Today was a one-day workshop to explore various methods of transferring an image onto paper or fabric. We had demonstrations of each method from Abi Nichols and then we were free to play around with them in any way we chose. The methods started with the very simple: tracing using typewriter carbon paper which I didn't bother to try, and I'm not sure this is what I would call "printmaking". Next up in terms of complexity was Xerox transfer, using a recently printed photocopy, and lacing this face-down onto the receiving surface, soaking the photocopy paper in cellulose thinners, and burnishing with a spoon. The images transferred tended to be blurry but attractively blurred or faded. My efforts worked quite well on paper but less well on cotton fabric (which was very thick, much thicker than I would ever select for quilting or embroidery purposes).
The came Iron-on transfer, using purchased special sheets which can be put through a normal printer or photocopier, and then placed face-down onto the receiving fabric (no point in doing this onto paper) and ironed for 3 or 4 minutes with a hot iron. The results in my case were virtually useless as the photo image which Abi had of mine was too small to be effective. I have used this approach before now in textiles work. The print leaves a strangely plastic-feeling finish on the fabric. Fine for a t-shirt but not too good for other types of work. Abi demonstrated using household bleach and a cotton but to bleach out some of the image on an ordinary photo on glossy paper. Again, tho si not what I would call printing, and th results seemed of dubious worth. I didn't actually do this one but observed the work of others.
The most interesting technique was Cyanotype printing. Here we used a chemical mixture of equal parts of Potassium Ferricyanide and Ferric ammonium citrate. This is a slightly gluey liquid which you have to use in a dark-room or semi-dark-room and paint a thin layer onto the fabric or paper you want to print onto. This will show as yellow. When this is dry (you can use a hairdryer to speed things up) you cover it with an acetate negative and invert the m both onto the screen of a UV vacuum light-box. We left ours for 25 minutes, but the time is variable depending on the atmospheric conditions, the strength of the UV light, and the thickness of the chemical paint. You then need to wash the print in running cold water for about 20 mints to remove all the remaining chemical paint. I had two attempts at this. The first one produced quite a good image but I felt that the positive image I had used would bloom much better in a negative version. The second attempt did this, and also a print based on a photo of some people. These looked great when they came out of the UV light, but by the time they have been extensively washed, the strong blue colour had faded somewhat.
You can apparently do cyanotype prints at home if there is sufficient sunlight to develop the image I will try it sometime. I have bought a Cyanotype printing kit at the Festival of Quilts this year but haven't got round to trying it out yet. ...just waiting now for the next good sunny day.... The overall effect of the cyanotypes is a bit "quaint" but the odour is very attractive and I can see that there could be ways of building this up in combination with thoer print methods to make complex print images.
Overall the day was interesting but I felt that some of the methods on offer are rather old-fashioned and there are newer and better methods, e.g. using matt medium as shown on Quilting Arts TV to transfer images in positive and negative onto fabric. However, I have never bothered to work through all these methods in any methodical way, and I now feel both confident and driven enough to try this out in the coming weeks. I think it is quite lily that I will want to print onto fabric at some future stage, and getting it right now would be good. Also, while I have access to the UV box at QR it would be sensible to exploit it as far as possible, and use it for further Cyanotype prints.
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