Printing and having fun.......

Wednesday June 11 saw five members of Diversity meet in Viñuela.  We had a shaky start as the room had been double booked as it's Cultural Week this week in the village.  After a phone call to the town hall all was sorted and the other group kindly volunteered to move elsewhere.  There was limited space too, as in one half of the hall a huge elevated stage had been installed ready for flamenco demonstrations the next day and there was a procession of men in and out making various technical adjustments.  We took all this in our stride and had a great day working on our various projects.  Unfortunately because I was enjoying myself so much, I forgot to take photos as we worked, so I'm afraid there are only a few here to see!

Helen was my team mate today, helping me with the mark making while I spread the thickened dye for monoprinting.  Here we are with the last piece of fabric to use up the dregs of the print paste

I was pleased with this practice piece of  screen printing using thickened dye, only the second try at this technique, and below are the samples Helen and I produced also with thickened dyes, some on white cloth, others on previously dyed fabric.  Helen used the end of a swimming pool noodle borrowed from Yvonne to make the circular marks, a technique I'll be using again as I like the results.  Thanks Helen, I had great fun!

Cath was feeling very weary after a poor night's sleep, but enjoyed experimenting with her block produced from her "journey" drawing.  Cath discovered that she preferred the print results where she applied the fabric paint using a sponge, rather than brushing the paint on to the block.

Above, Gwen shows her very successful first attempt screen prints using the block made from her "journey" drawing, and below the same block print using I think discharge paste on the black fabric and a bleach pen on the blue fabric.  It will be interesting to see the final results of these two samples when they have cured and been rinsed and ironed.

Yvonne spent much of the session giving advice to those of us who hadn't tried out these techniques before, and also found time to make sample prints with fabric paint onto her previously dyed fabric above, and below trying out discharge paste on black fabric.  Again I look forward to seeing the results once the fabric has been rinsed and pressed.

Helen brought in her newly purchased embellisher and practiced using various fabrics donated by other group members.  Helen enjoyed observing and taking part in our activities too, and it's great to see her regaining her creative  mojo.  Helen is going to make a new "journey" drawing and continue to work along with us in future Diversity meetings on this project.

We were all exhausted after our busy session with all the upheaval going on around us too, but agreed we had a great session and and feel we are firmly back in the groove after a faltering few months.  Rachel