rachels art blog: Textiles workshop

In the textiles workshop, we were introduced to many different types of design within textiles.

The first technique was screen printing. Firstly, I chose a screen which we would want to transfer onto the material. The screen was made from a wooden frame and a mesh stretched over the frame, I then used a squeegee to spread the paint over the screen to dye the fabric placed underneath it.

Then the fabric was placed on the drying rack to fully dry and the squeegee was cleaned. The screen was cleaned by using a power washer to spray off the excess paint, then it was placed in the heat cupboard to dry.

The second technique was Batik. This involves using hot wax as a resistant to protect the fabric underneath from the dye. We first tried this out on thick paper to test out different patterns before we added it onto our screen print pieces. To create batik we used a Tjanting tool to apply the wax to the paper.

When the wax dried we used Brusho paint with water to add to the paper to show the effect that the wax resists the paint from the fabric or material.

The third one we did was paper making. This was achieved by adding shredded paper and adding water to it.

This then made a paper pulp which, when stretched over a mesh frame and dried, forms a paper form when the water is squeezed out of the frame with a sponge.