It was so much fun to get out and sun print this past weekend. I’ve done a lot of sun printing with botanicals, but this time I wanted to try a shibori technique. My friend, Lisa Chin, demonstrated this on her webinar, Creating Prayer Flags with Sun Shibori and Stencils. It’s on sale right now!
I knew about using shibori techniques in sun printing, but never tried it. If you aren’t familiar with shibori, it is a Japanese technique for ways of shaping cloth and securing it before it’s dyed.
I took two pieces of fabric and added glass pebbles under the fabric and secured them with rubber bands. Here they are after being painted and put in the sun. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of them before, although you can find a picture here. The red spots on the fabric are the rubber bands.
I was testing side-by-side these two paints for sun printing. I really like both and wanted to do a real test so I could make up my mind which I wanted to use in a sun printing class I’ll be teaching this month at Studio 4905 in Henderson, Kentucky. More about that later.
I used the same color, Violet, on both pieces and here are the results.
I really liked both of them, but the Dye-na-Flow piece went almost all the way back to white where it was tied. But the other piece I also like! I thought the test would convince me to quit using one or the other for sun printing, but it didn’t.
Besides sun shibori I compared the paints using a regular dyeing technique called scrunching. I absolutely love all of the texture in these pieces.
Some of the texture comes from sprinkling salt on the fabric before the paint was dry.
Then I went back to just playing with botanicals using Dye-na-Flow.
On this piece I put fives blades of maiden grass, asparagus ferns, Becky daisies, and Hydrangea flowers. I also sprinkled salt in different places on the fabric.
I let it set in the sun until it was dry.
I love seeing how the masks block out the sun resulting in a great pattern. On this one, I have a nice image of the daisy.
The finished piece
I can see this piece quilted. Now about the class, if you are in this area, I’ll be teaching a class on sun printing on Thursday, July 31 from 10 am to 2 pm at Studio 4905 in Henderson, Kentucky. Rain date is Thursday August 7. For more information, call Sherry Wilkerson at 270-869-4469 or contact her via her Facebook page. It’s going to be fun!!
Beautifully done! I love your results! Thanks for mentioning my class too!
Lisa, Thank you! You reminded me of the technique and I love how it works with sun printing as opposed to indigo dye.
great post…I also have been comparing the 2 paints…I don’t see much difference, except I find that Dye-na-Flow has a bit more intense colour…
I have to try the shibori with sunprinting too…and I will check out Lisa’s class too! Thanks!!
Marsha recently posted..Sunprinting with Dye-Na-Flow Paints
Marsha, I’ve found the intensity is almost equal with these two if you don’t water them down so much. However, I did a 1 part paint to 8 parts water and they still both were pretty dark. But they were not large pieces! I did like how the Dye-na-Flow went back to white under the masks. Thanks for dropping by. You’ll have fun with the shibori.
Very pretty! I’ve never dyed anything so I’m totally new to this. I was wondering how you keep the items from blowing away while drying in the sun, especially that pretty piece with the blades of grass and flowers.
Kathleen, Thank you. One of the things about this technique, it needs to be sunny and it can’t be windy. You could put something on top of the botanicals to weigh them down, but then you’d have marks from the weights. I tried putting glass over it and that does not work at all. So you need a nice sunny calm day! Thanks for dropping by and commenting.
Oh wow Lynda! This turned out so pretty! They are all really pretty but I just love the botanicals. Love your comparison idea.
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Jaime, Thanks!
Love, lvoe, love the blue one!
Rinda
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Rinda, Thanks!