Root

Deconstructed Screen Printing with Natural Dyes and Stencils!

Materials List: 
Silk Screens
Squeegee for Silk Screen
Stencils
Natural Dye Extracts
Gum Tragacanth Binder
Containers to hold natural dye extracts/binder I used paper cups.
Plastic Spoons
Newspaper
Masking Tape
Fabric or Watercolor Papers

Products Used:

Links:
How-to make the Gum Tragacanth Binder Video

I am here today to show you how to use stencils with a silk screen and natural dyes for screen printing.



Instructions:
Mix up Gum Tragacanth with Natural Dye Extracts; see video for specific amounts and mixing instructions.  I made a little card with the names of the extracts I was working with and daubed a bit of the color next to each name, for future projects.

The Natural Dye Extracts blended with the Gum Tragacanth are now ready for printing!

Most silk screens won’t be the same size as your stencil, however, I have an easy fix for this problem.   Measure your screen and your stencil and then block off the required space for your stencil by taping news print to the FRONT of your silk screen.  Then tape your stencil to the front of the screen making sure to overlap the stencil onto the newsprint.



Blocked off silk screen, as seen from the front.


Blocked off silk screen as seen from the back.


Black Birds in Tree Inverse taped to the FRONT of the silk screen.



Place your natural dye binder medium onto the screen, towards the edge, this is known as “the well”.  Using your squeegee pull the medium in a firm manner across the screen, once you have reached the other side, pull the medium back towards yourself, do this several times adding more of the natural dye binder medium if needed until the color on the screen looks even.


Gently lift up the silk screen from your substrate, I used 300# cold press watercolor paper for this sample.



For this sample I used the same stencil and screen to print the image onto cochineal dyed cotton fabric that I had surfaced using my hand and earth pigments and fabric paint.



Printing onto cochineal dyed cotton fabric.




If you wish for your fabric images to be free of bumps, etc., tape the fabric to your surface to keep it from moving, etc., while printing.  I prefer an organic and whimsical look and therefore don’t tape my fabric to my table.

Studio Redux 061411

The excitement and anticipation is starting to set in, I cannot wait to work in my new studio space!  John is retrofiting an old book shelf to fit it's new space, then we will move three bookshelves into the new space and a final bookshelf will be retrofitted for the space.  I wasn't sure as to how I'd fit everything into the space but with the two bookshelves being rehabbed it'll work!  Photos on Thursday.

Until then my madder root dye bath, that I have been ignoring and horribly so had the good graces to turn red yesterday so tomorrow it's off to wet studio and will be dyeing a variety of fabrics.

Mad About Madder Root e-Class

Available June 1st, 2011 a self directed e-Class dedicated to dyeing with Madder Root. Cost $30 USD

In this class students will learn how to use a traditional madder root vat to create a range of colors on silk and wool fabrics, ranging from deep scarlet to brilliant orange and everything in between. This class is self directed which allows students to work at their own pace.

Membership at the Natural Surface "IS" required and pre-payment is required before accessing class information.  Class will formally open June 1st, 2011 (12:00am CST that's Iowa)








Madder Root

Fresh Madder Root from my best friends green house - picture and roots courtsey of Karen Hartshorn!

Dried Madder Root - picture and roots courtsey of me!
YES there is a discernable difference in the color and the intensity of the colors you get when using fresh or dried madder root! If you can get fresh roots that is the best way to go, much better reds. The lightfastness and washfastness will be the same but the overall intensities will be different.

Madder Root - Cold Water Soak


Materials List:
8 oz to 1 # of whole Madder Root
4-5 Gallon Bucket
Fish Tank Heater
Water
½ pound of fibers of your choice (If using fabrics cut the fabric up into 3 inch or less sized squares so you will have samples for every day)

NOTE: If your dyeing both silk and cotton samples the silk will hoard most of the color from the cotton fabrics. For the first time using this method I recommend sticking to one type of fiber only – silk and wool fabrics are great candidates for the first dye trial.


