The samples had now dried overnight and were ready for a press to see how they turned out. Already I was concerned by the sight of a pink hue over all the pieces. It looked like some of the dye had run.
After a close look, I could see that some of the pieces had fared better than others. The logwood and knopper gall samples were strong and sharp. The madder had changed hue quite a bit, however. It appeared more pink in tone, which I liked, but on some of the samples had faded considerably and there was a pink hue to the cloth overall, meaning that the colour had run.
I traced back my steps and realised that, in my haste, I had not fully read and understood the aftercare process that Jacqui Symons suggests in her book From Plant To Print. I thought that a 24+ hour drying/curing time was enough before a cold wash. How wrong I was! In addition, I washed the samples in my domestic machine on 30° with Daz detergent – this was not at all a sensible choice as it is designed to get stains out of clothes.
Symons says, however, the steps to aftercare are as follows:
– dry/cure for 24+ hours
– steam for 5mins – 1 hour
– cure by hanging fabric to air for 1 week or longer
– gentle hand wash using pH-neutral detergent
– iron if needed
Given that I skipped the middle three steps, it is no wonder I had disappointing results. I also feel that the samples I printed using the Gum Arabic-based ink ran more readily than the Indalca (Guar Gum-based) mix. I definitely think the Indalca samples fared better, but the cotton was pinkish from the runoff from the other samples, which was a shame.
Next time, I shall follow the above steps fully, AND I shall only use the Indalca-based inks.
Figure I – Left: Indalca-based ink. Right: Gum Arabic-based ink. Both are Madder on light/medium cotton. Mottled colour run and smudges throughout.
Figure II – Left: Indalca-based ink. Right: Gum Arabic-based ink. Both are Madder on cotton muslin. Considerable loss of definition, especially on the right sample.
Figure III – washed sample swatch shown at the bottom right of each unwashed sample. Madder has run and stained the white areas of all three samples. Logwood has held out the best; Knopper gall is considerably fainter in colour. NB: Artwork is not mine. I used an available screen to test the consistency of the ink and how it would pass through a fine line drawing before creating my own design.