Heat Transfer Dyes and Stencils

My first few days back at uni after Easter have seen me really push my project forward. Before Easter I was starting to feel a bit lost, having developed my sketchbook work and collages as far as I could go and therefore needing to move into fabric, yet not feeling ready to do so. This was because I had decided I was going to make a fashion garment earlier on in the project but had now began to change my mind, not wanting my work to be limited by the fact I had already decided the outcome. So on Monday I decided to forget about the outcome and just get on with some experimentation with heat transfer dyes.

In order to try and recreate the torn paper in my collages I painted the heat transfer dyes onto newsprint paper then tore them into strips. I then placed these face down on my fabric and put the fabric into a heat press at 200 degrees for 40 seconds. I tried a variety of different matte, shiny, opaque and translucent fabrics so I could compare the different effects created, and the different strengths of dye that transferred. The resulting samples can be seen in the picture on the right. They have a long way to go till they start resembling my collages but they're a good starting point.

Also on Monday I played around with placing cut out stencils of clothing over my collages then scanning them onto the computer. The stencils were inspired by clothing I had seen on a fashion trend report, which I quickly sketched onto paper then cut out with a craft knife. Originally I did these so I could see how my collages could work as prints on garments, but once looking at the resulting images I realised they could be more than that. I showed them to my tutor and she suggested that they could be a print or pattern themselves when they are lined up together, whether for a garment or for a wall hanging or something else entirely.

Yesterday and today I continued to play around with this idea, cutting more stencils in coloured paper and editing some on Photoshop so they have a combination of different collages, like the one on the above right. This idea has really excited me and given me focus with my project again, generating a whole load of new ideas that I should hopefully be able to explore in the remaining three/four weeks of this project.