Blue Flag Iris

Blue Flag Iris
by Ilene Atkins

Here's another piece I started ages ago. This one is my own photo, printed onto silk. I had printed a number of photos, and tried both cotton and silk. I found the cotton did not give me the vibrant colours I saw in my photos, so moved to silk. Thankfully, these colours turned out much brighter.  Think of those brilliantly dyed silks you see in the fabric stores, compared to the cottons. I think the silk has the ability to absorb more dye than the cotton, hence the better results in my printing experiments.

Blue Flag Iris, detail
by Ilene Atkins

I also tried several different kinds of stabilizer behind the printed fabric, and am still looking for that ideal one. I'll let you know when I find it. I then proceeded to thread-painting. I always think I'll just lay down a few outline stitches, to let the photo speak for itself, and next thing I know, the whole thing is covered is stitching! It became very distorted with all that stitching, and I didn't know what to do with it from there. So it languished in a box for a long time.

Then recently I came across Ann Fahl's book, Colouring with Thread, which I wrote about here. She describes the process of blocking a piece to get it flat and square. I was also afraid to get it wet, lest that leave water stains in the silk.  I decided it was do or die, so I dunked it and stretched it out. Amazing results. It was ready for backing and binding, so here it is. In many ways I am pleased with the results, but it has some issues I would like to work on in future pieces. 

I am linking this up with The Needle and Thread Network, here.