Hand Embroidery

Hi everyone,
This week i have been experimenting with hand embroidery!

For the past few weeks at College i have been doing a lot of screen printing, so i started out by buying fabrics to match my colour palette which i have been using for my current project.

I have been using my fabrics and then printing my own designs onto my fabrics using a technique called screen printing which is a very easy technique but its also rather messy!

I then decided i would try out a bit of hand embroidery on top of my printed designs, but first i started out by using a plain piece of fabric and experimenting with different embroidery techniques to see which techniques i liked best.

(Me trying out different embroidery techniques)

I thought i would try out a technique called 'seeding' on top of a screen print for my first go as i thought it would be a nice technique to use for this particular design and i thought it gave it a nice effect. Plus i feel like the colours compliment each other rather well. 

(Seeding technique)

The next technique i thought i would try was just a simple backstitch. I really like this technique because its very simple, yet you can get some great results with it. I decided to use the backstitch technique by taking a silhouette of a leaf that i had drawn, then screen printing it onto my fabric and then using backstitch to then hand embroider all of the delicate lines on top of the silhouette. 

(Backstitch technique)

I have left one side of the leaf bare just simply because i like the effect of it. In time i may add beads and different threads to it to see what effects i get with that. Underneath is my finished sample, i really enjoyed this technique and i will definitely be using it more thought this projects and other projects in the future. 

(Backstitch technique)

Experimenting with Lino print

Hello everyone, my name is Sophie and i am a Textiles student, i am currently studying at Newcastle College completing my first year of my degree course.

For my first ever post i thought i would show you's my Lino cutting, I've not done much Lino cutting in the past just little bits here and there so i am rather pleased with how this piece turned out.

I started out with a nice sized piece of Lino, big enough to fit my design onto.
Then using a heat press machine which we have at College i placed a printed out version of my design and placed it over the top of the Lino, i then put it under the heat press until my design had transferred onto the Lino.
Then using a carving tool (Must be quite sharp) i began to carve around the lines of my design.
If you don't want a block background on your print you must also remove the background from the Lino, this does take some time but you get a nice effect in the end.

Once you have your design all cut out and you are happy with it then you can go ahead and print it onto either fabric or paper. For mine i decided to print on a piece of brown textured paper i found. 

For this process all you need is paint in the colours of your choice and a roller. 

You need to put some paint onto a flat surface and roll it out with your roller, this is just so your roller gets a nice even coat of paint. 

The next step is to roller over your Lino until your design is covered. 

Then press the Lino face down onto your fabric or paper and using a clean roller, roll over the Lino pressing firmly. 

When you remove your Lino your design should be printed onto your fabric or paper. 

You can repeat this process as much as you like, just make sure to clean your roller and Lino after each use. 

Enjoy!