Twelve of us attended a creative day school about transferring painted images from paper to cloth. Gillian was an enthusiastic teacher and had brought lots of her own work to show the possibilities of this technique, and the paints and equipment to use ourselves.
The transfer paints were mixed from powder with water, and we used a basic range of colours to mix our own. The paint is applied to cheap copier paper, and we all experimented with mark making, and using various things to imprint and add texture to the paint. The paint looks very dull on the paper, and it is only when ironed onto synthetic fabric that they magically become bright. The fabrics have to be synthetic as the paints will not work very well on natural fibres. We all played at being 5 years old again, splashing the paint around with abandon on the paper, and making our table’s uncharacteristically messy!
Then we learned how to iron the paper onto various fabrics between sheets of silicon, and to use things such as leaves and feathers as masks. Layers could be built up with different papers, papers could be torn and arranged for different effects, and there was quite a bit of serendipity involved. The possibilities Gillian showed us were endless, with only imagination the limit.
We didn't get round to stitching any of the fabrics as we were so engrossed in the painting, but we all went home with lots of bits of coloured materials to work on when we had peace to think about it. The photos below only show the prepared papers and the initial transfer printing, it would be nice to see finished items made with the painted fabrics. The green feather is Gillian's piece, so shows a finished work.
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