron it to set the paint (thus forming a resist), and then cut out other areas on the interfacing.  Prior to all of this, you have measured and cut the interfacing so that it is slightly larger than the silk screen that you will be using for this technique.  The interfacing is then taped to the face of the screen.  You mix dyes with print paste and then apply them through the silkscreen/interfacing to your fabric.  (That is a very brief description - Jane does a far better and more detailed job in her book, trust me!)  The interfacing is saturated with the first dye you use, and then as you add more colors, the excitement begins - just as long as you don't use too many and in the wrong sequence so that you end up with mud!  It's really safest to work your way around the color wheel - but I decided to throw safety to the wind here.


Perhaps this photo will help you understand a bit better:




I've painted the narrow white circular area, and I've cut out the smaller circles that you see above.  I had chosen yellow, blue and red dyes, and was getting some gorgeous blends - if I do say so myself.  Unfortunately I hadn't mixed the red thoroughly and got the freckles, but next time I'll do better...and I don't really care because this piece has so much color and personality in spite of the freckles!  I had originally planned to use just a blue and an orange, wanting brown, but then decided that the 'in between' hues would be great...and I'm glad I made that choice!




So, there you have it in a nutshell - great color from a bit of housepaint and a little square of interfacing.  Try it, you'll like it!!


PEACE

6 comments:

Ginny Huber said...

Like all your projects Judy this one inspires me ; colors like this, freicles notwithstanding are faves of mine, oo. I am just catching up on blogs again and will look at some earlier posts. My friend Marcia here in Seattle is the person who first told me about your blog/work and she says you've started nuno felting..so off am I to look at earlier postings!

Elizabeth said...

Amazing!! I still get lost back at eh start of screen printing and deconstructive screen printing!!!! SIgh!! This is delightful!!!

Jeannie said...

I am going to have to dig out my book and give this a try! I love your results, freckles and all. Ain't life grand when you are having fun in the studio?!

Lisa K said...

Don't you just love that technique!? Your pieces look great! I went through a period a few years ago in which that is all I did - screenprint using Jane's stencil technique. I loved every thing I made during that period.

Can't wait to see more photos of what you've done!

Karoda said...

it sounds like the technique she describes in the C.C. video but changed up a bit. i'll try it this way because i wasn't too enthused with the method in the video.

diane said...

Love your post, Judy! Thanks for the reminder about this approach which we started in our last class with Jane. I'm going to give it a try again -- this week. The colors are fabulous.

xo, D