I recently completed Jane Dunnewald’s workshop Complex Cloth Intensive at a local quilt and surface design supplier, Fabrics To Dye For. It was definitely intensive, I arrived home each night pretty well exhausted. So much to learn and experiment with. I am really excited about the possibilities layering all the techniques Jane showed along with Rozome or batik and katazome. (I seem to be constantly reminded of the World Batik Conference happening in Boston this summer, but even with it’s closeness, I can see no way easy to make that one.)
One of the techniques Jane uses in her Complex Cloth workshops is the use of stamps to apply thickened dye, paint or discharge agents to fabric. When I showed my son the stamps I had carved from soap erasers and carving blocks, his eyes went wide with the possibilities for his own uses. Since the class (almost two weeks ago now) I have made a habit of carving one or two stamps each day. My process now is to sketch an idea out on paper then duplicating it in Illustrator so I can scale the same image for use as a small stamp (under 1″ square), a medium stamp (up to 3″ square) or create an image for use on a silk screen.
Below are four stamps I recently carved. The first stamp is a flower in a woodcut style, the second is a whimsical face my 4 year old drew directly on one of the stamps for me. I redid it in illustrator so I could scale it up to use the entire eraser surface, as he originally drew it somewhat smaller. The next stamp is a monkey face that my wife sketched out for our son. The last stamp is for a series of fabric I plan to do based on the local area.
Another nice thing about using Illustrator for the designs is that I can print the designs on the inkjet, dampen the receiving stamp’s surface and then press it onto the printed image. After a minute of firm pressure the image is transferred to the stamp as a guide for carving. This also makes it very easy to create stamps with images that must have a specific orientation like lettering — such as the last stamp.
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you’re images are much more complicated. All of mine are more organic of geometric, nothing really recognizable.
Oh I have those as well! (Surprised?) Most that I did during the workshop were abstract/geometric assemblages. I did about 8 geometic constructions and then stamped them onto the faces of 8 blanks so I had both positive and negative stamps of the same construction.
I also fell into the organic flowing shapes and a few bamboo leaf clusters (on the Staedtler Mastercarve blocks) and cherry blossoms. I was pretty pleased with doing the geometrics as that is usually not my cup. Once I foil this fabric I’ll scan it and post.
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