I've been meaning to have a dabble with fabric printing for ages ('Printing by Hand' being a much neglected Christmas present from two years ago) and have finally been galvanised into action by a great find in a charity shop - and only £1!
In mint condition, they are beautifully simple shapes which offer a huge range of possibilities and combinations. I had meant to cut my own blocks, but here was the perfect excuse to have a little indulgent play. I cut up my last length of tea stained cotton into test samples.
I was a bit stuck for fabric paints - all I had were an old set which someone gave me years ago, most of which were dried up, and some odd jars found back in 2007 in the legendary Burford skip. I managed to make a 1970's shade of orange.
And started stamping. I don't have the kind of mind that does measurements very well, but I improvised with my own system of cocktail sticks.
Which worked for me.
What fun! Good music lined up on the stereogramme, tea in a Matt Grimmitt mug. Fat ginger cat in the background.
A larger block took quite a while to stamp. No wonder the real stuff is so expensive.
I was childishly pleased with the results, simple and rustic as they were and pegged them up proudly.
A few days later I had another go - finding out the hard way that neglecting to check each time for stray blobs results in a bodge.
Unlike needle felting, which can usually be saved, there is no going back with fabric printing and you have to concentrate all the time.
However, with no black or white to tone down my rather limited and garish palette, printing is at a temporary halt while I save my pennies for some new Speedball inks. Which gives me time to think about what I'm going to do with it.
Music to print to
Midlake - The Trials Of Van OccupantherMidlake - The Courage of OthersEspers - Espers 11
