Oh my goodness, this was so much fun. I can't believe I've never been to
Stitch Lab before. It's fabricky-crafty paradise with tons of classes taught by only the coolest teachers Austin has to offer. This class caught my eye and the time seemed ripe. As you can imagine, it was Quite Awesome.
Our teacher was the fabulous
Kathleen McTee who was
Really funny and
Really knowledgeable. My gosh, did you know that you can use liquid dishwashing detergent as a dandy little bleaching agent on fabric?? So you can print with it, do all sorts of cool things with it.
Lindsey, I can imagine you having a field day with that one!
ALSO, my gosh, did you know that soy wax actually washes out of fabric in the washing machine? So you can do batik or just any sort of cool print-making with the wax and then wash it right out. Not so with paraffin wax ...
She showed us how to make prints, roll it over textured surfaces (like neat-though-tacky plasticky doily placemats), and even screenprint with thickened dye.
Pause to breathe heavily over the rolls and rolls of deliriously beautiful fabric.....
After she had introduced all the techniques she just let us loose for about two hours to do as we pleased... it felt like someone had set up a crafty playground for us and our only job was to overcome our inhibitions and PLAY. My gosh, I think I will, thank you very much!
It was all in the name of experimentation so I'm not too attached to my outcomes, but I do really like the one where I rolled the dye over a wood-grain texture, and I like the turquoise blue one where I used Kat's beautiful screen she had made with a beautiful Indian mandala. And my eyes are opened to a wealth of possibilities... I'm really excited to do more.
All told a major hit. I can't wait to go back. Kat has a
screenprinting crash course one-time class going on this Sunday... I'm going to be out of town or else I'd go. Looking forward to more time on the playground....
Our teacher was the fabulous Kathleen McTee who was Really funny and Really knowledgeable. My gosh, did you know that you can use liquid dishwashing detergent as a dandy little bleaching agent on fabric?? So you can print with it, do all sorts of cool things with it. Lindsey, I can imagine you having a field day with that one!
ALSO, my gosh, did you know that soy wax actually washes out of fabric in the washing machine? So you can do batik or just any sort of cool print-making with the wax and then wash it right out. Not so with paraffin wax ...
She showed us how to make prints, roll it over textured surfaces (like neat-though-tacky plasticky doily placemats), and even screenprint with thickened dye.
Pause to breathe heavily over the rolls and rolls of deliriously beautiful fabric.....
After she had introduced all the techniques she just let us loose for about two hours to do as we pleased... it felt like someone had set up a crafty playground for us and our only job was to overcome our inhibitions and PLAY. My gosh, I think I will, thank you very much!
It was all in the name of experimentation so I'm not too attached to my outcomes, but I do really like the one where I rolled the dye over a wood-grain texture, and I like the turquoise blue one where I used Kat's beautiful screen she had made with a beautiful Indian mandala. And my eyes are opened to a wealth of possibilities... I'm really excited to do more.
All told a major hit. I can't wait to go back. Kat has a screenprinting crash course one-time class going on this Sunday... I'm going to be out of town or else I'd go. Looking forward to more time on the playground....
3 comments:
I have been dying to take a class down at Stitch Lab, but had to wait for school to get out. This class looks PERFECT for me!!!! Better go register for the next one! Thank you thank you thank you!!!
So glad you got a chance to do this, Kami. Kat is such a great teacher and the Stitch Lab is fab. They also have great kids classes. We're so lucky here in the ATX!
Kami, you're so lucky to live in town with such a vibrant artist community! I loved reading this, and can't wait to try the dishwashing bleach and soy wax on fabrics - thanks for sharing these great ideas with us.
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