HAVING FUN PRINTMAKING ONTO FABRIC

So I keep banging on about printmaking on fabric and the more I experiment the more I am finding that most things you can print onto paper can be printed onto fabric too.

For years I have resisted this, lots of people come to my collagraph and gum arabic transfer workshops and ask the question, can you print this on fabric? My answer always being...well give it a go, but I know nothing about fabric! Well I am being influenced by some very talented chums, Kathleen Murphy, Viv Sliwka, Catherine Kingzett, Claire Cawte and Caroline McCatty, who have pushed, cajoled and generally encouraged me to have a go at stitch.

So once I had proved to myself that you can print both gum arabic transfer and 

collagraphs onto pre-embroidered vintage, voile, velvet and just alsorts of textiles, I was off.

But the real joy, and I can hear all my textile chums sighing...well of course Sue!! Is the stitching into it all after the ink is dry. And then what...there are only so many cushions I can fit onto my sofa...???

But then a trip to the Sewing for Pleasure show at the NEC recently pointed me in the direction of a lamp shade kit. What a revelation!

Putting all my experiments together, machine and hand stitching in details and then...

turn on the light, what a difference,

I particularly like the way it illuminates the embroidery on the vintage fabric previously covered by the print.

I know this is obvious to some, but it is a whole new world to me.

And then there is the doll. Meet Crow Girl...

Gum arabic transfer printed body, hand and machine stitched detail and crow hair made with dissolve-able fabric. So when I am not drawing and collagraph making, I am having even more fun.

Want to learn gum arabic transfer? A place has become available on the 20 May, at the yard:ARTspace. Contact me on sb.brown@talk21.com for booking.