This method is a variation of the method that Nest Rubio wrote about in Spin-Off Magazine (Spring 1993). When done properly you will get a nice range of values with this method.

Break your madder root into smallish pieces ¼” to ½” inch in length.
Cover in water and soak overnight.
Rinse Madder Root the next day.
You can save the rinse water and use it with other yellowish yielding dyes if desired.

The reason for rinsing the madder root, if it is dried madder root not fresh, is to remove any of the yellow dye that is present in the root. Leaving the yellow rinse water will give you dyes more towards the orange/yellow end of the spectrum. Rinsing the madder root after the initial soak will give you deeper truer reds.

NOTE: In this method you do not grind the roots. Grinding the roots releases all of their color immediately, and for this fermentation method you want a slow release of color so in order to have color gradations over a period of days, rather than using all of the color at once.

NOTE: Pre-mordant you fibers before inserting them into the dye vat, this is one time where an all-in-one vat does NOT work well.

NOTE: if you are dyeing cotton or other cellulosic fibers you will want to use the triple mordant method on those fibers. That method being the Alum – Tannin – Alum method.


MOLD: Preventing mold from forming on the vat surface is crucial, mold, its spores and mycelium will turn the red color brown and very quickly. I have found that by simply keeping a fish tank heater in the vat prevents the mold from forming in the first place.

Temperature: It is critical that the vat does NOT come to a boil, EVER! Boiling madder root will cause the browns to be released from the root, ruining the vat. (Yes you can use this brown to dye with, but it will not yield reds).

Keeping careful notes on the date and time you entered the fiber into the dye vat and the date and time you removed the fibers from the dye vat, will allow you to repeat the process.

Now this is what I DO:

Place your rinsed madder root into the bucket, and cover with very hot water, but not boiling. I use my hottest tap water for this procedure.

Place the fish tank heater into the bucket, and leave it set on a medium heat setting. You are shooting for around 85-90 degrees fareinheight.

Place your pre-mordant fibers into the vat with the madder root.

NOTE: That the madder root has been left in the vat with the fibers, I typically work with cotton fabrics, and any mottling and patterning that ends up on the fabric is highly desired.

If you are wanting more solid fibers/fabrics then you will need to stir the vat each day to ensure even color. Make sure that all of the fiber remains below the waters surface, for even color.

Also having a divider between the madder root and the fiber, such as a glass dinner plate, is critical. This prevents the fibers from touching the roots, thus preventing dark spots from occurring on the roots.

After I have entered my fiber into my dye vat I typically leave it for 24 to 48 hours, depending on what the dye vat looked like before I put the fibers in it.

Usually around day two or three, about 48-72 hours, and I try to remove my fibers around the same hour of the day that I placed them into the vat, I will remove one or two samples from the vat. DO NOT RINSE the fibers.

Place these samples in a bowl or other vessel where they can sit overnight, unrinsed. This is part of the batching process.

The next day I rinse those fibers and hang them up to dry somewhere, out of the sunlight.

I then check the fibers in my vat to see if the remaining fibers are any darker than the previous days. If not I may check on them again in 12 hours and again at 24 hours.

I remove the samples as they become progressively darker, creating a value scale. The value you range you achieve depends on the fibers you chose, the amount of fibers you use, and the amount of madder root to fiber you have used.

You will have a larger value range with silk or wool versus cotton fabrics, and other limiting factors such as water quality and the age/freshness of the madder root.

I typically exhaust the vat after two weeks, using cotton fabrics/fibers.

Using Nest Rubio’s method with wool, and very small wool samples as she suggests, you should exhaust the vat in 30 days. http://www.rugreview.com/13-3nest.htm

NOTE: I did not add any chalk or cream of tartar to the vat, they are not required in the fermentation process, unless your water dictates such additions to correct the pH of the vat.

You can however, do comparison vats one without any modifiers (this is any agent that shifts the pH of the vat), to one vat with just madder root and chalk, and another vat with madder root and cream of tartar, and compare this to the vat samples with no modifier.