Weekly DIY Roundup: Printing on Fabric!
I thought that contact paper screen printing idea from the podcast last week was fantastic, and since I've had a bit of experience with some different fabric printing techniques, I wanted to show you a bunch of methods you can try out!
The concept that sucked me into the printing world in the first place is freezer paper stenciling. The second issue of Craft Magazine had a tutorial for this one, which is how I first learned about it, and my friend Christy has a great step-by-step on her blog. You can also check out the flickr group to see all kinds of possibilities!
Check this out - David Harris shows that you can use the same printing method but with bleach instead of fabric paint for some pretty sweet results.
Craft Chi blog has a detailed how-to for kind of a combination of the freezer paper stencil method and the contact paper technique, in which you carve the stencil and use a screen to print. And she shows you how you can get 2 designs for the price of one (by price i mean stencil-carving effort).
Oh and you could totally use Corinne and Rob's embroidery hoop idea for a cheap screen with the freezer paper (or contact paper) method. I've done it! It rocks!
Now if you've had enough of this amateur stuff and you want to try actual screen printing - photo emulsion and all - there are some great detailed tutorials for that too. There's tracy_the_astonishing on Instructables' Screen Printing: Cheap, Dirty, and At Home, and then there's the super helpful "Weekend Projects" video podcast by Bre Pettis where you can see all the steps, including adding red led eyes to your finished wolf shirt!
Ok and now onto the other form of printing, stamping. You can stamp onto fabric just like you stamp onto paper, it's just a little less clean and sharp, so you won't want to use intricate designs. My favorite kind of printing is with linoleum blocks, and I've just discovered the master of block printing on fabric - Jesse Breytenbach of Jezzeblog. She does amazing things with this method, and she is awesome enough to have written a 3 part how-to on the carving and printing process. (part 1, part 2, and part 3) Scroll through her printing blog posts to see the possibilities!
And here's some fun I've had with lino-cut printing!
So you can take the same concepts of the block printing and apply it to rubber stamping, just make sure the stamps aren't too detailed. Mindful Craftiness has a great tutorial for carving your own rubber stamps. There's another fun one over at Cut Out + Keep.
And you can check out this inkjet transfer idea on Craft Chi and apply it to your fabric printing experiments.
Also on Craft Chi, this super cute cork stamp how-to. Make your own custom patterned fabric with these little guys repeated over and over!
One last printing method to show you, but this one is a bit of an investment. The Gocco! It's an awesome little endangered printing machine from Japan that can print on paper or fabric - it's kind of a cross between the silk screen and stamping techniques. It uses emulsion to make screens that you can use again and again, and it works by pressing the ink through the screen, like pressing down a stamp. Check out the Save Gocco site to learn all about it and find out how to get your hands on one! And you can find all kinds of Gocco goodness on flickr! Like this one by user art2theextreme:
When I was right in the middle of putting this post together I read Sister Diane's review of Lotta Jansdotter's new book on printing, and it looks awesome! All the links I've given you are only a glimpse into the world of printing - there's tons more information out there, have fun!! And show us what you do!
