Personal Development | Print

Following on from our work in the embroidery workshops, as a group we also tried our hand at print making using a variety of techniques.

Firstly we used different disperse dyes to paint onto different textures and fabrics as an experiment with patterns and colour and to see which fabrics or material would give us the best results. I painted various textures from simple paper, to lace, silk and even a plastic based fabric. We left them to dry and then applied them to a fabric using the heat press which would seal in the colour being transferred from the fabrics we painted.

Some textures worked better than others but it was interesting to see what worked and what didn't. Silk and stitch and tear embroidery fabric worked best for me and provided the best colour payoff whereas heavier weighted and thick textured fabrics didn't work as well. Because we were painting the fabrics before, each sample had a different design and it was hard to reuse the painted fabrics as each time we would press them, the colour would come out lighter and lighter.

I do, however, think this is a quick and easy technique to use if you want to create something one off and on a smaller scale and it's easy to create whatever design you want if you just cut it out of the painted fabrics - I tried this with a circle design inspired by the Birmingham library!

Another technique we tried was silk screen printing. I'd tried this before during A-Level Textiles and really enjoyed the process so it was nice to be able to give it another go. There are a couple of techniques you can do using the silk screens but the one we tried out initially was painting onto the screen with the same dyes as I mentioned before. For this particular task, we worked in groups to paint our screen - we went with a simple striped design - and once it had dried, we used gum and a squeegee to press through the screen and print onto the fabric underneath. We used a range of different fabrics to transfer our design onto underneath the screen, experimenting with which types of fabrics took the print the best.

Once we had learned the two techniques offered to us, we were able to experiment a little more and apply the processes to our research. Continuing with my sample development inspired by the Library of Birmingham, I used sublimation dyes in blue and yellow to reflect the colours on the outside of the building. Again, I painted on various different fabrics and materials, and sealed the colour in the heat press, creating a sheet with varying results.

I still felt the stitch and tear fabric worked the best so I applied this again onto my base fabric in a circle design reflective of the library that I could further develop in the embroidery workshops I also drew up a stencil of the building itself in the same colours and material and added this to my base fabric, again, to develop further in the embroidery workshops.Out of the two techniques we tried, the heat press was definitely my favourite and it's something I'd definitely like to incorporate into my final outcome in some way.

I look forward to trying out screen printing in the future using a design of my own that is transferred onto the screen and can be used multiple times over, perhaps on my final piece to create something of a professional standard that is original and able to be worked to a grand scale. I've been looking into the work of Harriet Popham who is a print and embroidery artist, who prints her designs onto fabric then embroiders over the top of them and she's someone who I want to research further as I think print and embroidery combined will create some really lovely samples and show off my skills in even more depth.