Introduction to Textiles Session 5 Fabric Printing

In this session the participants learnt how to use stencils and various objects to print onto the previously coloured fabric.  Students used the colour wheel to use complementary colours, e.g opposites, for example red & green.  Some students experimented with cold colours on warm backgrounds, others used a monocrome approach i.e. using different shades of one colour.

 To print you can use acrylic paints or Daler Rowney Water Soluble Block Printing Colour, this comes in tubes.  What ever paint you use it has to be thicker than water colour to adhere to your stencil, stamp or object.  Stencils can be cut from thin plastic, for example overhead projector sheets or thin card or funky foam.  Draw your image on the plastic/card/funky foam and cut out with scissors or a scalpel. Using a sponge-washing up ones will do gine, dip your sponge into the paint, dab a little bit of the paint onto a spare piece of old fabric,  This makes your sponge slightly dry but still hold some paint.  Now, place your stencil onto your fabric, hold still then dab inside your stencil so that your image goes onto your fabric.You can made your own stamps from foam pizza bases, just etch shapes and patterns into the foam, roll out some paint onto it with a brayer (roller) then press it down onto your fabric.

Lots of other objects can be dipped into paint or the paint rolled onto the object then printed onto your fabric: old bobbins, pens, containers, egg cups, wallpaper, bubble wrap-try and see how many things you can come up with.