Welcome


Welcome to The Gingerbread Bunny! I'm Sarah, a textile artist specialising in crochet and felt based in Wigan in the North-West of England.

On my blog, you can find my day-to-day craft adventures and tutorials.

You can find details of my work for sale and workshops on my website - www.thegingerbreadbunny.co.uk

Sunday, 11 March 2012

Printing pretty pictures

As you are probably already aware, I have been attending a textiles course at night school since September.  I have had a great time, met some wonderful people and learnt lots of new skills and techniques along the way.  I have already told you about some of the things I've been up to in my previous posts, Embroidery and Cross Stitch, All about Applique and Rag Rugging

Today's post is about printing, more specifically batik and acrylic paint printing.  I found myself really enjoying both of these techniques and am keen to try my hand at other printing styles now.

Batik
Batik is the craft of using wax and dye to create pictures and patterns on fabric.  It is a printing technique often seen in textiles from countries such as Java, Indonesia andAfrica and has been practised for many centuries.

Using hot wax and a tjanting tool, a pattern is created on the fabric (I sketched my picture out in pencil first so I knew what I was doing).  When the dye is applied to the fabric, the areas where the wax has been applied resist the dye, thus creating the picture.  Once dry, brown paper is placed over the top of the picture and then you iron the fabric to remove the wax. 

I made 2 batik pieces on the night:

A tree



and a small sock knitting project bag for my friend as a Christmas present.

Polysterne Block Printing
This technique involved using polysterene (the sort you find on the back of pizzas in supermarkets) to create a printing block.  I used a sharp pencil to etch my design deeply into the polysterene.




Then, acrylic paint, diluted with a touch of water, was applied to the block and then the block pressed firmly onto the fabric to print on the design.

I made 2 repeated patterns on my fabric.

A ball of yarn with a crochet hook



And my multicoloured I heart Crochet



Both of these fabrics are now being used in my final project for this term which will be revealed when it is finished!

There are, of course, many different types of printing techniques included using stencils and screen printing. 

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