Materials
Our first technique that we looked at was bleach painting.
We were given two pieces of fabric, one piece of denim and one piece of black, dyed, woven cotton. We first laid down some scrap paper on our desks, to protect the surface from any bleach spillages, and we made sure that our desks were clear, so none of our belongings could get damaged. We then proceeded to lay out our stencils, in our case we used pressed pieces of foliage, this stencil would be a guide to our bleaching, where the stencil is covering the fabric, the bleach will not effect, unless it is very saturated. |
We then put on our gloves and aprons, to protect our hands from irritation, and to protect our clothing from getting destroyed during this process.
Now we were ready to begin bleaching. Our teacher had poured some thin bleach into an old spray bottle, so it would be easier to apply it to our fabric, we then began spraying the bleach onto the fabric, we could spray it directly if we wanted a more saturated bleach, or we could use an old toothbrush and flick small amounts of bleach onto the fabric. After each use of the bleach, we each wiped the bottle down with an alcoholic wipe to reduce the risk of Covid-19. |
We then rinsed our pieces of fabric to wash off any excess bleach residue, and we placed them in zip-lock bags to take them home, so they wouldn't damage any of our other belongings in our bag.
I think that the bleach painting worked a lot better on the black, dyed cotton as it was a lot more noticeable, as the cotton is a lot thinner, so it absorbed the bleach a bit better than the denim. The dye also turned into a red-rust colour, which looks beautiful in my opinion.
I quite enjoyed this technique, even if the stencil foliage didn't turn out quite as clear as I had thought.
I think that the bleach painting worked a lot better on the black, dyed cotton as it was a lot more noticeable, as the cotton is a lot thinner, so it absorbed the bleach a bit better than the denim. The dye also turned into a red-rust colour, which looks beautiful in my opinion.
I quite enjoyed this technique, even if the stencil foliage didn't turn out quite as clear as I had thought.