Tag Archives | Dyed Fabrics

First Croton Leaf Complete

By Ellen Lindner on April 3, 2020 in Uncategorized

Here it is, A Croton Story, Chapter One.

As you can see, the 3D aspect of it really adds a lot. Here’s a detail shot.

Final dimensions 24h x 11w x 1d.
Here are some studio shots.

The stem was stiffened with thick interfacing and heavy stitching. Then, I wet fabric strips with gel medium (collage glue) and wrapped them around it. The result was nice and stiff, just like a stem should be.

I’m super happy with this piece! It required A LOT of experimenting and inventiveness.

Now, I’ve got the techniques down and I’m making a series of these in brighter colors. The fabrics are dyed and I’m making progress. I can’t wait to see them all together.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. These pieces will be available for purchase, at $175 each.

Technical Challenge: a 3D Quilted Leaf

By Ellen Lindner on March 30, 2020 in Uncategorized

After admiring the arch and curl of a Croton leaf, I decided I wanted to make a quilt with those same lines. And because I thought it should roll up for shipping (or lay flat) but still be malleable for display, I knew I’d want to put wire into it. Which is what plunged me into a time of great experimentation and learning.

First, I studied and photographed Croton leaves from my back porch plant. (I picked the past-their-prime leaves.)

Click any image for a larger view

See what pretty shapes they have? This is what I wanted to emulate.

Next, I scanned them an turned them into black and white sketches. I traced the outline of the first one I wanted to use.

Then, I created the top composition with two hand dyed fabrics. Next came quilting, but without a backing just yet.

Since I wanted the leaf to arch from stem to tip, I wanted to add a fairly heavy, but still pliable, wire down the center. I was worried about the end of that wire puncturing the fabric, so I knew I’d need to soften or shape it somehow. The solution came in the form of an accidental Christmas present. I had asked for glue sticks, like Elmer’s makes. But, my husband misunderstood and bought me glue sticks for a hot glue gun. (He gets points for even knowing that a hot glue gun exists. Even though mine no longer works.) The glue sticks turned out to be exactly what I needed, though. I melted down several in a little handmade aluminum foil “pot.” I dipped the ends of the wire into it and it created a nice round blob on each end. Voila!

I hand stitched the wire along the center vein line. To keep the wire from shifting from stem to tip, I created little fabric stops on each end. I glued and folded fabric over the end and then stitched it to the quilting. (BTW, I’m making this sound so straight forward. But, EVERY one of these techniques was tested and modified in a sample before using it on this larger leaf.)

In the photo above, you can see some of the tools I used, including leather gloves and wire cutters. Next, I would cut the wire mesh and hand stitch it on.

And it all worked! Here you can see that I could bend the leaf along the center vein, or curl the sides like book pages. I was getting excited!

Not shown, I used a different weight of wire and satin stitched it around the perimeter of the leaf. That was rather tricky since the leaf was now stiff. But, I was getting close!

Stay tuned to see how this turned out. Hint: I’m delighted with it!

What experiments have you tried during this time of isolation?

Ellen Lindner

Transparency is the Thing

By Ellen Lindner on March 29, 2020 in Uncategorized

My primary objective during a recent dying session was to improve many ugly or high contrast fabrics. This photo shows about half of the fabrics I intended to improve.

Some of them look fine, but have a lot of contrast in them. Now that I’ve been working with these hand dyed fabrics for a while, I’m finding that working with these can be challenging. Others are nearly solid and need to have some pattern added. Finally, some are hideous and merely need to be mostly obscured.

Because dyes are transparent, you always have to consider how colors will combine when one is applied over another. I gave this a lot of thought. The fabric below was pale blue and white. Pretty, but not something I thought I’d use. So, I over dyed it with a dull yellow. As you can see, that turned the blue to green, just as I expected.

And here’s the whole collection, after a week’s worth of effort. I think I did about 40 pieces.

Actually, there are another 6 or so that turned out really ugly. (Chartreuse, when I was aiming for a simple yellow-green.) They’ll be in the “needs improvement” category for my next dye session.

Now, I’m on to using these fabrics and it sure is fun!

Ellen Lindner

Dirty Prints

By Ellen Lindner on March 28, 2020 in Uncategorized

My recent dye session was devoted almost exclusively to improving ugly prints. That generally meant over dying with a solid color, or stenciling on a new one.

Take this little piece, for instance. It was originally an ugly yellow-green that I didn’t think I’d use. But, I knew that if I mostly obscured that color, leaving only tiny bits of it showing, it would add a nice sparkle to the resulting print.

Since dyes are transparent, I gave a lot of thought to how the underlying color would work with the new one. I thought a dull red (the complement of green) would give a dark, neutral result. And, as you can see, that’s exactly what I got.

