Dyeing with Rit Dye

fabric prints, monotype print / /

I cycle through working with fabric at different times. Recently I was admiring indigo fabrics and thought I would give it a try.

shibori dyed fabric

I am super sensitive to fumes and chemicals, so I used the liquid Rit Dye. That way I did not have to deal with mixing powders. I was going to follow some of the indigo recipes and mix black and blue, but I found that I really liked the Denim Blue alone.

fabric dyed with Rit shibori style

I am not sure how long the open bottle will last but I have had it for a couple of weeks and I am still able to get a nice blue. I am not aiming for perfect even coverage though.

dyed and screen printed fabric

Today I dyed a sack cloth that I had screen printed. I dyed the whole piece in a mason jar.

  • Hot water,
  • a bit of salt,
  • 2 teaspoons of liquid Rit dyed
  • and the white cloth was transformed.

hand printed and dyed fabric

I really like how the blue square image pops with the blue dye. The ochre gecko image is a bit dull or mottled but I am ok with it.

screen printed fabric with a paper stencil

This is the sack cloth with just the screen printed square.

The Rit Dye folks have a lot of great information, tutorials and mixing recipes check it out.

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Season to print with leaves

Gelatin plate print / /

I can’t resist picking up interesting leaves on my walks around town.

leaves for printmaking

These curled and dried leaves I used a few days ago. They worked fine for one day of printing, but because they were not preserved, they quickly dry out and become too brittle for using with the gelatin plate.

Today I was looking for imperfect leaves with holes and tears.

gelatin plate monotype prints with leaves

I played with layering for a while and then when things got a little too chaotic I stopped thinking of them a leaf prints and more as interesting textures.

play with gelatin printmaking

I added a few paper stencils, the horse, the bird and the branch. I slowly got darker with the subsequent layers.

horse monotype print

Things all come together in the end. I find I need to loosely have an idea and then go with the flow as the prints develop.

Check out the current online workshops

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Gelatin Printing a great way to try out printmaking

monotype print / /

I love that gelatin printmaking makes printmaking accessible to folks who:

  • don’t have a printing press
  • have little experience
  • want to explore printmaking at home

You can see the basic moves in this short video.

On October 14th, at the Museum of Printing in Haverhill, MA, I will be teaching a full day gelatin printmaking class. This is a great opportunity to try out the method without having to buy all the tools first.
I will provide all that you need to explore gelatin printmaking for the day.
Check out the gelatin printing workshop details and join us for this full day on location course.
gelatin print made with found stencils
We will use:
  • water based ink
  • gelatin and glycerin plate
  • stencils, like the ferns above
  • paper stencils and
  • found stencils like feather
  • stamping tools to lift and apply ink
  • drawing paper

You will have plenty of time to explore and experiment. I hope to see you on October 14th at the Museum of Printing. Claim your space today – click here for details and to register.

gelatin printmaking tools

This is a palette with some ink and brayers ready for printing with the gelatin plate.

detail impression and shaped impression pull from the gelatin plate

This image shows the 2 basic styles of impressions that you can make with stencils and stamping tools and the gelatin plate. On the right is the dark blue “shaped impression”. It is the shape to the grasses in white.  I call the print on the left, the detailed impression. This is because it captures the details that the grass made in the ink.

And these are all made quite quickly with mere hand pressure.

 

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Stock up on ART supplies or NOT?

tools / /

I have decided that it is better to buy just what I need and not to stock up on art supplies, especially if they are “perishable.”

Inks for screen printing

It is hard to resist a sale. Hard to not up the online order to get free shipping. But if the ink dries out before I can use it then it was not really a savings.

I love ink in tubes. It is so easy to dispense just a little and they don’t dry out as fast as jars.

ink in tubes

Sometimes I even cut the tubes and use every last drop.

speedball water based block printing ink

With the speedball water based block printing ink I can cover the open end with plastic wrap and a clip and make them last even longer.

It is hard to make good prints with globby ink.

gelatin plate monotype print

Is your studio filled with:

  • things that you love and use
  • things that inspire you
  • things that you might use
  • things that you have had for years and not used yet?

No judgement here.

When I look around my studio I realize that I have a lot of all those things. My plan is to get rid of the “might use” and “had for years” to create space for what I do.

This desire also informs my buying decisions. Because when I throw away dried up and unused supplies, if feels like I am throwing away money.

brayers and ink

Off to sort through the good, bad and the ugly in my studio.

peek into linda germains studio

 

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a Gelatin Printmaking Tip

gelatin print tips / /

One way to work up an image when you are gelatin printing is to ink sections of the plate rather than cover the whole plate with a thin layer of ink.

ink a portion of the gelatin plate

This will allow for:

  • Interesting division of space
  • More control over layers
  • A stronger range of value – dark to light

leaf ready to print on gelatin plate

Today I printed on 4 sheets of paper with a couple of fresh leaves and mostly red, yellow and orange speedball water based block printing inks,

gelatin printmaking workspace

I did not have a plan. I just wanted to play with working with:

  • limited stencils
  • a couple of colors and
  • working parts of plate separately

layered gelatin print by linda germain

I collected all the detailed impressions on one sheet of paper.

cropped gelatin plate monotype print

This one was a “catch all” sheet of paper and I did not print with a lot of intention and in the end it all came together. I think that is an important approach to gelatin printmaking.

“Let go and be in the flow.”

If you would like some more guidance on gelatin plate printmaking then check out the online self study workshop – Gelatin Printmaking.

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