My Dance books will have about 15-20 de-luxe copies with the cover made of pure silk. I trialled backing the silk this weekend. Now that I am sure it works, I'll sort out my screens to screenprint the covers. I bought some white Dupion silk at a good price and dyed it in tea to get a champagne colour. You boil two 'builders tea' bags for about 5 -10 minutes, then strain the tea into another saucepan through a kitchen towel in the bottom of a sieve. This will get rid of the sediment. Put the … [Read more...]
Layering with photos
On yesterday's post I showed a finished piece from my Family Photo Album series of 4 works. I came across these polyphotos which I'd never seen before as they were in my aunt's possession. Here they are: I tried working with the Plymouth franking taken from the envelope, but in the end decided to go with just three of the polyphotos. Making the artwork you saw yesterday: Wren Christine Burt The background is stretched 100% cotton paper such as Somerset Satin or BFK Rives. The photos are … [Read more...]
Indigo paper dyeing
I showed you my indigo dyeing workshop photos. I'm always up for experimenting and since Japanese Mulberry paper has such fantastic wet strength, I decided to try dyeing it. With most dyes, the fabric has to be in the dye for a while to absorb the pigment, but with indigo, it is only dipped long enough to get wet.I started off with batik dyeing, where you draw on the paper with wax then dip it. Of course I haven't rinsed it well to stop the dyeing, but have left it to oxidise. I think - I'm … [Read more...]