My stencil was larger than the little piece I was printing, so some of the design got printed onto the plastic. No worries. I just laid some white fabric down onto it, and lifted a print. And then I added a couple more.

Next, I used that dirty stencil for what I call “dirty printing.” All you do is pull clear paste through the used stencil. It picks up the dye that was in the nooks and crannies, creating a more delicate version of the same lines. I layered them on top of each other, in various orientations. I love the look!

This is just one of the many techniques I learned in a five day class with Pat Pauly. She’s a wealth of knowledge!

Ellen Lindner
P.S. A broader term for this sort of treatment is “ghost print.” A ghost print is when you take a second print without adding any additional dye/paint/ink.

Trees or Skyscrapers?

By Ellen Lindner on January 8, 2020 in Uncategorized

After trying a pastel blue sky on my piece inspired by fall trees, I tried it with dark blue instead.

I actually liked it pretty well, but I didn’t have enough bright blue to do it justice. So, I tried white. And also auditioned the idea of more twigs.

The verdict: YES to the white sky, NO to the chunky twigs.

But, what about those vertical shapes? Were they starting to imply skyscrapers, rather than trees? Yes, clearly they were. Well, that’s not really what I wanted, but I decided it could be trees in an urban setting. (Plus, I didn’t really care if the shapes read like trees, skyscrapers, or anything real.) I added a few twigs to add contrast and play up the tree idea.

After much quilting I was ready to photograph this piece.

Why use a pink backdrop, you ask? It has to do with the digital editing I’ll be doing later. I’ll “pick” the quilt away from the background and it’s easier for the computer to do that if there’s a contrast between the two. Can you see how the left side would blend into the backdrop if I left it white?

Finished photos coming soon.

Ellen Lindner

Retreat Project

By Ellen Lindner on December 8, 2019 in Uncategorized

What do you get when you add a beautiful setting, great friends, and time to make quilts? Well, fun productivity, of course!

At a recent SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) retreat I took my portable design wall, my easel, and ALL of my hand dyed fabrics. I didn’t have an idea when I left home, but I got one along the way. I decided to be inspired by the colors of fall trees (which we miss here in Florida,) and to use tall vertical shapes.

First, I auditioned A BUNCH of fabric to see if I had what I needed.

Well, um, yes I did. Too many fabrics, as a matter of fact. (Or as Tim Gunn might say, “That’s a whole lot of look.”)

I quickly edited and started putting fabrics in place.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted for the “sky,” but I put some light fabrics there as place holders.

Next, I auditioned some yellow. Would one piece stand out too much? Did I need more? Could I use yellow in the sky too?

I settled on the arrangement below. In this photo many of the fabrics are still folded. I don’t cut until I’m pretty sure. (But, by the end of the 2 day retreat I had all these shapes cut, pinned in place, and a few glued.)

I knew I’d need some black to break up the bright colors, so vertical trunks and branches filled the bill nicely. And you can also see that I added more yellow/yellow-orange.

I also began to consider that sky. Someone at the retreat suggested a pale sky, so I tried it out. It didn’t excite me, though.

In future posts I’ll show you other options I auditioned and where I ended up.

Ellen Lindner

Follow Along as I Learn Deconstructed Screen Printing

By Ellen Lindner on September 19, 2019 in Uncategorized

“Deconstructed Screen Printing.” That’s a mouth full isn’t it? Perhaps the alternate term is a little more self-explanatory: “Breakdown Printing.” This technique uses thickened dyes applied with screen printing and it often yields extraordinary results.

Like this (detail shot.) Don’t you love the squiggly irregular shapes and “halos?”

You probably know about screen printing using a stencil. The solid parts of the stencil act as a barrier, or “resist”, to the dye and it only goes through the open parts, creating a pattern or motif. With Deconstructed Screen Printing (DSP) thickened dye is applied directly to a screen and allowed to dry. This dried dye acts like a resist to the wet thickened dye applied later.

*** I’ll be adding to this blog post as I try new things. ***
Entry #1

Here is the first screen I prepped. The color is a dark blue-green. I drew a grid and then pulled the tail end of a paint brush through it diagonally. That last part didn’t work too well. Maybe I needed thinner paint? Or thicker lines?

This took the better part of a day to dry here in Florida.

There’s one big difference between printing through a stencil and printing through a design made with dried dye. The latter will slowly dissolve as dye is repeatedly pulled through it. This is a lot of the charm of DSP, but it requires a little planning. The lines of the dried dye will erode and create little halos around each shape. This is lovely, but it also means that the color of the dried dye design will mix with the color of the wet dye. So, you have to plan ahead a little.

