Investigations

I have been working on a range of prints, each one being unique. I started by dying heavy cotton in grey and mustard relating to the Whitworth colours and the mood of the gallery, then folding, ironing and tying the fabric to create a tie dye/ shibori background. This adds depth to the prints which will allow me to add simple motifs over concentrating on the technique and process.I found it difficult to make the exact 'mustard' coloured dye, after a few attempts and adding different colours I got what i wanted.  On a few other samples, I have created marks by pulling discharge through a blank screen creating abstract marks like some of my mixed media drawings. This technique reflects the gallery’s atmosphere as the discharged parts are like the light shining through from doorways into the darker areas.
 By using brushes to create marks with discharge gives the prints a handmade limited quality which   my aim.

 I am developing prints to look like my drawings linking to the gallery. From my drawings, I developed motifs, which I can layer, showing a playful, continuous drawing feel. My drawings are from the interior of the gallery showing texture and layout, including the paintings, tiles on the floor and exterior details.I used heavy cotton as I like the finish it gives when discharging dye out and keeps the quality of the weave. 

 

I am making my prints abstract but with certain elements including making stencils to fill with reactive dye adding colour, discharging out with other motifs.

 

... The blank screen with dyed fabric and stencil under with reactive dye ready to be pulled through.

 I feel that working in an abstract way, my prints link to my drawings better and gives me a better understanding of how my final prints will look.

With inspiration from a few artists, I have created prints to be simple but showing layered effects. Visually analysing how the artists make marks I was able to use my prints as a form of drawing and each one differs from the layout of the motifs to the background colour and style. I made stencils (which I used a blank screen to pull reactive dye through)  to reflect the layout of the paintings in the gallery, this added a small amount of structure to the prints giving me areas of block reactive dye to discharge marks out of.

collage from my sketchbook influenced by Melinda Tidwell.

Abdul Basit Khan

 

 I also started to rip up fabric I dyed and discharged marks out of it, to then print blocks of reactive over. I will use these to sew together developing further.

I have furthered my research into what I want my prints to be made into. After my tutorial last week with Sharron, I feel I am swayed towards large floor cushions, which can be sold in the shop or used in the gallery for when the children can participate in certain activities. As a print designer I won’t be making the product as this will take too much of my printing time away, and so far I can only book into the print room for two days. I need to know exactly what I want to achieve from the limited time, and have been developing samples further by adding layers of different processes. After my tutorial and explaining my ideas, my group thought it would be a good idea If I stitched the fabric together to look like my paintings e.g. paint strokes and block colours. This also shows the element of the prints being limited edition and each one is different. I then carried this out using some of my samples I ripped up. Stitching them back together I created a few samples which I then printed onto discharging the colour out and adding a motif back over with a darker reactive dye.

          Placing the sewed prints together creating a larger print.

I have never sewn prints together and have only worked on flat prints/ fabric. sewing them together I can relate to my drawings and may do this in the future.

Researching further product ideas, I came across the idea of designing my prints for outdoor activities such as picnics on the park or camping.

 I looked into how to waterproof fabric and could do this by using certain sprays and wax bars, but as the time is limited I won’t be carrying this out.

I developed more drawings to create more of a link between all my work, after speaking to sally I felt that I could have a range of filled backgrounds. I developed my prints further sewing more together and finalising ones for the exhibition.

Different prints sewn together showing the areas and floorplan of the gallery.

 I feel that developing drawings to create samples is vital which I have struggled with in the past but throughout this project I have been consistant and shows through my samples.