Sunday 7 February 2016

Printmaking Frida Kahlo

Well it's been awhile since I've blogged.  Yes, I'm still around.  I wanted to share how to print on fabric today as some people have asked about my latest project:



What you will need:

A black and white image
Black and red fabric paint
Sheer fabric (drapery), or proper printmaking fabric
Resist, gel or Mod Podge work
Paint Brush
Screen printing frame (I used an embroidery hoop)
Old credit card
T-shirt or fabric you want to print onto

Decide on the image you wish to print.

Prepare the embroidery hoop:  Cut the sheer fabric approximately 3 inches wider than hoop.  Insert fabric in between the two wood pieces of the hoop and tighten the hoop.  Make sure that the fabric is taut.

Place a clear plastic sheet over your image.  Then place your hoop over the image.

With your resist, paint over everything on your image that is white.  The ink will only go where the black or red is needed.

Because I wanted to make the lips red, I painted the resist over the lips on the initial hoop:

This is the initial hoop:



Make an additional hoop for the lips.




Once the resist is dry, hold it up to a light source to make sure that there is no light shining through the resist.  If there is, just add more resist.

Put a piece of wax paper, freezer paper, etc. underneath the fabric you will be printing on so that no ink will pass through.  Re: t-shirt.  The freezer paper needs to go between the front and back of the shirt.

Put the initial hoop on the fabric you want to transfer the image onto (ie. t-shirt, cotton, etc., your fabric paint should indicate what kind of fabric it can be used on).

You will need a registration mark to ensure that the lips will end up in the correct place.  So what I did was I put a mark on both hoops in the same place and a mark on the fabric where I wanted the mark to line up with.





Put a bead of paint along the top of the embroidery hoop and with your credit card, pull the paint across the the screen.







Lift your hoop off of the fabric and you will reveal your print.  This is the second time through for this hoop for me, but I think it still looks pretty good.  I will go back in and add more detail to the left eye as it didn't print well however.



Wait until this layer dries.

Once this layer is dry, match up your hoop with the lips, with the mark you have made on your fabric.

Make a bead of red paint and pull the paint over the lips with your credit card.






And....voila!!



Iron to set your image.  Rinse out your hoops so you can make more prints.