Finished!

The cabinet man just left and I took the first shots of my kitchen without the plastic and sawdust all over the place. The stove is once again hooked up and the fridge is out of the family room. WOW! I can cook in my own kitchen if I so desire. I'm very pleased with how it all turned out. Now I need to go shopping for some nice accessories.

Class notes* We will be doing breakdown printing on Wednesday so don't forget your screens and prepared fabric.

Breakdown Printing

Materials:
Blank silk screen
Squeege
Thickened dye
Made with Sodium Alginate and dye powder
Fabric Silk for Acid Dye Cotton for Procion Dye

Pre-preparation:
Mix Sodium Alginate
Into a quart of warm water stir 1 to 2 Tablespoons of Sodium Alginate powder.
Stir until dissolved or use a dedicated blender to mix (It will still have a few lumps)
Let it sit for at least 1 to 2 hours or overnight. If it is too thick stir in warm water to thin the solution. If not using right away refrigerate until ready to use.

Soak Cotton, Linen, or Rayon
Make a Soda Ash solution of 1/2 cup Soda Ash with 2 quarts water and soak the fabric at least 15 to 30 minutes, but overnight is best. Hang to dry, press lightly with warm iron.

Silk Printing:
Mix Acid dye powder with thickened Sodium Alginate (1 or 2 teaspoons dye powder per 1 Cup thickener). Mix well the day before using. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Prepare the Screen:
Lightly paint inside of the screen with a couple of colors of thickened dye, leaving several open spaces. Let it dry upside down. This needs to be done far enough in advance to be completely dry before printing.

Printing:
Iron the silk fabric smooth and place on a padded surface. Lay the prepared screen down and use another color thickened dye or clear thickener or more than one color thickened dye and squeegee it across the dry dye. As you print the dried dye will breakdown and each print will be different. This is the magic of this technique.

Setting the Dye: The silk will need to be steam set. Then rinsed (run through the rinse cycle in the washing machine for best results) to remove the thickener and any excess dye. Damp dry and iron until dry.

Cotton, Linen, or Rayon Printing:
Mix Procion Dye powder with thickened Sodium Alginate ( 1 or 2 teaspoons dye powder per 1 Cup thickener). Mix well the day before using. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Prepare the Screen as above and let it dry upside down.

Printing: Lay out the smoothed Soda Ash treated fabric on a plastic covered padded surface and print as above; however while the print is still wet roll plastic and the fabric together and place in a plastic bag for 24 hours to “batch” and set the dye.