The salt quilt is now almost finished and I am very pleased with the way it has developed. I'm not really sure how best to describe the effect I was aiming for, a sort of 'crusty with a semi transparent glint', is the best I can come up with, but I would love it if someone better with words could help me with this please!
To achieve this I tried out a few new ideas in an attempt to achieve the look that salt crystals have. These are close up images of a few pieces of fabric I created.
The fabrics all started out as pale hand dyes, using a mixture of turquoise, cobalt blue, midnight blue, charcoal and fuscia Procion MXdyes. The dye solutions were very weak to ensure the colour was not too intense.
After a lot of experimentation I chose to use a very large soft graphite stick to make most of the marks on the fabric - those are the dark grey shapes in the images above. I also monoprinted using white opaque printing ink, but the effect was very subtle and does not show well in the photographs. I also added some reproduction newspaper articles onto the surface of the fabric using a paper lamination technique with gel medium. It is a great way to add this incredible detail, but makes the fabric very stiff. Fortunately this does matter in this instance so I was happy to accept this issue. For the bold image of Mahatma Gandhi I printed out the image I had drawn in my sketchbook and tinted it using Derwent Inktense pencils, before laminating the image to the fabric. It worked particularly well and produced a clear image. A second image was made by drawing directly onto a silk screen with thickened dye and later screen printing it onto fabric. This produced a very feint outline of Gandhi's face which was used in another part of the quilt. To add the impression of glinting salt crystals I cut some Angelina fibres into small squares and sprinkled them over the surface of each of the pieces of fabric before they were finally covered with crystal organza. This softened the marks on the fabrics somewhat and gave the quilt a look like very much. This is how the quilt top looked once it was pieced. The small Angelina squares really do catch the light - although the camera flash has enhanced this somewhat - thankfully they don't look quite that obvious in natural light. Once quilted I added the alchemists salt symbol, as I have with all the quilts in this series. The material to use for this needed some consideration and after several trials I decided use coloured newspaper to tie in with the newspaper clippings already on the quilt. The only thing left for me to compete on this quilt is to now decide if I want to add any hand stitch. I an considering whether to add another salt crystal layer to the surface with thread and organza and am in the process of making a few samples to help me decide. I hope you have enjoyed following the progress of this quilt - it has definitely given me lots of scope to further explore some different techniques and ideas. Thanks for reading.
27/1/2017 03:38:55 am
Quick question. You noted using soft graphite. Was there any issues with it rubbing off as you handled the quilt or did you put something on it/over it to keep it in place? I ask because I've been experimenting with Artgraf which I think is more pigment with binders than actual graphite but I'm not sure - getting conflicting info on that. At any rate, my experiments on fabric have not assured me it is stable even when wetted with water and left to dry. And I DO want to use it on fabric...
Claire Passmore
27/1/2017 09:52:40 am
Hi Sheila, thanks for asking. I used a 6B koh-i-noor graphite stick. They are really chunky and have a hexagonal cross section. They resemble like children's jumbo woodless crayons. I drew directly onto the fabric, but as I covered the fabric with a layer of organza there was no issue for me with any transfer. When I wet the fabric to block the quilt there was no migration of colour - but I guess that is because these graphite pencils are not water soluble (but I believe they do make water soluble ones too, so be careful to select the right product). 27/1/2017 08:12:46 pm
Thanks, Claire! You have confirmed what I suspected. I'm not big on organza overlays (a personal preference for my own work, not a denigration in general!) but I can see how that would solve the rubbing off issue. As a general rule I am quite concerned with changing the hand of the fabric so try to avoid using a medium to lock in something not really made for fabric. But I may have no choice if I want to use my Artgraf which can be used dry or wetted to make the color more vibrant. It was pretty disappointing to find that once the Artgraf had dried, the pigment still rubbed off. I'm going to see if I have any better luck with soy milk which I've read works as a binder for natural pigment and doesn't affect the hand of the fabric.
Sheila Barnes
27/1/2017 04:27:49 am
Wendy
27/1/2017 06:06:22 pm
Really like the way this has turned out, can't wait to see it in the flesh x Comments are closed.
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