Dye and Print Experiments
Through my course, I have begun experimenting with various dye and print techniques. These are all really interesting and useful when it comes to designing and making costumes with individual patterns and motifs.
These are some examples of Dysperse dye samples. Dysperse dyes only work on synthetic fabric and need heat to activate. This means I can create prints using the dye painted on paper. Prints can't be repeated though, so each section would be hand-painted and therefore unique.
It's important to create samples with Dysperse dyes - they appear much darker on paper, but once heat pressed onto fabric the colours become much brighter.
Under stage lights, white fabric can look very harsh and almost distorted. Here is a sample of a technique generally known as 'knocking back' . The technique works with any colours that are opposite on the colour wheel, but here I used yellow and purple. Beginning with purple dye, I diluted it with yellow until the fabric was dyed just slightly off-white. Without a direct comparison, the fabric still looks white, but doesn't have any harshness under stage lights.
Being able to colour match is an important skill in costume - here is my first attempt at a colour match, trying the match the bottom orange sample by mixing red and yellow dye for natural fabric.
Shibori is a Japanese dye technique. I love how every piece is unique and how new patterns can be created through experimentation. Here I managed to create an almost dragon scale pattern by bunching the fabric around a crotchet chain.
I really like screen printing, it's so versatile and can be applied to almost any fabric. Here is a design I created for my first module at university, where I created a design based around the poems of 'Shock headed Peter' , a collection of cautionary tales for children.
Screen prints can be worked into and here I added foiling. I think the contrast in colours is great and I'm looking into using foiling for my current project.
