Here is the fish stencil. I used this two years ago to paint on a white silk warp but firstly the silk paint wicked and secondly it was very feeble in colour when woven. I like this - but unless I can think of some way of dealing with the plain white background, it won't do for a book. Wrong size and shape. Over dye it in pale blue and green?
The upper half of the photo on the left is what came home from Birmingham. The green bits were stamped on to the fabric and are very unnoticeable. So I used a fabric crayon in green to strengthen the green patches of colours (lower half of photo) and that has made it more interesting. I might use it now.
This is the one I like best. It will look good as a book cover - used the other way up.
The ones I am thinking of improving are three with what Michael calls 'prison bars' across them. Perhaps a large arabesque screen printed on in red? I will try that out tomorrow. Now I must go and get ready for this party we are goign to.
Love the fish stencil! I think it will look good overdyed in either light blue or green, it just depends which color you want the fish colors to move towards.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the dye spreading, I've been reading in preparation to trying to stamp and stencil with thickened dyes, and I think stenciling with dye on silk wouldn't wick as much if it were thickened. I'd check and see what type of dye thickener is available from your supplier and experiment.
I tried thickening the silk paint. But I was stencilling on to a warp and I found that it stuck to the fine threads (90/2 silk) and became impossible to weave. Maybe I thickened it too much. Instead I just painted patterns straight on to the warp and let it wick if it wanted. But that did mean I was left with my lovely fish stencil!
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