Rusting Fabric Technique

As I promised in the previous post, I am now going to reveal my top secret techniques on how to imprint rust onto fabric. The secret is that it is dead easy to do! 

1. Find yourself some very rusty iron objects - Nails by far work the best in my opinion, but you can play around with many other objects. 

2. Choose an absorbent material to use, preferably natural materials such as cotton or muslin. 

3. Wet the material fully with water and then lay it out on a surface (make sure to put old towels underneath to stop the rust imprinting on the actual surface) 

4. find yourself a bottle that you can spray liquid out of the nozzle and then fill half of it up with water and the other half with vinegar (malt vinegar works the best).

5. Place the objects on the wet material, and then at regular intervals spray the fabric with your homemade spray. This will speed up the process and also keep the material damp. 

6. It is now up to you, as to how long you want the objects to stay on the fabric. The longer you leave it the darker the rust will be!

So in 6 easy steps you can now imprint beautiful rusty patterns onto fabric :)

Three metres of rusty muslin

As seen in my last post, I have been very busy testing out different ways of ageing fabric. This was to understand which techniques were the most effective. Throughout this process I  fell in love with the way rust imprints onto wet fabric. As part of my All Saints project,I decided to take on the challenge and imprint a whole 3 metres of muslin fabric with rusty tools. The reason muslin was my first choice, is because its very absorbent and the perfect material to use if you want the rust to soak in quickly. Over many weeks I have been busy in attempting to finish the 3 metre stretch of transparent material. It has been difficult, as some objects indented their shape more than others, which depended on the types of object used. Rusty nails by far worked the best, and things such as spanners didn't work so well.I am however, very happy with the outcomes so far. Here are a few images below to show my progress so far. If you are interested in this process yourself, I will post the techniques in the next one :)

Decaying Fabrics

Recently I have been very busy playing around with natural fabrics (cotton, silk, line and muslin). You may ask why and it is because I have decided to age and decay fabrics as part of my recent All Saints project.  My plan is to promote the shop through more exciting and better interiors, therefore I want to create either dressing room curtains or a textile piece. So far I have used many exciting processes to ages my fabrics: 

1. Coffee and Tea staining 

2. Mark making with rusty objects 

3. Crumpling and dampening

4. Rubbing in dirt 

5. Burning with incense or cigarettes

6. leave out in the sun 

7. wash several times 

8. use coarse sandpaper 

9. rub black or brown shoe polish 

10. drag fabric along the ground

So far I have only tested a few out, however marking making with the rusty objects made the most beautiful patterns. If you are interested in doing this yourself you firstly need to find rusty objects such as nails and tools. You then wet the fabric and place the objects in a pattern of your choice. You can then wrap the fabric around the objects. Then you will need to keep the fabric moist with a mixture of vinegar and water. Then leave this for a day for a day or so, depending on how well your objects take to the fabric and how dark you would like the colour. 

Here are some pictures of my samples so far: 

There will be more tests soon :)  

Railway Decay

Exploring is something I do well. I tend to take photographs of the most peculiar and unforeseen objects that nobody even knew existed. I believe that the natural decay of the objects is something of pure beauty; their unforeseen textures is what provides me with the many ideas and outcomes in my projects. After taking several photographs from the past weeks,  I have particularly captured railway decay. The train station is a place I am most days (uni, meeting friends, exploring the great city). I try not to look for things that inspire me, instead I let them come to me. That may sound silly, but I am a very visual person so looking all around me is something very mundane. Railway decay is something that just came to me one day. I thought why not do a project on something I see everyday. You make think this is an easy way of collecting research, however I have had many difficulties capturing the perfect photograph. The composition had to be incredibly clear as I turned them into screen prints. Although challenging in some respects, I thoroughly enjoyed capturing the textual qualities of railway decay. So far I have made a start on a collaboration of screen-prints in colours influenced by All Saints (my current project). After several days of living in the print room I have been overall successful. Eventually the most successful screen-prints will then then be printed out on a much larger scale. In terms of interior, I want to display my prints on the wall behind the counter in the All Saints stores. Hopefully everything will go to plan, and I will keep you updated on my progress.

In the mean time here are some of the screen-print images:

  

All Saints Project

A New Year means a new project. This means I will be taking on biggest project to date. Although exciting this is without a doubt the scariest feeling ever. I will soon be entering the real world, therefore I would like the end my educated years with a BIG BANG. The project I will be taking on not only shows my interests as a person but it will also highly benefit my true passion as an artist. My three great passions in art are printing, interiors and fashion. I therefore wanted something that was going to benefit all three. After several days of thinking and thinking of a project I wouldn't get bored of, I finally came up with the idea of promoting the shop All Saints through interior design. This will incorporate my passion for fabrics and printing into one. My three main ideas are to create curtains for the changing rooms, a screen print for the wall behind the counter and wallpaper for a single wall. All Saints is a shop that has always caught my attention, for their urban decay/ mechanical layouts that are so fascinating and something I have always been interested in. From previous posts you can see a theme going on that decay is a subject I truly love, especially for its indexical and unforseen textures.  The first step of research will be to take as many photographs as possible. This is something I would recommend if you are ever stuck on your project. Go out and explore, and the ideas will come to you. I will take you every step of the way and keep you up to date on my findings and ideas.           

05/02/2016

Digital Printing Decadence

There is nothing more exciting than seeing your own work being printed out to a massive scale. From seeing my scarf designs on a screen to ten times bigger makes all that hard work pay off. I decided to print out four of my designs that were 65X65 on chiffon material. I was so delighted to see my work gradually being printed out on this beautiful material. It makes the dream to create my own collection all so real. I can't wait for the next steps, to create them on an even bigger scale so people can wear my scarf designs on a daily basis. The samples I have so far are more like neck scarves, however still incredibly beautiful (well I think they do), especially with their mysterious transparency. I have finally found my niche and I am most definitely a printmaker/pattern-designer. I adore the print room and almost live there. I am incredibly happy with my choice and look forward to growing my passion even further. My ultimate dream would be to see my designs on Homeware and Accessories. Although a big dream, dreams don't pay off without dedication and passion! Which is something I am so willing to succeed in. Although scared to enter the big wide world, Wish me all the luck :) 

Printing process

Decadence

Recently, my work has been centred around the beauty of decay. I love the textures and qualities of old buildings and cracked pavements, as they have a real character when studied in depth. Anything worn and broken is something that has always caught my eye, so why not take this to my advantage and create some prints. I am pretty confident when it comes to printing, however what to print can be a different story. I can find it hard to physically get myself in the print room and just print something. However this time round, I wanted to keep the creative flow going, therefore I have been taking pictures of things that really make me think. It sounds strange but this mostly consists of the decaying city around me. I see the deeper beauty, not just the flowers and the trees, but to explore how nature takes over something artificial. This fascination is what has been driving my work recently and is something I want to carry on developing in the future. Over the past couples of months, this idea has taken me on a journey through print. From my own photographs, I have developed several screen-prints, testing the colours and compositions along the way. Below are some of the photographs that have been developed..

Some of these photographs were then made into screen-prints...

As a next step, these prints will then be developed into a scarf collection that I would like to call DECADENCE!! 

I want to keep adding to this collection, creating more and more designs as I go, showing my great interest in the beauty of decay.