Tea + Rust = Grey

I've used tannins to turn rust dyed fabric grey or black before.  But I wanted to know if I could control the effect more.  Turns out you can.

I also want to show you one way I use my own photos for quilts, even if the photos aren't perfect.

So, here's a photo of a white faced heron taking off.  Blurry and unclear.  But I can still use it.

First off I print it in greyscale in A4 size.  Then I take a thin black marker and outline the bird.  I refer to the photograph and if something isn't clear, I just fudge it.  Then I take this photo and enlarge it to the size I need.  My printer has a posterise function that automatically resizes an A4 sheet to A2, then I just tape the relevant prints together.

I use a light box (my mac screen makes a great light box!) or a window and trace this onto freezer paper.  An x-acto knife makes cutting out precise and easy.

So now you can paint, or stencil, or discharge or use this stencil however you like.

In this case, I ironed it to a previously rusted piece of fabric.  Then I applied wet tea leaves over the shape.

I didn't want the liquid from the leaves to 'wick' too far under the stencil so I wanted it to dry quickly.  To do this I placed paper towels over the top and ironed it on a hot setting.  Once it was pretty dry, I brushed off the tea leaves, peeled off the stencil and ironed it again.

I'm very pleased with the results!

Rust dyeing 2

I thought I'd show you the results of a second round of rust dyeing.  I re-soaked and re-wrapped my two fat quarters round a big 'ol rusty piece of scrap and this time I was better pleased with the results, a little less 'nasty rag' and a little more 'rust-dyed fabric':

So then I thought I'd try my next experiment with one of the pieces.  I read on dip and stain that tannins will change your rust marks to black.  Tannins got me thinking about tea and so whilst I was having my morning brew, I pleated and folded and layered with round tea bags, poured on some boiling water and there you have it:

I have to say, I was much more impressed with the result of this than with just the rust.  And so easy to do.

I said I'd show you my next two base pieces.  And that's them above.  White fat quarter(ish) size and all I've done so far is draw straggly lines on one and write illegibly on the other with a fabric marker.  But it's the layering of different effects that counts in surface design, so this is just the first element to provide texture and interest.  

I'm having fun with this, it's neat to discover how much you can do really simply at home in five minute stretches.

Rust dyeing for distraction

At the moment (well, in the few moments I have squeezed around all the other things that seem to happen at this time of year) I'm trying out some surface design techniques to make some samples for a surface design round robin that I'm planning to run next year.

So when the kids came to me with a fight disagreement, I employed my favourite parenting trick - distraction.

"Muuuuum, she broke my spaceship!"

"But Muuuuuuum, he wouldn't give me back my battle droid!"

"Really?  Oh dear.  Well, how about you come outside with me and wrap vinegary fabric around this big rusty metal thing?"

So they did.  Then I wrapped plastic bags around the wet fabric to keep it wetter for longer and took a cheesy photo of the kids.  It took about five minutes and, what do you know, the fight was forgotten.

Two days later, this is what we had.  Nobody was particularly impressed.  I think it looks like they are rags I've used to wipe up something nasty!  So I soaked them and wrapped the whole thing up again.

But it is only the first layer of surface design after all.  I'm aiming to do another four layers/techniques so I'm sure it'll get better.  I have two other pieces of cloth which I'm twiddling around with too, guess I might have to show them to you tomorrow.