Sunday, May 31, 2015

DISAPPOINTING DECONSTRUCTED SCREEN PRINTING

Well.....here's the bad results of my deconstructed screen printing. It was clear after the first print, that using the right side of this white on white was not going to work. So I began printing on the reverse side.
 Reverse side
 Right side
 Reverse side
 Right side
You get the idea.....yuck.  This is the only piece that I didn't smear with additional dye after seeing how poorly the fabric was printing.

So....what went wrong?  Here's my suspicions.  First, though I've seen good results printing on white on white......the fabric pattern of mine was very densely printed...leaving very little room for the dye.  Apparently, the dye doesn't want to adhere to the white design.

I'm also guessing the soda ash wasn't able to be absorbed.....because even after batching, a lot of the dye washed out.

I'm not despairing......the fabric will be a great start for future Fabric Junkies technique play days.

4 comments:

Kathy said...

Aha--there's always a reason when we stop to analyze, isn't there? And it's always good to have a non-precious base for future experiments!

Nancy said...

Well nothing is ever wasted in your group for sure. I'd suspect you are right- that print looks pretty dense so there's probably more of the white print finish and less fabric to receive the dye. Good to know!

Robbie said...

So the fabric was a tone on tone?? If so, no dye will do its job...but the pieces still don't look that bad to me!! You should shibori then overdye with black dye!

The Idaho Beauty said...

I think you are right. I've immersion-dyed this kind of fabric and the product that produces the design is not something that would absorb the dye. At best the dye might "stain" it a bit. If it is dense, then even the flip side might not be able to take much dye. Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained!