Fabrics for Printing

A couple of weeks ago, I went on a wonderful field trip with some girlfriends to a fabric outlet in South Carolina. I would describe the store as organized chaos AND incredible fun. It was loaded with bargains, some good stuff, some not so good, some things on bolts and lots in bins, where you had to dig for fabric. You've heard of "dumpster diving". This is it's first cousin and probably the most fun part! It was exciting to dig and dig and find the perfect piece, bring it to be measured and priced to find out it was only $1 Wow! I love experimenting with new fabrics for printing using my Epson inkjet and this was the place to find them. So armed with several bags of bargains, I headed home and on to a new adventure.
I like weird fabrics, prints, lots of texture for printing, there is nothing I won't try.
This picture from our garden was printed on 2 fabrics layered together and run through the printer at the same time.
I used a lace layered over a thin China silk - layering 2 thin fabrics together to run through the printer. I was using 1 thin fabric and so much of the ink was deposited on the paper backing. I tried it and it worked great - two for the price of one!

The print came out really clear and wonderful color

and when I pulled the 2 layers apart, I really loved the results.

So here is what the lace looked like.

and the China silk - like a positive-negative kind of thing.

I found this wonderful textured fabric with tiny little creases. I thought it would add some extra texture to the print. I chose a picture that would lend itself to texture, one with rocks.

Prepared the fabric you see below.

And here is the print. I really liked the additional texture the fabric gave to the print.

The next print used a photo I took and changed into a Sepia print.

I printed on a sheer fabric. It was interesting as the print in the sheer played into the overall look.

The next fabric was a drapery fabric with an interesting and fairly quiet print. I chose a picture, very organic in nature to print on top as I thought it would work with the fabric.

I loved this fabric and was very excited to see how a print would do.

I was disappointed in the results. It's okay but maybe another kind of picture or document would do better. I'm thinking of something with words.

There is still lots more I want to try - will keep you posted.