#rustprints

This experiment was set up a week before I would make an outcome with them. But we were told its called rust printing. 

To start I had to get a piece of fabric and wrap it tight with rusty objects in the fabric (when i say tight i mean tight) This was then fortified by elastic bands and placed in a selection of teas diluted in water. The fabric was then submerged in the tea and left to soak for a week. 

After this, I made a paper concertina and placed rusty objects within each fold of the paper. Gently, I placed the concertina into a sealable plastic bag and filled it with hot tea. I had to make sure all the air was out of the bag before i sealed it again. Just like the fabric these were left for a week submerged in the teas and rust. 

After a week had passed, we were able to unwrap our rust print fabrics and and see how they had turned out. 

As the fabrics were wet I hung them out and left them to dry for the rest of the day. My fabric was pink and checked, so the dye in the fabrics had an interesting bleed effect to it, which bled into orange and discoloured imprints of the rusty objects. Some of the areas were highly contrasted where others were washed out and rust coloured. I liked experimenting with the coloured fabric and not a plain fabric as the contrasts and colours were bold and showcased an array of different effects. 

I was able to remove my rust printed paper from the sealable bag. Similar to the fabric i had to leave this to dry for the day. 

For the paper outcome, I started to make a collage with masking tape and old paper, that fits with the aesthetic of the rusted paper. I thought about the composition and started layering paper and masking tape. The paper feature large contrasts of dark rusted areas and light sections where the rust and tea haven’t been able to reach creating some nice dynamics between dark and light. I needed to find a way of balancing the collage with these areas to highlight and make them cohesive within the piece.

A skill I revisited was mono printing. Letitia did a little demo just to remind me how it works. It starts by placing a piece of paper on the printing surface and then imprinting with it either you finger or something with a sharp edge depending on the desired effect. I decided i would do cross hatching and rubbing my finger over some old book paper, to create sharp and blunt effects. I then stuck this onto the paper by tearing it up and sticking it up.

At this point, Letitia came over and gave me some guidance on my collage. I had used many directional qualities ( Horizontal, Vertical and Diagonal ) however she stated that the diagonal lines need some sense of direction and structure, as they’re just going off the collage. Furthermore, the collage was lacking contrasting qualities and all the textures seem to blend together; especially if you squint it all just looks like the same thing.

REFLECTION -

all my textures are the same and need some contrast.

- line  line direction needs balancing 

- do some gelli prints to block in some more colour

- sew in some white fabric sections

I decided to take some time away from the collage and thought about how i could use gelli plates to add block colour in horizontal and vertical directions to help add contrast and balance the elements of the collage, it also helps break up the crowdedness of the busy textures.

This is the outcome for my fabric collage, I followed similar techniques to the paper collage as it was the same style of collage but on a different base. The fabric was quilted, which i sewed together. I decided play with sewing techniques and attempt a seed stitch in a purple thread. However, i don’t think this was effective, as it looks too busy and blends into the background. Similar to the paper, the fabric collage needs contrasts. So, i decided on gelli prints again with circular markings on them to bring them out of the checkered background. As well as this, i sewed on buttons in blue to create contrast from the pink blue colours of the background. One of the more interesting additions to the fabric outcome was the tape transfer, which was surprisingly simple. This involved me taking an image and covering it in sellotape. Then i wet the back and scraped off the paper. This created a clear print on the sellotape which had clear areas, which would be fun to experiment with on the background.

This was a scrap outcome of the bits and bobs i had left over. I had some photocopies left from the photogram experiments, that i decided i would use to do an acrylic transfer. This involved me painting my fabric with white acrylic then placing the image on the acrylic. Next, i would wait till its bone dry and then wet it - scraping all the paper off to reveal the printed image on the acrylic.  I really enjoyed the effect and the distressed but bold outcome it creates. For the rest of the scrap, i decided just to layer paper around the really nice spanner rust print in the center.