Sunday 22 May 2011

Feeling Creative

Been meaning to try this for ages. Here's what happens if you hang a damp top over the bath and squirt bleach at it with a syringe:



Hoping I'll wear these a bit more now they're more interesting, and I've strategically aimed the bleach at a couple of stains that wouldn't come out any other way, so they don't look so grubby now either.

I think that if the fabric is dripping wet and the bleach solution weak then it runs more and you get a more blended, patchy effect, which is more subtle. Dryer fabric and neat bleach gives bolder shapes with sharper outlines. With this in mind I think next time I'll use a weak solution to make the colour patchy as a background, and then rinse, let it all dry completely, and use neat bleach to make more precise patterns over that.

One word of warning - gloves. I almost never wear protective gloves because I hate how they feel, but after rinsing these tops out my hands are distinctly sore and I wish I had.

What I forgot to take a photo of was the bathroom wall - luckily tiled - splattered dramatically with the red fabric dye that I also used on the orange one when the bleach didn't show up as much as I wanted. And the syringe full of red liquid on the side of the bath. Thank god no one called round just then.

4 comments:

Garage Storage said...

Great job!I really thought it was printed. Thank you as well for teaching us how to do it. Great post!

bryce kroll said...

dear alice:

I apologize for this out of place comment. I am in fact writing to humbly request your permission to use your image of a pile of slugs (http://alice-in-blogland.blogspot.com/2007/06/slug-blog.html) as the cover image of a small zine containing my own writing, painting, and drawing. and by small i mean no more than 20-50 hand printed and given to my friends and professors. I will of course give you full credit.

respectfully yours

Alice said...

Hi Bryce,

Yes of course you can use it, I love zines! Want me to dig out the original size/quality image for you?

There will be a zine fair at the Space Project in Leeds in November if you're interested, people will often do swaps if you have some of your own to bring.

Alice

bryce said...

cool! thanks alice. don't worry about the size, the small one looks just fine! unfortunately i live in nyc, but if i go through with it and it's done in time i'll gladly mail you a few copies.

best for now
bryce