I chose a darkish green and got this with my first pull. It worked pretty well, although the grid didn’t show up very well. Again, did I need thicker lines? I think so.

However, I immediately realized I hadn’t mixed enough dye so I had to mix more, and ended up with a variety of greens as I proceeded. (Because I learned this lesson slowly and I kept having to mix more.)

Here’s the second pull.

Can you see how the design has already altered? There’s less white because the design lines have eroded. I did two more pulls, but then stopped because I could see I’d gotten all I could from this screen. Rather disappointing.

Here you can see how the design dissolved throughout the 4 pulls.

But that wasn’t as bad as my next screen. I forgot to take pictures of it, but it used the same dye in a squiggly swirly design. I printed it with green. Right there. In that big SOLID green spot. It didn’t show at all! I had no idea what was wrong. I’ve since had a clue so I’ll experiment more to see if I’m right.

Fortunately, I got much better results pretty quickly, so check back on this post for updates. Regardless of the results I’m having fun!

*** I’ll be adding to this blog post as I try new things. ***
Entry #2

This was the next screen I prepared, using a dark red color. This screen is my largest and that ended up being a plus, since I didn’t have to move it and realign it so many times.

And this is what I got when I screened on what I hoped would be a dark red-orange. (Shown still wet.) I was pretty happy with this, aside from the big dark spot (more on that later.) You can probably tell that I started on the right and went left. I was very happy with the way the design broke down. I printed along the bottom edge 3 more times and it was printing almost solid red by the end.

About that dark spot: I mix my colors directly on plastic, with various dye colored puddles here and there. At one point I got distracted and accidentally swiped some black which ended up on the fabric. I wasn’t too worried about it.

Now, check out a detail shot, still wet.

I missed an opportunity on this one. My dried dye design and my wet printing dye were too close in color, so I didn’t get the cool merging effect of the two. Something to work on.

This is what it looks like dry. Much brighter than I anticipated, but definitely usable. As a comparison, look at the detail shot above (wet) and then find in on the left side of the full piece to see the change in color. This is not uncommon with dying. Colors always dry lighter and it’s rather tricky trying to get them just right. Something else to work on.

Once dry, my error with the black dye shows up more. See the streaks below. Oh well, it’s still usable and I’m learning!

You know, I’m pretty delighted with this patterning. I’ll want to revisit it.

*** I’ll be adding to this blog post as I try new things. ***
Entry #3

This time I let my screen dry while propped on an angle, thus giving me drippy diagonal lines. (Dark blue-green again.)

It produced an interesting pattern. I used cerulean blue with some black to make it duller and some print paste to make it lighter.

I thought it looked quite good, even though the breakdown effect wasn’t too evident.

But, of course, when I washed and dried it the color lightened significantly. Still usable, of course, but not nearly as dramatic. Predicting color = another thing to work on.

Do you see the blue-green lines above where the screen patterns meet? I did that intentionally, trying to fill gaps in the printing. As you can see, the color mix I used didn’t quite match. Darn. Something else to work on.

*** I’ll be adding to this blog post as I try new things. ***
Entry #4

For this screen I squirted dark blue-green dye onto it. I really like the random look of it. (The pale green look of this screen is just staining due to its age.)

Because I needed some black fabric, I printed this one with black. The pattern resisted the dye very well and I got nice white sharp shapes.

But, where are those vertical white lines coming from? I had no idea. When printing, I did notice that the dye seemed to puddle in the center like that, so I expected to possibly have extra dye there. Instead, that spot resisted the dye. Maybe I hadn’t cleaned it properly? I never figured it out.

As you can see the blue-green did spread into the white areas a little. I’ve now realized that the bleeding/halo effect works best with dark dried dye and medium wet dye. I’m learning!

And I think I’ve solved the mystery of the missing pattern from my earlier screen (entry #1.) For that screen I used a homemade one. I did so again as I prepped this next screen. I could immediately see the problem as the dye dripped through pretty significantly.

To deal with this, I went over the pattern one more time. Like this.

But, can you see how speckled the drawn line is? Not solid at all. I thought I had found the culprit.

Sure enough, when I printed it the design broke down almost right away (starting at right and moving left.) I just printed it these 3 times.

This is what it looked like dry.

Can you believe the change in color? This is my nemesis! I predicted well this time, but it’s a continual challenge.

*** I’ll be adding to this blog post as I try new things. ***
Entry #5

Finally, I got something that was exactly what I wanted. Progress!

This is the screen I prepared, using a dark red dye.

I printed it with a pretty strong orange, getting darker and redder as I moved to the left. I was loving it!

