Kaleidoscope Block Printing

Finally, my first piece of printed fabric!!! Remember I said that one of my newest sources of inspiration was my kaleidoscope? Well I designed a repeating pattern based on the reflected geometric shapes and turned it into a printing block! The printing block was made from 5mm thick foam sheets cut to shape and glued onto a block of wood. I used my new Permaset Aqua fabric inks to mix up a lovely teal green colour to compliment the natural tones of the linen union basecloth.

From Block Printing March 2011

And here it is! The finished article. I decided to make the fabric into a tablecloth runner for my purple coffee table. I hemmed the tablecloth with one of my fancy decorative stitches on my sewing machine that I have never used before. I think the purple contrasting thread colour finishes it nicely.

From Block Printing March 2011

There were a few things that I think I would do differently next time. I mounted the foam block print on a piece of wood but this meant it was extremely difficult to see where I was lining up the pattern match, so I will keep a look out for some transparent Perspex to mount the foam on next time. Also I used a foam roller to apply the ink to the block. This meant that as well as coating the top of the foam, I also coated the sides of the foam and the wood backing. When I was printing, there were a lot of places where the ink from the edge of the wood got onto the fabric and the print did not have nice crisp edges. To solve this I think I will invest in a rubber brayer or two, so less ink gets where it is not supposed to.

From Block Printing March 2011

I'm pretty happy with the outcome for my first try and I am definately doing this again, it was so much fun!