FABRIC COLOURATION

Fabric Colouration                                  Unit 102: 3 

There are a huge number of resources on the market for colouring a range of fabrics that come with different applications: dyes, pens, crayons, etc. They tend to be relatively expensive so get creative with what you have for these experiments and use scraps of fabric.

I suggest you try using any of the following:

Felt pens, Crayons, Chalks, Paints, Vegetables and Bleach.

Experiment with materials and techniques to explore their potential

Felt pens, crayons, paints, chalks: 

• Use light coloured scrap fabrics to draw, paint and mix colours on 
• Enhance the texture of fabrics with uneven grains or weaves with chalks
• Use a sponge or brush to create texture and move colours around
• Use water to blend and thin colours, spray on before or after applying colours
• Try stencils eg lace, leaves, cut out paper shapes, etc. to sponge, spray or brush colours through

Vegetables: the original dyes. Try placing onion skins on damp cotton sprinkled with table salt and putting in a plastic bag and leaving over night. See what happens. 

Remember potato prints? You can do great things with these. You can also have fun printing with bottle tops and anything really.

Bleach: Use dark cottons for this sponge or paint on marks directly or through stencils as above. Some dyed fabric will react some won't but experiment. You must wash bleach out when you get a result or it will dissolve the fibres.

No need to do all of these, 5/6 samples are all you need but do more if you enjoy it/find it interesting.

Even unsuccessful pieces may be useful next week.

Present your samples with brief notes on what you used, did, H&S considerations and what you think about your results. Take photos as you go and add these to your presentations and submit here in a pdf.