Handprinted III: A Fabric Swap

I have now learned how to print on fabric (in a beginner kind of way), thanks to Leslie Keating's Third Annual Handprinted Fabric Swap event. Today was the deadline for having my handprinted fabric samples mailed off to my swapmates and I'm pleased to say I met the deadline!

Final product, four 1/4 yard pieces of handprinted fabric

I have not tried blogging before either, but it seems like a good way to document/share my process:

2007	Purchased Lena Corwin’s book, Printing By Hand, thinking I need to try that some day.
2010	Bought the fantastic book Sewing School by Amie Petronis Plumley and Andria Lisle for my daughter for Christmas. Perusing the bibliography I happily discovered “craft blogs” and got with the 21st century.
2011	Claimed an unused silkscreen from a yardsale-ing neighbor, thinking I might use that some day.
December 2012	My husband gave me a Google Tablet for my birthday which made following craft blogs not a huge time suck which helped me become a more consistent follower.
February 19, 2013	Found out about Leslie’s swap from Kleas …

Hmm. I could use that book, and that silkscreen and do the swap … and with other fabric I print I could sew bags for Art and Science in the Woods Summer Camp Silent Auction in June. Hmm … yes ... my designs could have something to do with the woods and the marsh and frogs and bugs and mud and stuff.

OK.

My first attempt, "Boardwalk Through the Marsh", with Martha Stewart craft paint and freezer paper stencil gave me courage to continue.

"Boardwalk Through The Marsh"

Foam cutout glued onto wood block plus eraser tip with Martha Stewart craft paint worked for "frogs eggs" on weirdly dyed blue/green fabric I got for $3 a bag at local community theater fabric reduction sale.

"Frogs Eggs"

Sweet potato print tree rings, "Permaset aqua" textile printing ink in dark brown. Brown ink was darker than I wanted … and my tree rings need to be larger.

"Tree Rings" (small trees!)

Sweet potato print ripples, Martha Stewart craft paint. Ripples need work.

"Ripples"

Tried ripples again with Speedball "opaque fabric" screenprinting ink on rubber block ("ready-cut") from Dick Blick (lino blocks I ordered were impossible to cut). Need to cut deeper into block?

"Ripples" Take 2

Not wanting to use my nice free silkscreen until I know what I’m doing, followed Leslie’s tutorial for using picture frames as silkscreen frame for attempt of tree rings on larger scale. Learned I need to cover ENTIRE screen with screen filler to avoid unwanted ink leakage. Oops.

Silkscreen Tree Ring

Also learned I need to s-l-o-w-l-y rotate squeegee around during multiple passes to avoid flinging ink.

Unwanted Ink Fling

Tried another picture frame silkscreen, smaller frame. Taped my inside edges too this time, to eliminate ink leakage at edges. Yes, I know Lena Corwin said to tape edges but I forgot and now I know why it is necessary! 

Silkscreen Tree Ring, Take 2

Big tree rings look cool together with small ones! Never would have thought of that if I hadn’t goofed first silkscreen!

Tree Rings, Big and Small

Thank you Leslie for this handprinted fabric swap! I had a very good time with it. And thanks also to Kleas for advertising it on your blog! I am happily awaiting my parcels from Australia and Indiana, USA ... and practicing for next year! 

-Jennifer