Textile Dying and Print Development

As I have chosen to use silks in my final garment I wanted to experiment with my colourways and creating an eroded texture on the fabric using batik dyes and salt, the salt reacts with the silk and dyes and creats a textured and eroded effect on the fabric.

Using the inks and a white pigment as well as how much water was added I developed a range of pinks and oxidised greens.

Above are the frst stages of the fabric being dyed with salt applied to it, I applied the dye by hand with a paintbrush in a random order. The salt helped blend and create a texture on the flat fabric.

After the base had dried I screen printed my 4 prints onto the fabric in a dark tone of either pink or green, the important part of this was that the print did not have to be perfect as the concept of my final collection is imperfection. To add a bit of luxury and to follow the current trends I added a metallic silver print which caught the light and would work well on my garments which had a floaty movement.

I will also develop these prints into a larger scale for my garments.