I’ve spent the last two days working on bits of this and that, but mostly I’ve been doing monoprinting! Monoprinting is great fun, and a wonderful antithesis to the extremely planned world of weaving. In monoprinting, you spread a thin layer of thickened dye or paint on a plate of glass (plexiglass, heavy weight plastic, etc.) and then lay the cloth over plate, transferring the dye to the fabric. It has all the gleeful, spontaneous messiness of finger painting, and because the paint/dye dries quickly in such a thin layer, you have to work fast and print before it dries. It’s improvisational and awesomely fun.
I did seventeen fat quarters on Saturday, and another five or six on Sunday. On Sunday, Sharon (my sewing mentor) came down to play, and we did monoprinting, fish printing, and fashion draping. (Fish painting is where you take a fish, paint the surface with thin paints or inks, and then lay the fabric across the fish, transferring the paint to the fabric and getting a lovely imprint of the body, fins, and scales.) As a result, I have tons of monoprinted fabric, at least six or seven yards’ worth, and I am going to monoprint more today. I am having way too much fun to stop now!
Also on the slate for today is tying and dyeing mandalas (stars). I owe a couple people T-shirts, and I want to practice my star-tying, so I’m going to play with those for a few hours. After that, it will be cleanup time! And there is a lot to clean up…so I am booking the entire afternoon/evening for that.
Here are photos of all the monoprints…enjoy!
