FOCUS ON TEXTILES Many students now have easy access to design is drawn with a resistant material such computer drawing packages and having drawn as wax and then sprayed or painted with paint a design on computer, they need to find a or dye (see Figures 2a and 2b). suitable method for transferring their design to For more complex patterns, the designs can be the material. (I use the term 'material' because copied in encaustic art. The design is drawn although students will often be transferring with wax crayons on a heat-retaining card. The designs to textiles, materials such as wood or use of heat can allow the pattern to be altered paper may be the destination for the design.) and the finished design can be left to coolon The problem is the same as it has always been the card or be transferred to fabric using a hot with designs that are drawn on paper, but iron (see Figure 3). because of the modern attitudes to designing and making, teachers need to be much more aware of the wide range of methods. • Carbon paper Transferring With this method, carbon paper is laid between computer One of the first points students need to be a print-out of your design and the fabric and aware of is that when transfer methods result in the outline is traced using a stylus. This method designs to a mirror image of the design, it is important to is suitable for light coloured textiles, wood and materials have a print-out which is a mirror image of the plastic and is suitable for activities such as design. You will need to know if your marquetry and pyrography as well as textile computer program will allow this before you design. start, or design a pattern which will not be affected by being reversed. • Tracing paper In the case of a repeat pattern, one section can • Hand copying be traced onto a block of wood or linoleum to Computer drawing packages The computer can be used for very simple make a printing block for a design (see Figure are increasingly popular with designs to see which colours work best and 4). students as an aid to these may be easily copied onto the medium designing, but how do you that is being used. This is particularly true Cross-stitch designs, knitting and tufted wool transfer designs to textiles where the design on the screen is clearly are closely related to the pixels on a and other materials? related to the medium that is being used as in low-resolution computer design. Design sheets Margaret Seith outlines a the example where paint is simply dribbled can be placed over the design and a pattern number of methods o.nto a coloured paper (see Figure I) or a drawn onto this. This can be done using a Fig. 1: Paint has been' dribbled onto coloured paper FOCUS ON TEXTILES LL-Ll..L ~~L".;LC- c.,.., L;.. L c,.. Fig. 2b: The pattern has L L- LL been drawn with wax and then the fabric was sprayed with Deka Silk dye Fig. 2c: The Fig. 3: The pattern was drawn using Crayola pattern has wax crayons been drawn with wax and then the fabric was painted using Pentel Fabricfun FOCUS ON TEXTILES ~ c: •• z= ~.. e!==- « ~~ II I III~ I III I I II ." I ~'I\ \I I • I • 'L1~"'~. Fig. 4: Printing traditional design sheet which is a sheet of Crayola fabric dye crayons are clean and easy blocks can squared tracing paper or a piece of software to use. The Deka transfer dyes need to be also be made which works in the same way. painted on and have all the advantages and by tracing disadvantages that we would normally round a • Transfer dyes associated with painting. The wax crayons can computer- be used for transferring designs to textiles and generated It may be possible to obtain a copy of the wood and the transfer dye paints can be used image outline of the design by requesting a fine black outline with no fill. If you are unable to do this, on man-made fibres. you can trace round the features of your design using the conventional method. • Textile transfer paper If the student has a very 'busy' design from a You may just wish to transfer the outline onto paint program, the use of transfer dyes can be your fabric, in which case you can draw over rather tedious and it is better to use a paper the line with the dye. If you wish to transfer the called Jet Wear in a dot- matrix, ink-jet or whole of the pattern, you need to colour it all thermal wax printer. The design can then be in. The pattern is placed onto the material using ironed onto fabric. Unfortunately, the design a hot iron (see Figure 5). can only be used once and at nearly £1 per sheet for the paper plus the cost of the colour Fig. 5: print-out, this could be a bit expensive for A print-out of pupils. It is a suitable method for transferring a this geometric design to a T-shirt, for example. pattern was coloured with Deka IronOn, • Templates and stencils transferred to A print-out can be cut out to form a template polyester satin which can be drawn round; alternatively, an and then quilted area of the sheet can be removed to give a stencil. FOCUS ON TEXTILES • Direct sewing to the window on a dull day. If a blackout is The print-out can be applied to the reverse of available, so much the better! A flash is not the fabric using a tacking adhesive such as Pritt needed. Stick. The pattern is then sewn from the I have a 13-inch Apple monitor and obtain very reverse by hand or machine. This method is good results using 200ASA film with the particularly good for work with felt but can be aperture set at 4.0 and speed at 1/8 second. used for paper and plastics too. Valerie Campbell-Harding has had success If the design is photocopied onto tracing paper, with 100ASA film, an aperture of 3.5 and a it can be tacked to the front of the textile and speed setting of 1/8 second. If slides are embroidery can be worked through it, with the obtained, these can be projected onto a suitable tracing paper being torn away when material and the pattern copied in the medium appropriate. This method is suitable for the which is most appropriate for the design. more advanced embroidery and partly worked examples using this method can be seen in the • On-line data transfer Elizabeth Hoare Collection of ecclesiastical The pattern may be drawn on the computer embroidery in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. screen and sent to a sewing machine, knitting machine or weaving loom using appropriate • Screen printing software. Designs can be transferred to a piece of silk before mounting it onto a frame to make a silk • Sources of materials screen. You can obtain materials from the following suppliers: Print Gocco is a new system of screen printing which is particularly suitable for designing and Specialist Crafts Ltd, PO Box 247, Leicester making small cards. Print-outs, of a suitable LEI9SQ. Tel. 01533 515051 size, can placed next to a photosensitive stencil Encaustic art materials in a specially designed machine to produce a Fabric dyes and paints screen which can be used in the same machine Image Maker for printing. The small version of the machine Marquetry costs about £100 but the flash bulbs and Print Gocco machine and supplies stencils can only be used once each and so the Pyrography system is only suitable for producing a number Transfer Sheets Magic of cards. The system can be clearly related to T-shirts professional systems and the students can acquire some experience of simple colour Jet Wear textile transfer paper is available from separations and learn the problems of unit costs Quill Marketing, 11 Hemmings Close, for differing sizes of print runs. Norwich NR5 9EH. Tel. 01603 748802 Design sheets are available from Craft • Photographing the screen Creations Ltd, Units 1-7, Harper's Yard, This gives a durable and pleasing record of Ruskin Road, Tottenham, London, N17 8QA designs and is worth the effort for designs with which the students feel particularly satisfied. Sewing machines and PC Designer software The photograph can be used as part of an item are available from Pfaff (Britain Ltd), the student makes from almost any material. It FREEPOST(LE6272) Leicester LE5 6ZS can also be transferred to textile using a Weaving and knit design programs can be version of PVA medium which is marketed obtained from Harris Looms, Emmerich under the name of Image Maker. (Berlon) Ltd, Wotto~ Road, Ashford Kent Colour slides can be projected onto a large Beith, Margaret, Computer-aided Some of these items may also be available piece of drawing paper and a copy can be Embroidery Design, Vol. 1, ISBN 0 through your LEA adviser or local stockist. 9520675 1 X Richard Beith Associates, made. This is particularly useful for large 1993 projects. It is necessary to use a SLR (single Campbell-Harding, Valerie, lens reflex) camera on a tripod to get as close 'Photographing Designs on the Computer to the screen as possible. There must be no Monitor', Computer Textile Design reflections on the screen. This may be Group Newsletter, Issue Number 1, achieved by placing the monitor with its back March 1992.