Print workshop

I attended a REGEN workshop at the university that was ‘an interdisciplinary… approach to regenerative design’ from the fields of architecture and fashion, where we looked into and had workshops throughout the week, not only on sustainability but how we can have a positive impact on the environment.

The two fashion workshops were Subtraction Cutting with Julien Roberts and a Print Workshop with Victoria Jowett.

The print workshop focused on how to produce oak gall ink and mark making onto fabric. Naturally, I took parts of my hoover and my iron with me to continue experimenting for my concept development project and used these as my tools for the mark marking.

I liked that the circle prints resembled chain link fencing, it’s cropping up everywhere since my research into the Greenham Common protests.

The ink is naturally a beige to dark brown colour depending on how concentrated or diluted it is. When you add iron, the dye turns into this deep indigo colour.

For my mark marking onto the fabric, I decided to use the hoover tube and roll it in circles. I was really surprised at the outcome. How using plastic had managed to create a print that looked so natural and organic, like the rings from a tree.

I was very generously given a jar of the ink to take home with me. I mulled it over how I could apply this within my project and decided to experiment with putting the dye in the water compartment of my iron and using the steam function with one of the shirts I had from the charity shop. I like the outcome, it has a sense of anger about it. Like a 1950’s housewife destroying her husbands shirt in resentment.