And here it is dry. Yes! This time, the colors were pretty much exactly what I’d hoped for.

Of course, there were areas where the dried dye acted as a resist, leaving white spots showing. But the red dye also broke down giving little red marks too. Nice!

For the next screen I masked out triangles with masking tape (on my old stained screen.)

Then, I drew angled lines with black.

The lines will be broken by the masking tape shapes, so it should be interesting.

*** Final Entry ***
Entry #6

After the screen above was dry I removed the masking tape triangle, which gave me this. A nice fractured look, I thought.

And this is what I got when printing with it.

I like the pattern a lot. But, why didn’t the black dissolve? (I worked from left to right.) A mystery for me to solve.

Next, I made a screen with clear resist. I just squirted it on and I really liked the pattern.

But, it broke down almost immediately!

I started in the top right corner and made my first 2 pulls in a vertical line. As you can see, the third pull had lost all of its design. I did a couple more pulls and then quit. Since I had prepared fabric in front of me, I sort of scraped/smeared some fucshia lines on. I liked them quite a bit.

I was really excited to try the next screen prep: multi-colors. I used black, brown, and deep red.

In the book “Breakdwon Your Pallette,” the author gets wonderful results with this technique. Me, not so much.

Is it worth trying again? I’m not sure.

And now, drum roll please, my favorite DSP fabric. I drew black lines on the screen. Nothing special, but they bled just the right amount.

Don’t you love it? It’s actually a stronger color in person.

Here’s a detail shot. I love the irregular lines and black bleed. (Note, this was the same exact black dye I used in the first Entry 6 fabric. That one didn’t bleed at all, so the consistency of the wet/pulled dye must be a factor.)

I’ll definitely do more DSP in the future. A few things I’ll keep in mind:
– Use my largest screens. They require the least amount of lining up and the lowest number of pulls.
– Use only high quality screen with fine mesh.
– Don’t bother with clear paste as a resist.

Thanks for following along!

Ellen Lindner
P.S. Several people have asked about what resource I’m using to learn about DSP. My primary reference is a book by Leah Higgins, called “Breakdown Your Palette.” I highly recommend it. Also useful are the books by Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan. I have the one on screen printing and they now have one on breakdown printing, as well. You can also find several videos of their processes on YouTube.

“When Fuchsia Came to Play” Complete

By Ellen Lindner on September 9, 2019 in Uncategorized

Well, after LOTS of trial and error, trouble shooting, and rearranging, I finally finished my latest abstract piece, When Fuchsia Came to Play.

When Fuchsia Came to Play

A detail shot of the fabrics – most of them dyed by me.

I showed you my plans for rearranging in an earlier post. As part of that, I whacked 7+” off the bottom! It’s okay. It needed it, and I’ve already found another use for that extra part.

When Fuchsia Came to Play is available for purchase.

My friends joke that I’m the queen of cropping, and it’s pretty true. Need me to bring my rotary cutter over?

Ellen Lindner

Another “Intersection” Abstract

By Ellen Lindner on August 4, 2019 in Uncategorized

After success creating Segue into Summer, I decided to use it as a loose template for some additional quilts made with hand dyed fabrics.

I’m calling this my “Intersection” series. I plan to use tilted straight lines as the “skeleton” for each one.

First, I pulled out the large scaled hand dyes I wanted to use, plus pretty much everything hand dyed that matched them. What a collection!

Clearly, some editing was called for, so I pared it down somewhat.

And, since I’ve been “learning to like vinegar” (colors, that is,) I added in a few “ugly” colors. I knew they’d add quite a bit of pop, but would need to be used carefully. Can you see them?

These are the two fabrics I expected to be the stars of this piece. I dyed and painted them to go together. I knew I’d need to add additional colors, as well as lights and darks.

I started in my usual fashion: creating a muslin base for my composition. I drew on the perimeter lines, as well as the proposed skeletal lines for the design. I’ve make them darker here, so you can see.

As you can see, I got my two star fabrics in there right away, using them in the largest sections where they would fit.

Right away, I had to redesign the size of the top right piece, to accommodate the fabric size. The line shows the size I intended that shape to be, but the fabric wasn’t large enough, so that design line got moved higher. That would be change #1 of about 100!

I was off and running. I’ll show you LOTS of trial and error in the next post.

Ellen Lindner

“Segue Into Summer” Complete

By Ellen Lindner on July 30, 2019 in Uncategorized

If you’ve been following my blog you know I’ve been learning about printing fabric with thickened dye. And, of course, I was anxious to use them! Plus, I also wanted to try larger scaled abstract pieces, as well as the idea of using a little bit of “ugly” color. All those goals came together in this quilt and I love the result!

Here it is: Segue Into Summer