I forgot to mention several things the other day. Sylvia Weir brought me some homespun cotton from Wal Mart in black, dark red and navy blue to try discharging. I did a little test piece but I haven't washed it out yet to see just what color it is leaving.
And then, Connie Hudson, who wasn't there, sent 10 yards of black cotton from a couple of other Wal Marts. That was so special for her to do!
And then, Jeanelle McCall gifted each of us with a wonderful fiber piece which has been framed. They are delightful and have been needle punched to bring the different fabrics together...very cool! See it below! Unfortunately, I had to take it through the glass so you get a reflection on it. You can even see the neat card to attached to the outside of the package. She said "Thank you for sharing!" Now, wasn't that special!
So yesterday I started working on a piece and finished the top of #11 and got almost finished with #12 which I am not showing you right now. This is about 44 x 66" or so.
And today, since I had 20 yards of black cotton and lots of orange fabric I had painted and still need to get another 8-10 pieces done before Sunday morning, started discharging. I had lots of questions about how I do it and what I use so I thought I would show you my discharging mono-prints.
Above you can see the black plastic underneath covered with dried Sunlight Dishwasher gel which is what I use for discharging. It is dried because I have been way to lazy to clean off the black plastic after each time I used it. This has resulted in some very interesting designs, however. I am a firm believer in serendipity.
Any way, I have spread a layer of Sunlight get on the plastic about the size of my fabric and have smoothed it out with a foam brush. Then I have done some sort of design into the gel. Then I carefully lay the piece of fabric over the whole thing and pat it all over to be sure that it is picking up the gel.
Above you see a piece that is discharging...I have placed it on a piece of table cloth fabric (since we cleaned up the floors I no longer had that huge piece of black plastic, but did had the table cloth fabric that I use for under fabric when screening to give it a little padding ( I work with the fluffy side up). The piece has been monoprinted and then I dragged my fingers through it making some sort of curvy pattern.
In this and the next two pictures you see the results of the first 10 yards of fabric. At that point I had washed it all out with water, then put it into a bucket with anti-chlor which neutralizes the chlorine. This is available through Dharma Trading or Pro Chem...google them to find their website. Vinegar does not neutralize the chlorine. Then I wash in a large washing machine with lots of water and also detergent and you can see what they look like dried.
This group of fabrics seem to be coming out more orange than before. I ran out of Sunlight and had to take a break to run to the grocery store. We had already taken a break earlier for lunch (2 hours worth) when we took Pam out for lunch at the Bistro.
So, then I was able to finish up the discharging and finally quite, having done 20 yards, at 6:30 pm. Washing out the fabric in a low deep sink can be back breaking so I fixed myself a healthy dinner of tortilla chips and salsa, sat down in the comfy chair and watched an hour of TV.
The it was time to get the fabrics out of the washing machine (the second batch) and put them in the dryer. Then, I started ironing Misty Fuse on them...only got four pieces completely done and ready to go and got the other 10 yards out of the dryer and folded.
So now I am ready for tomorrow...enough fabric to get going, finish piece 12 and go forward. I feel so good about this series..who knows when it will stop.
This series is about the circles of life...still looking for a title but that will come.
See y'all tomorrow!
4 comments:
I had wondered how you managed to discharge the large pieces. Thanks for the lesson. When you lay the fabric on top of the sunlight, is the fabric wet or dry?
Thank you SO much for sharing so much so often. I am impressed with how much you have accomplished.
Gayle McKay
Thank you for all of the time you are taking to share this experience on your blog. It's really wonderful to watch the progress. The discharge lesson is excellent and your pieces are looking really good! I'll bet the folks at Wal-Mart LOVE you!
Glad you mentioned the anti-chlor. I don't understand why people insist on using vinegar or peroxide or something else useless when anti-chlor is so inexpensive and easy to order. I get sick of hearing myself go on about it (like now!), so it's good to hear somebody else mention where to get it. You fabric is gorgeous, Liz.
Teehee...one of my favorite dinners: nacho doritos and pina coladas! Thanks for sharing the technique.... I really want to play!
Sarah
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