Tag Archives | Experimenting/Arting

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.

Accidental Learning

By Ellen Lindner on June 13, 2019 in Uncategorized

While dying fabric I’m learning a lot! Some of it comes from books and some of it I stumble upon.

Case in point, trying to mix thickened dye colors directly on the fabric. I had heard that they wouldn’t really mix in this way, but I was feeling lazy and had to give it a try. First, I tried it with a mixture of greens and some clear dye paste.

As expected, the greens were blotchy. But what was that lighter squiggly pattern? It was the clear paste, which acted as a resist to the other colors.

Bingo! That looked like something fun to play with.

So, I tried to repeat my results with a variety of colors and patterns. Red with circles, and pink with feathers.

Brown circles and orange spears/leaves.

Yummy! A quick and easy way to get a tone on tone pattern.

Ellen Lindner

Abstract Design from Scratch

By Ellen Lindner on April 25, 2019 in Uncategorized

Have you done any abstract work? I have and I often find it difficult to come up with the original design. One exercise that’s been floating around via Pat Pauly and others it to randomly cover an index card with fabric scraps and let that become your design. So I tried a few.

Some of these (like that last one) were real dogs, so I tried a more deliberate one.

It was only slightly better.

But wait, there’s more! If a composition isn’t appealing try visually cropping it to see if you can find a more pleasing design. Like this.

I do this with paper or cardboard L shapes. With them you can easily crop the image much smaller. It’s important to rotate it, too, as this often helps the design quite a bit.

Here are a few more crops.

I think these are much more dramatic than the originals (although they may still require some editing!)

You can also do the same exercise with printed photos. I had several vegetation photos which I stacked and cut into mostly squarish pieces. This was my first arrangement.

It already had good contrast and interest, but there was a lot going on. I rearranged a bit more, now confident in the results I knew I could eventually get. This was that second arrangement slightly cropped.

But, I took it even further.

That would make a pretty great quilt, don’t you think?

I’ve found this technique to be useful and have just finished an abstract quilt designed in this way. I’ll get it photographed and show it to you soon.

What tips do you have for designing abstractly?

Ellen Lindner
P.S. This is one of the tools Pat teaches in her “A Dozen Ways: Design for Art Quilts,” a class which I recommend.

AQS Daytona: Special Techniques

By Ellen Lindner on March 29, 2019 in Uncategorized

At any good quilt show you’ll find amazing workmanship and creativity. The Daytona Beach show was no exception. This amazing trapunto quilt was made by Jan Hutchison.

Click any image for a larger view

(It looks slightly green under the lights, but was really a taupe color.)

Check out these fabulous details!

Isn’t it amazing?

This next “quilt” was sort of mesmerizing. The very light layers moved around as people walked by or the air conditioning came on, making it hard to look away.

I’ll bet you can’t guess what it inspired it: a glass of a pale yellow wine. I think it must be a very light and subtle wine.

This piece was part of a small exhibit about foods, created by a South American husband and wife. (I hate that I didn’t record their names!)

Each piece was very creative and very different from one another. What surprised me was that they depicted things like texture, smell, and taste, but nothing about appearance. Talk about subtle!

My friend, Laura Ruiz, has quite a few unique tricks up her own sleeves. For several years she’s been painting onto silk before stitching it. But, recently, she learned to paint on paper, as well. She painted this cardinal and then loved it so much she had printed, much larger, through an online company.

Next, she pieced the “9 patches” around the edges and joined them to the central motif. To help visually merge the two together she lightly painted triangles into the background of the bird. Brilliant! And then look at that quilting. She’s a master! This quilt has won quite a few prestigious awards.

Finally, here’s a look at Andrea Brokenshire’s work. She also paints onto whole cloth and then adds lots of thread painting.

A beautiful piece, and a very nice show.

Ellen Lindner

Correcting and Dyeing and Correcting Some More

By Ellen Lindner on March 20, 2019 in Uncategorized

Ellen Anne Eddy says, “If something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing badly.” In other words, don’t expect yourself to master something right away. If it’s worth doing it’s worth your practice time and whatever mediocre results you get along the way. Well, I think maybe I was the poster child for this philosophy in my last dyeing session. It seemed like nearly everything I did was correcting something I’d done earlier.

Like this ugly green fabric.

Click any image for a larger view

I over painted it with fabric paint, using a commercial stencil and I got this. Much better!

Now, the paint shows more than the original ugly fabric and that became the norm as I worked through some other fabrics.

You may remember this GARISH one from an earlier dye session. That UGLY chartreuse needed to be covered! I made a stencil which would print most of the screen, leaving only a few dots of the underneath fabric showing. I tried mixing a deep berry/burgundy color, (which looked black when still wet,) and screened it on.

And it worked! After washing it out this is what I got. Just what I wanted. Woohoo! I love the imperfections.

Now I was on a roll. I began to look for ugly fabrics, like this clean up rag (CUR), and to figure out how I could mostly cover them. For this “stencil” I tried something new. I cut circles from freezer paper and lightly ironed them onto the back of my screen. I wasn’t sure if they’d stay, but they did (until I later washed the screen.) In the example below I screened on what I hoped would be a dark teal. (Since dyes are transparent, there’s often a good bit of guess work involved in such scenarios.)

And this is what I got when I washed it out. Yes!

I tried repeating my good results with the same technique, this time mixing what I hoped was navy blue and adding it to this bright, and very ugly CUR.

