Finding My Way

I think that I have finally found out what I really want to do and am now on a massive flow of getting things done. Through getting frustrated with the Disperse Dye Printer not working well for my prints, I decided that I would have a go at drawing a design that I could then just simply scan and have a go at digitally printing. 

Pen Sketches of Various Flowers

After I completed this drawing I felt really happy with the outcome that I had and it really gave me a lot of confidence about having a go at getting a print done. I had set myself a day when I was going to go up to University and attempt to get my designs printed. At first I thought choosing Friday 13th wouldn't be a bad thing, I got up and ready without anything going wrong and then I got to my car. I don't have the best luck with cars. A while a go someone knocked my wing mirror off and since then it has been carefully taped on and had no problems with it. Being parked on a road full of student houses was only really asking for disaster. Well anyway, I went out to the car to defrost it and found that my wing mirror  had come unclipped; me being weak couldn't push it back in. So after all my efforts of getting up early and ready to go up there, I couldn't. I had a tutorial booked for Tuesday where I was hoping to get help on my Digital Printing anyway so thought that I am better off leaving it now. 

I had a tutorial with my embroidery tutor and just from talking to her made me feel so much more confident about the work that I was doing. During the tutorial she gave me a quick run through on how to use Photoshop, only a few basic skills but it was enough to make me feel better about having a go. I then went to a Digital Print Refresher the following day and this just made me feel more relaxed about having a go. I have still yet to send anything to get printed but I have been busy working on my presentation. I'm going to another Refresher session on repeat pattern tomorrow so hopefully after that I will get printing!

In the mean time whilst trying to keep sane over writing my presentation I have had a go on the sewing machine to create a similar effect that I create through hand embroidery.

Machine Embroidery

Although this technique allows a much faster result than hand embroidery, I think, as the lines are solid it doesn’t quite have the same effect. I do think that this would be easy to try and overcome, simply by changing the colour of the top thread. Choosing a thread that matches the background may help to give the illusion of broken up lines like with the hand embroidery.

Hopefully next time I'll have some Digital Prints to show!

Prints Gone Wrong...

I had a go at doing some prints on the Disperse Dye Printer.. Not much of a success! Now this is probably down to the quality of my images or not leaving them under the heat press for long enough. I tried out 3 different images, all with the same problems.

Firstly I tried out printing 2 images of flowers onto fabrics. This was to get me used to the printer and to hopefully test out whether the technique would be right for what i wanted to do. Here's those 2 images:

As you can see, I had huge gaps in the fabric where the images just hadn't printed. I thought that really instead of wasting these that it would be a good idea to have a go at embroidery back in what was missing from the print. I thought that this would be a good idea, until I realised how long it would take to get done. I stuck with it though and am pleased with the results..

This then gave me the confidence to have a go at printing my own designs with the printer. I took the image of the large blind drawing that I previously posted about and had a go at printing it.. Again, another failed print.

Disperse Dye Print of Blind Drawing

As you can see, it hasn't come out as I would have liked. This is down to the paper that I originally drew on; as it had a slightly browny colour this has been hard to edit out. Also because of drawing the flowers with face paint has meant that there are gaps in the lines making it hard to be able to select just the flowers. Again, I didn't want to waste this print and so thought I might as well have ago at embroidering back in the flowers. This was even more time consuming than the last as there was a great deal of stopping and starting to try and follow the lines. 

Embellished with Hand Embroidery

Edited to form a Design

Now that I have embroidered back into the print I have been able to form a design ready to have a go at printing, either digitally or again on the Disperse Printer. I want to be able to now have a go at printing some designs digitally and so am going to continue to draw to create images that can be translated into print.