Lets have a bit of hand printing!!

I absolutley LOVE hand printing...I could spend hours in the studio experimenting with screens, colours and techniques.  Unfortunatley I don't have hours to do this so I just have to work for as long as I can as many days a week as I can.  I feel that it is important for me to combine my digital prints with my hand printed techniques.  Digital printing is convinient and effective and I enjoy creating prints on the computer, but it is so nice to get back into the practical studio and experiment with metallic foils, glitter and anything else sparkly that I can find!

Here are some of my final samples for my dress fronts...these hand printed bits of fabric will make up the bodices.

This sample is for one of the Cinderella inspired designs.  The print is made up from - dyed orange habotai silk, pink pearl binder background print and blue foil heart print.

This sample is inspired by Princess and the pea.  Dyed mint green habotai silk, pink pearl binder polka dot, green pearl binder floral and over printed with pink foil flower.

This is my favourite sample!  Created from purple dyed silk, dark purple binder print background, pink pearl binder polka dot over print and finally silver foil castle print.  I love the combination of the layers and colours.

 

For the snow white designs, dyed blue silk, with a discharge print subtle lace background, blue binder print splodge background and finally over printed with red foil hearts.

 

For the red riding hood dress front, the bodice is created from dyed red silk, discharge print splodge background, red binder lace print and the final layer is a red floral print using metallic foil.

 

Hansel and Gretel inspired print- dyed pink silk, discharge print stripe and over printed with foil polka dots in three different colours.

Here are some more hand printed strips that will make up the fabric fronts with a contrasting digital print...

 

All these final samples were created using the same techniques as above...the pictures are not a great quality due to the amount of foil used on each design, and as I have just found out: metallic foil does not photograph well!

I think the most exciting part of hand printing is the un expected...although it can be a pain and not every result is pleasing to the eye..I think that it the beauty of it.  Unlike digital printing where you can practise and change anything that doesn't quite work.  Digital printing can look too perfect, so combined with the hand printed pieces, it keeps the designs looking fresh and unique.  That's my idea anyway!