As you can see, the yellow below affected the color and it ended up being a greenish brown. No worries. This will be very usable and is actually one of my favorite fabrics.

These are the results of my 2 week dyeing session: 42 pieces ranging in size from “hand towel” to 30 x 42. I’m, very happy with them.

I’m learning that this dyeing business requires some luck, a good bit of color theory, and an attitude of exploration. My kind of thing, for sure!

Ellen Lindner

Traffic Jam

By Ellen Lindner on September 14, 2018 in Uncategorized

I needed to depict a traffic jam for my hurricane (evacuation) quilt. Thankfully, I had a reference photo.

So, I made a colorful replica.

I thought it needed to be thick/padded to go with the texture of the raw-edged spirals.

However, the bright colors of the vehicles disappeared a little against the bright floral background. I corrected that by over painting the background with thickened dye, shown in-progress below.

Although it looked very dark here, it was really a thin blue-black. You can see the result below. Surprisingly, it’s exactly what I wanted.

In the photo above I was beginning to audition the addition of text. Of course, it will also need to be textured, so I’ll have to think about how to best achieve that.

And for those of you enduring hurricane Florence, I hope she’ll end up being a relatively minor inconvenience. Stay safe!

Ellen Lindner

And Then I Threw Paint on It

By Ellen Lindner on August 8, 2018 in Uncategorized

I got this far on my current quilt, before I knew it needed something more.

Clearly, the white needed some texture. So, I decided to fling some paint onto it!

I practiced first on a piece of muslin, then I just went for it.

Amazingly, I did this without any fear! I was READY to break things up and to add some interest.

Doesn’t it look better?

After that I considered it finished and began quilting it. My initial idea was to stitch around each little drop of black paint. And I actually stuck with it until I got to the very edges.

But, wait. Is it really finished it? After my post on August 4th, I got some very good comments and suggestions from you readers. I decided to reconsider a few things and to audition some changes. I’ll show you those in the next post.

Ellen Lindner

New Lecture: Confessions of a Fabric Whisperer

By Ellen Lindner on May 27, 2018 in Uncategorized

I have a new lecture that’s rather fun, called “Confessions of a Fabric Whisperer.” (Actually, I’ve changed the name about three times, but I think this might stick.) In this presentation I give an amusing accounting of some of the wacky things I’ve done over the years in the pursuit of creating art quilts. Some of my attempts were successful and some resulted in “rough drafts.” But, I explain why even the unsuccessful ones are useful and why I fearlessly embrace experimentation.

This quilt, Summer in the South, is one of my primary examples. Plus I take the quilt for display.

Many other quilts have their own stories. Like Urban Sprawl, below.

I recently presented this lecture for the first time and it was VERY well received. That’s always exhilirating!

Not only that, but there was a non-quilting reporter in the audience. She took notes and asked me a few questions and took some photos. And the very next day, my students brought me their local newspaper with a half-page article about my lecture. Wow!

The article, by Maddie Cutler ended this way:
Lindner said the main take-aways people should get are that taking your time is OK, and that it’s important to “listen” to what the quilt is saying and to check in with the design as you work.
If all else fails, cut it up and make it totally new.
“I’ve cut up a quilt or two when it needs it,” she said.

Not a bad summation.

If your guild would also like to “hear my confessions” just let me know. I’d love to come!

Ellen Lindner

Dying with Sharpies and Alcohol: Part Two

By Ellen Lindner on March 18, 2018 in Uncategorized

In Part One I showed you how to mark large irregular circle shapes. Now, let’s learn how to make smaller flowers.

I did this sample on a t-shirt and I wanted the design to be on the front only. Therefore, I put a baking sheet inside the shirt.

Draw 5 small dots with a Sharpie.

Add a few drops of alcohol in the center of the dots. It will wick outward, taking the pigment with it.

Add more if additional bleeding is desired, but be sure to add it only in the center. Eventually, the color will travel far enough to create a petal effect. Some colors change as they become diluted.

These yellow-green dots turned into the yellow flowers you see below.

Once dry, details can be added with a thin Sharpie, if desired.

When dry, heat set in the dryer for 20 minutes and you’re done!

You can also make all-over delicate designs. The examples below were done with a black marker (yes, black) which turned purple and bled when lightly sprayed. It’s an interesting effect.

I’ve shown you these methods done on cotton fabric. They can also be used on silk, but the color will bleed MUCH more, giving a lovely water color effect.

I’m sure there are many more things that can be done with this concept. The basic principle is this: alcohol will wick into dry areas, taking the color with it. You can use this knowledge to control the movement of color: add alcohol on the left of the pigment if you want the color to move right, and vice versa. Or, of course, you can spray the entire design for overall bleeding.

Have fun playing!

Ellen Lindner

Dying with Sharpies and Alcohol: Part One

By Ellen Lindner on March 16, 2018 in Uncategorized

While at the retreat, I attended a demo about dying fabric with Sharpies (permanent markers) and rubbing alcohol (isopropyl.) I already knew alcohol would make Sharpies bleed, but I’d never seen this particular application.

This is the sort of result you can expect. Cool, right?

And this is how you do it:
– Stretch fabric over a drinking glass or vase.
– Secure fabric with two rubber bands.
– Color the top of the fabric with Sharpies. (The colors will bleed so choose ones that will look good together.)
– Spray the top of the fabric, generously, with alcohol.
– You’re done! The alcohol will quickly wick down the sides, taking the Sharpie color with it. Because it’s alcohol it will evaporate quickly and you’ll be done in no time.