Ink-O-Dye Experiment

I can finally post about this without fear that the recipient of the gift will see the post. :) It was a Christmas gift for my 10 year old niece, K. 

K is awesome. She is funny, horribly creative, a talented singer, and lots of fun to be around.
Like a lot of 10 year old girls, she loves to post pics of herself on Instagram. I decided to make her a fun gift, including fabric that featured a few of her "selfies" from Instagram. I downloaded them to my computer and did a little editing in Photoshop to prepare them for the photo exposure process. I used a blue Ink-O-Dye kit that I got at our local Dick Blick. It took a little trial and error, but it eventually came out great. When back home in Louisiana over the holidays, I was able to give it to her. She really loved her unique gift. 

I took a few pictures of my process that you can see below. The first round of sun exposure was a total flop, resulting in some lovely blue fabric with no images at all on it. The second round was much better. The second time, I did two things differently. I ran the Ink-O-Dye transparencies through the printer twice, leading to a denser application of the black ink. I also weighted the transparencies down with a heavy piece of glass. (Although, I'm sure plexi would work too) I just found that the transparencies alone, tacked down at the edges like the instructions suggest, were allowing too much light underneath the film. I know from my silkscreening trials that this is a potential problem area. 

I used some of my own pattern designs....basically, just dots....to add some coordinating fabrics to the mix. Overall, it really came out exactly how I had imagined. 

Here is a link to the Ink O Dye site if you want to check it out.

The exposure process---transparencies placed under glass with fabric wet with InkODye solution

                                     

The beginnings of my piecing