Experimenting with Dye and Resist Techniques. 

Using ink and dye on paper I found that salt soaked up the left over and surface ink. This means it dried up much quicker and once the ink is completely dry I dusted the salt off it left a slightly lighter area of colour. It worked really well on fabric too. However because I was using white cotton fabric, using the darker colours was the most effective.  

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Salt onto fabric!

It's not very clear because of the lighting in my room but you can sort of see especially the orange one on the left that there is a mixed tonal range from the salt. 

I also experimented with using Bleach. I tried it out 3 different ways.

1) Bleach First and Ink on Top  

I had spotted the bleach on the page. I then placed the ink on the top of the page and swept the paint brush down the page. As I swept through the bleach the ink faded as they merged together.

2) Ink under Bleach.

 I swept two colours together and then put bleach over the top over both colours it looked really well. It looked like the colours have bled into each other. 

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3) Ink, Bleach and Salt.

I put ink down on paper. Next I sprinkled salt over the top. I next went to use the bleach over the top but I had discovered an issue. The bleach wasn't absorbing the ink very well. I think this may have been because the salt had already done the job. 

My Favourite of these techniques was the first one I just really liked how that had turned out. It would be a good technique to re-create watermarks and ageing.

I used wax too but I had dyed it first so it didn't really have much effect but it did add texture and structure as I didn't iron the wax off.

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As with everything there are some health and safety issues along with these processes. Such as...

 1) Bleach on skin can burn your skin making it become itchy and irritated. If this accrues then wash using cold water right away. 

2) Some dyes will stain your skin. Usually it wouldn't do anything to your hands but some people have different skin types and react differently. You could prevent this by wearing gloves. 

3) If both Ink and Bleach get's in your eyes it could be very dangerous. It may even cause blindness. If this happens it is important that you rinse them right away!

4) Do not eat or drink around these chemicals as you could consume them by mistake.

5) Try not to inhale the chemicals directly it could cause headaches, dizziness and nose bleeds.

I used the above techniques along with some Stitch and Gather techniques by following the pattern in the photo below it made my flat fabric have some sort of texture and structure. 

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To the purple one above I folded it the dipped it in the ink where I had stitched the fold it left lines within the folds. After that I then applied the bleach on top and it looked really cool the bleach bled out and turned that part blue. 

After doing these techniques the outcomes reminded me of some African and tribal techniques.

Techniques such as heat press when you mix the dye up paint it onto a piece of paper, wait for it to dry and then iron onto fabric. As displayed below (circle cut out)

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The negative of this is also pretty cool it looks like an underwater image. These techniques have been used by tribes for years and years. Tribes use water, berries, blood, stones and sand to dye there fabrics using similar techniques as I did.

 

African textiles made it's way to America along with the slavetrade. They was seen as worth more if they had a skill such as weaving as it could bring in an income. It was usually the men of the tribes that would weave and the women would spin the thread ans dye the fabrics. Adire (textiles art) is used throughout west Africa they was thought of as spiritual. They believed that some colours was linked to different spirits. one tribe believed that white on a healing women was associated with water spirits. Different tribes had different dye tecniques to symbolise their tribes.