Discharged, Dyed, Handprinted: Multiple Techniques

Chinese Red

I've been doing discharge "dyeing" for a long time, using Kona cotton as a basic fabric removing color to create patterns with bleach (neutralized in Anti-Chlor), Thiox paste and hot Thiox bath, and Jacquard paste.  Most of the patterning has come from shibori techniques, often arashi shibori (fabric wrapped on PVC tubes and scrunched down to create that wild lightning pattern) or the easy technique of knotting long lengths of fabric.  The above Chinese Red Kona was scrunched and tied in a ball, and dyed in hot Thiox bath; then sprayed with bleach.

I've taken a lot of these fabrics and added another layer of design to heighten the patterning.  For instance on the above red fabric, I printed squares and circles with Jacquard paste and then drew lines with thickened Procion MX black dye.

Original discharge print on
Emerald Kona with
crystal/snowflake stamp

Gold printed on top of crystal/snowflake images

 Sometimes, just the discharged images work beautifully, especially when the color modulates from very dark (the original fabric's color), through mid-tones, to very light colors.  This is so obvious to me in the fabric below:  Purple Kona which was scrunched and then discharged in a hot Thiox bath. 

"Purple Galaxy"

"Burgundy Leaves" with bleach sprayed background
and Jacquard printed leaves.

Midnight Galaxy

After discharging the Dark Rose Kona
above, I printed red/pink circles
with Bubble Wrap.