Techniques I used for 2 Samuel 3:16

This little piece has been a lot of work. Both in terms of struggling how to depict the verse as working with completely new techniques. I wanted to try working with an overlay of silk and mono printing both layers as you can see in my previous posts. So far the results:

Mono printing with added painting and fabric collage. I made stencils for both the man and the woman. Added fabric tear drops and a city structure at the foreground

Now I put my printed silk over the top, planning to cut away some silk after stitching. It still looks something is missing, but what?

I think there should be a tree, a barren, sad tree...So I made a stencil

and dabbed paint on it, and hopefully it will work, scary stuff ;) btw this is done on the cotton not on the silk

Now on the the next stage: quilting and stitching all the layers together. Unfortunately I forgot to take some more photo's of the progress. But the result will be seen in my next post!

Lots of experiments, slowly getting to the result.

I have been working on my colour-competion-piece. I don't know if it is going somewhere. I do like the top part, but don't know if the bottom part is beyond saving....Will post a picture of the top part

I will continue working on it, but at the moment I need time to ponder and see how I can proceed.

The 2 Samuel 3:16 piece slowly takes shape. Very slowly I must add..I was reading a book from Melanie Testa:

  
She uses mainly mono print techniques with thickened dyes and uses freezer paper to block images. She also works with 2 layers. (4 layers in total, including batting and backing). Over the cotton layer she always put a silk organza layer which she also mono prints. Then my quest started...finding silk organza (found a company called sentosatextiles.com and they sent me a meter for FREE, how kind!) , how to make thickened dyes. Or can I use other paints? After many hours of research I decided to use: screen printing ink, textile paint, acrylic paint, acrylic inks. And then see which one is most suitable and which one won't alter the handle of the fabric too much.

I feel like I am doing Science Projects all the time :)

I have never done mono printing either, so after watching many youtube videos I gathered enough courage to at least try. It's a fairly random process, so I should not be so scared. Nothing lost after all!
You start by putting a few blobs of paint on the acrylic sheet. Move it around with a brayer and scrape away bits of paint by using glad wrap, stamps, and basically any objects which leave a mark. Put fabric on top, apply a little pressure and take it of and Voilà!

Tools ready: Acrylic sheet, cotton, paints, brayer, comb, lino cut, stamps, ink, sequin waste, bubble wrap.

Print from a Lino cut I made. Done with screen printing ink.

Close up from Textile paint with comb strokes and bubble wrap.

Lots of random patterns.

And my piece of silk organza...It doesn't show in the picture, but it is actually quite nice. 

 

And finally...my VERY Rough draft of the piece.

I very much enjoyed the mono printing process. Will definitely try some more pieces. I think I am going to use acrylic paints as they are cheap and leave the fabric not too stiff. Hoping it will work together with the silk organza and quilting!