potato prints

Students in a fabric printing class I'm teaching started the term by making potato prints last week...

...these prints were made on paper with fabric ink (it's cheaper to experiment on paper than fabric), but potato prints can make effective block prints on fabric.

block print tunic

I made a tunic dress/top at the weekend, with the help of my mother-in-law. I used some nice Indian block printed fabric that I bought a while ago at a great shop on Broadway Market called Our Patterned Hand. I checked their website and found that sadly they have since closed down.

I wanted to copy a tunic top that I already have, so drew around the outside of the existing tunic and made a copy out of an old bed sheet, to check that it would turn out alright. It looked ok, so we didn't bother to sew up the practice fabric, but traced it straight onto the block printed fabric that I wanted to use, and cut out the pieces.
We had to measure and guess a bit with the sleeves, as I didn't want to unpick the tunic I already have.

After a bit of sewing (and a lot of help with this from my mother-in-law), here is the finished tunic:

I'm really happy with the outcome as I like to wear long tops over jeans, and would like to make some more of these, perhaps out of fabric that I block print myself.

wood block printing workshop with Sarah Lawton

In July I went to a wood block printing workshop taught by artist-in-residence at East London Printmakers, Sarah Lawton.

Sarah had spent some time in Gujarat state in India, working on a collaborative project with local artisans (block print and embroidery) during an artist's residency. She shared some information about this experience and its outcomes - one outcome was an artist's book Sarah had made called A New Manifesto Ten Indian Insights and another was some garments that Sarah had block printed.

The first thing we did in the workshop was do some block printing on fabric using textile ink and blocks that Sarah had had made in India.

Then Sarah demonstrated carving plywood using Japanese woodcut tools, and the workshop participants each drew their own design on a piece of plywood and cut it out.

I printed my design of birds flocking, onto a piece of cloth. I didn't love the print, but I didn't come with a specific design in mind, this was just an image I had been thinking about so I could develop it more to make a better print. Also I found the plywood difficult to carve as I mostly just use lino when I do block printing. Lino cuts in all directions easily but with wood you have to follow the grain, especially with plywood - or it splinters.

During the workshop we also made a collaborative print on paper using Sarah's Indian wood blocks and gouache paints:

I found the workshop very interesting. Particularly hearing about Sarah's collaborative artistic practice and seeing some natural dyes which Sarah had brought back from India, which she said should work alright as printing pigments if mixed with a medium for textile printing. I love the idea of doing the whole printing process using organic sustainable materials such as natural dyes and wood (although lino is easier for me to carve). I've never tried mixing plant dyes with textile binder but I'd like to.

Play!

I had fun recently printing a picture for the East London Printmakers' summer exhibition, "Printathon"...

The exhibition is Olympic-themed, and I made a print about monkeys riding bmx bikes on a snake.  I used a stencil, bicycle tyre, block printing, screenprinting and embroidery to make the picture.  I started off creating a texture by using a stencil and a tyre from my bicycle to print with:

First I practised on this bright blue polycotton to see whether the bike tyre would work as a print, then later I printed it again on a pale turquoise linen for the final print.  As you can see, I printed it on the kitchen floor (perhaps my blog should be "kitchenfloorprintmaker"!), with my baby waiting patiently in his standy-thing while my husband took these photos.

 

After the stencil-tyre print, I block printed bmx-tyre marks on the snake, then screen-printed the monkeys, and machine embroidered then hand embroidered on the textile.

Here are some sneak previews of the final picture, which I called "Play!"  If you want to see the whole piece, it will be on display at East London Printmakers "Printathon" exhibition from 8th June-1st July at Foreman's Smokehouse Gallery, E3 2NT (see www.eastlondonprintmakers.co.uk for details).

berries print

I carved and printed a new design recently, of berries, made up of 2 lino blocks...

 

Indian block print

My friend Philippa gave me an old Indian wooden print block last Autumn, knowing my love of hand printing.  I went to visit her last weekend, so I used the wooden block to print onto fabric and made it into a clutch purse to give to her.

 

 

 

 

I inked the block with a bright pink fabric ink I had mixed up, rolled the colour onto the block and then stamped it onto the green lined fabric that I had cut out already to make the purse.

 

This is the finished purse.

house print

I made a small lino carving of 2 houses and tried printing it today.  I'm not happy with the result, but I might try carving houses again and see if I can improve the design.

 

shell block prints

Last week I printed some more of my shell-design block print fabric, to use in making a clutch purse.

 

The small area of printed fabric on the right, I printed about 2 years ago, then the new green area is the first layer of my recent printing, with the lino block for this first colour sitting on the fabric next to its printed mirror image.

 

On the back of the lino block I have marked an arrow so that I can see which end is the top when printing, and two small lines halfway up the block because I want to print this design as a half drop design, where each block starts halfway down from the top of the previous image.  I just line up the marks with the top of the image next to the one I'm printing.  The half drop provides a more flowing pattern than if I repeated the images side by side.

 

 

I have a blanket on the table so that the fabric absorbs the ink when pressed, and it doesn't bleed out of the sides of the block due to the fabric being pressed against a hard surface.  Then I'm printing the block by rolling textile ink onto the lino with a foam roller and just applying pressure with my hands to the back of the block.  Results of printing by hand pressure can vary with different fabrics - it's a matter of trial and error for me - but it prints well on this pure linen fabric.

 

After printing the green layer, I printed a pink layer and finally a brown layer from a block cut to define the outlines of the shell shapes.  I separated the three colours of my original design, and use a different piece of lino for each one.

making bags

I started a 12-week course about sewing bags 2 weeks ago, at Morley College in Waterloo, because I want to make the fabric that I print into small bags and pouches. Here are some sketches for bag designs that I drew in the last class:

I'm going to use material that I printed previously.  Here are 2 photos of a make-up bag that I made 2 years ago, using fabric that I printed with an autumn leaves design, using screenprinting and discharge binder to print the lighter mustardy colour of the leaves onto the dark blue linen.

 

I only made two of these pouches 2 years ago - one for myself and one for my mum.  Now I'm doing this bag-sewing course to learn to sew and finish the projects properly.  I just taught myself how to make this make-up pouch, using a pattern from the internet, and although it came out well, you can see that the zip insert and the lining could be done more beautifully.

I also have some of this block-printed shell-pattern fabric left (not as much as in the photo) that I printed 2 years ago, and sewed up into a simple tote bag as a present for a friend:

 

 

I have used up almost all of both the autumn leaves and the shell fabric, so I need to print some more to make into the new bags.  The shell print is simpler to make, as I can do it at home with the lino blocks, so I will start with that first of all, and hope to make up some lovely professionally finshed bags soon!

tobias and the angel

 

Last June (2010) I went on a great block printing one-day workshop at Tobias and the Angel's workshop in Surrey.  They have a massive range of print blocks which they purchased from Yately industries for the disabled, and they now use to print their own hand block-printed cloth and products, and to teach workshops with.

 

 

On the day, the workshop participants chose a dye colour and we were shown how to brush it onto a felt-topped dye pad, stamp the block onto the dye-pad and print it on the cloth using a mallet to hit the back of the block with pressure.

 

We also used a weight on the fabric, to start printing at one edge of the fabric and move it away from us as we printed, ensuring the inky area wasn't touching the printer and the fabric didn't slip off the table.

 

The blocks I used had repeat designs that connected end to end, and I was shown how to mitre the pattern at the corners using a folded piece of paper to block off the print in the correct place in the corner.

 

 

I really recommend a workshop at Tobias and the Angel.  I was very satisfied with the print I made and the learning process, and the workshop is in beautiful surroundings with inspiring equipment and people.