Monoprinted moths

People often ask us how we manage to find time to make all the videos for DMTV. Without wishing to sound rude, that question rather misses the point. The videos aren't extra to our work, we simply do what we like to do but unlike most sane people we attempt to do it in front of a couple of cameras! Our subscribers will get to see Laura's instructions for a favourite fabric monoprinting technique next week but I have the advantage of having had a sneaky preview already. Inspired, I couldn't resist trying my own hand at it today.

The effects are really exciting and I thought you might like to see some of them. The dark lines are the results of the monoprint. In these examples I worked onto a previous screenprint which I made a couple of years ago using the simple paper mask technique. It's about time I did something with them!!

The blue moths were created by masking hand dyed fabric with moth shapes cut from freezer paper and then discharging most of the background colour with discharge paste applied through a screen. How much more interesting the blank shapes look with the addition of monoprinted black detail!

You can see the original empty moth shape here in one of the screenprints and how the monoprint layer transforms it. Printing is so quick. Of course it's impossible to stop once you get in the mood so needless to say I have quite a few of these now. Watch this space - they will start to appear in my quilts very soon!

They should be dry by now - must go and iron them! Talk again soon - Linda