Rust Dyeing: Close-ups

Having washed my rust dyed fabric I decided to take some better photos of them. Arranged together you can really see the variety of effects created and how it works with different colours and weights of fabrics.

The different fabrics; the washer and spanner
outlines can be seen really clearly on some

Some developed an interesting black line
around the edges of the rust

Close-up of the map patterned fabric; the rust
dyed areas compliment the pattern really well

From Monday to Thursday I'll be in London visiting family but also visiting galleries and museums as part of my research for my current project City Lights. This will also be a great opportunity to take photos of London at night to add to my photos of Nottingham that I have taken already. So hopefully it should be a productive trip!

Collages and Rust Dyeing

On Monday I finished off some large collages based on my own photos of city lights. For this project I have been doing my 'sketchbook' work on coloured paper rather than in an actual sketchbook, as I feel this gives me more freedom to play around with colour and size. Also, seeing as this project is leading towards a textile outcome, I think it is good to work on coloured paper so that when the time comes for translating my designs into fabric I don't have to try and force colour back into my designs. Another bonus to working on coloured paper is that the colour palettes develop quite naturally without too much conscious thought and therefore don't feel forced.

My collages laid out to dry

For the collages I have used a combination of coloured paper, tissue paper, Indian ink and white acrylic paint. I have applied the ink with random objects such as glass jars and hair bands to create a variety of interesting marks, as a lot of this project is focused on my mark making. The acrylic was also not used in a conventional way; I filled an icing bag with the acrylic paint so I could draw thick lines that stay raised when they have dried. This way of painting lines is much cleaner and faster than using a paintbrush, and I feel it allows me to be more expressive.

A messy but colourful studio space!

Yesterday we unpacked our rust dyeing from the week before which was pretty exciting. I used a variety of plain and printed fabrics, including a piece of indigo dyed fabric I had done earlier this term. This technique involves placing fabric soaked in vinegar and water into a large bin bag then placing rusty items such as bolts, washers, spanners and metal sheets on top, then sealing the bag and leaving it for a week to allow the rust to fully stain and dye the fabric. I really love the effect this technique creates, it gives the fabric an aged paper-like quality, like looking at an old map.

Rust dyed fabric ready to be washed

Close up of printed and indigo dyed fabric

Blog Background: Ink Paintings

The background image for this blog is one of my own from a previous project looking at stately homes and gardens (aka the National Trust). The following images show a kind of step-by-step of the process.

My own photo taken at Buscot Park

My recreation of the photo in ink looking at mark making;
part of a large roll of ink paintings I did

The scanned in and edited image

Current Project: City Lights

For my uni project I have been photographing Nottingham at night, looking at the patterns and shapes created by the lights of the city

I've also been playing around with the shutter speed on my camera and experimenting with some light drawing techniques. The first one was done by moving a phone light, whilst the other ones were created by moving the camera itself.

I feel that doing photography for this project has really helped me to engage with it and develop my theme further than just drawing geometric shapes and patterns. I'm looking at the narrative of my photos, how light is moving (or not moving) across the image, and how the colours interact with one another. 

On another note, I used to be really interested in photography when I was younger and I would take my camera with me on every day trip and holiday I did, but as I got older I lost interest in doing this (perhaps related to when I first got an iPhone with a decent camera!). So doing this project has made me realise how much I actually love using my camera again and that the images I can create with it are just as important and as interesting to me as my other art. So what began as just a starting point for my project is now turning into a much more significant part of it.

First Post

Rachel Mynott's new blog!!