Layer Upon Layers

Several layers of stamps and thermofax screens have been applied to white fabric to create this design

Most of us have played around with stamps as a child but fewer of us see their potential in creating our own printed fabric. The piece above has 4 layers of stamps/thermofax images to create a complex web of pattern that could be used as a background or as parts for applique.

I was not confident in layering until I attended Jane Dunnewold’s 5 day course at Christchurch Symposium in 2017. It changed my whole approach to my art work. I now seldom buy fabric unless it is plain cotton or silk for me to work onto. This makes my work unique and provides a colour palette that suits whatever I am doing. Stamped fabric can be further enhanced by free machine stitching as the example below:

White cotton printed with texture tools on a gel plate and then thermofaxed (the blue) before free machine quilting the surface

Jane is a very talented surface design artist who has published several books such as “Complex Cloth”, “Art cloth” and “The Best of Both Worlds”. She has been teaching these topics for probably the last 30 years and so her expertise is considerable. It was Jane who introduced me to thermofax screens and the complex overlay of custom dying and surface impressions. She runs a year long program called Creative Strength training which I participated in in 2018 and which looks at archetypes and how they influence our life, our art and our inhibitions. Probably my biggest take away from that course was learning that my Saboteur often stopped me completing work because if it wasn’t finished it couldn’t be criticised. It was on that course that I completed what I call my 30 year quilt - a hand appliqued NZ Baltimore quilt that now has extensive machine quilting. I only know how long it was since I started that quilt because I had embroidered the date on one block.

Many of us have used the gel plate to create pattern but not always accepting that another layer can be applied. I learnt that if I am not happy with the result adding another layer in a contrasting colour/value can often bring things right. And the excitement of what emerges is always an added bonus