volume 1, edition 2

April, 1996

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We're Back!!!

Introduction

WOW! I was quite surprised by the feedback I had from the first newsletter. I had a ton of suggestions, emails, tips and inquiries. Everyone mentioned that it was a great idea and long overdue. With your suggestions and encouragement, we have expanded and hopefully improved this edition. You will see more suggestions and ideas to brighten up your days as we welcome spring after one very, very cold winter.

We are really excited about the heat transfer paper (Paro Paper) after our very successful Heat Transfer + Fabric workshop in February with Lynne Heller. The work that can be achieved is astonishing. There is an article inside to share with you the possibilities and techniques for transferring any image onto fabrics.

This edition also introduces a new feature of our newsletter. Along with a product, we are also introducing a fabric for the season. We are going to focus on our cottons this month. Sea Island and Egyptian cottons are very luxurious fabrics. We have added a wide variety of weights to best complement your needs.

Till next time, keep those ideas and suggestions coming.

Egyptian/Sea Island Cotton

As mentioned in the introduction, every edition of the G&S
News will include a focus on a particular fabric. This edition we take a look at our Egyptian and Sea Island cotton. Perfect for making quilts, shirts, skirts, blouses or dresses. The cotton is very fine and tightly woven allowing for easy dyeing, painting, screening or achieving bright clear prints for heat transfer. There is a small clipping attached inside the newsletter for you to feel. All our cottons are classified as broadcloth.


This is a definition from the The Canadian Internet Fashion and Design's Fabric Dictionary.


Broadcloth

Fibre: Cotton and silk, and rayon. Very different than wool broadcloth.

Weave: Plain weave and in most cotton broadcloths made with a very fine crosswise rib weave.

Characteristics: Originally indicated a cloth woven on a wide loom. Very closely woven and in cotton, made from either carded or combed yarns. The filling is heavier and has less twist. It is finer than poplin when made with a crosswise rib and it is lustrous and soft with a good texture. Thread count ranges from high quality 144 x 60 count down to 80 x 60. Has a smooth finish. Maybe bleached, dyed, or printed; also is often mercerized. Wears very well. If not of a high quality or treated it wrinkles very badly.
Finest quality made from Egyptian or combed pima cotton - also Sea Island.

Uses: Shirts, dresses, particularly the tailored type in plain colours, blouses, summer wear of all kinds.

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As you can see we carry some of the best cotton broadcloths
around. I hope that you will be able to pick up some and experience the difference beautiful cottons can make to all your finished products.

ID #	Description	Thread Count	Price / yd
T1001e	Egyptian - 2 ply	100 x 100	$12.00
T1001s	Sea Island - 2 ply	100 x 100	$12.00
TC1001-C	Egyptian - 2 ply - Black	100 x 100	$13.00
TC1001-N	Sea Island - 2 ply - Natural	100 x 100	$12.50
T1002	Indonesian Cotton	138 x 72	$7.50
TC1005	Chinese Cotton - 7 colours *	60 x 60	$5.00
T1006	Egyptian Cotton - 1 ply	100 x 100	$8.50
T1007	Egyptian Cotton - 2 ply	120 x 120	$13.00

*	A - red	B - royal blue	C - black	F - yellow
	I - fuchsia	R - purple	U - taupe

Note: T1003, T1004 & T1005 are no longer available.


SALE:
till July 31/96 - 10% off all our cottons
- minimum 3 yards per selection

Photopol is Back!!!

After waiting a year and countless testing and retesting, we have our non-toxic photo-emulsion for silk screening back in stock. This is the only emulsion that we know that has all these features;

• non-toxic
• designed for home use - no need for a vacuum exposing table
• quick exposing times (under 25 minutes) using a simple 150W plant bulb (no black light required)
• 3 year shelf life
• ready to use without the need for a sensitizer - normally acetic acid
• washes up extremely well
• only requires two coats versus 4-6 for most others
• "cool" pink colour

The emulsion comes in three sizes

Quesions and Answers

Last Issue, we answered some of the more common questions for resisting. This time we shall be concentrating on immersion dyeing .
Q: Why are my greens always turning out to be lime or citron with Procion 'MX' dyes?
A: Procion 'MX' dyes are warm water dyes. The optimal temperature to set them is 100F = 38C. The colours that requires more heat are turquoise based colours (510, 811, 820, 500, 504). These colours require the temperature to be at 125F = 51C.

If accuracy is important in multiple dye lots, use a thermometer to measure temperature. For general home dyeing, the immersion dyeing recipe mentions that you dissolve the dye in two liters of hot (tap) water. You subsequently add 4-5 liters of cool water. When you dye turquoise based colours, you add warm water instead of cool water.

Q: Which dye do I use for cotton, wool, silk, linen, rayon, nylon, acetate, polyester, or ramie?
A: G&S carries two classes of dye for immersion dyeing, fibre reactive (Procion 'MX') and acid (Country Classic). Procion 'MX' will dye all natural fabrics, be it wool, silk, cotton, ramie, linen, wood, or hemp. The dyes are activated by a mild alkaline (sodium carbonate) which activates the bonding reaction with the fabric. Except for wool, the activator is vinegar instead of sodium carbonate. Country Classic is made specifically for wool, silk and nylon. We have had some success on lycra, acetate, and spandex also. They are activated by the acid crystals that are built into the dye.
Polyester does not dye with either product. There are no commercial dyes on the market that will dye polyester safely or effectively. We usually do not dye fabrics that contains 30% or more polyester. The results are unpredictable and usually poor.

Q: What are all the chemicals used for?
A: The following are used with Procion 'MX'. Country Classic only needs vinegar.
Sodium Carbonate: a mild alkaline used to activate Procion 'MX' dyes
Urea: Used in direct application of Procion 'MX' dyes. It slows down the dye reaction with the water, so that the dye solution can last longer and become more level.
Ludigol: Used in direct application of Procion 'MX' dyes. It stops migration of dyes during the setting process (steaming or bagging)
Sodium Sulphate (Glauber Salt): Used in place of regular salt. It produces a much brighter (approx. 25%) colour for turquoise, br. yellow, or fuchsia based colours.
Lissapol ND Soap: This is a non-ionic soap which helps repel dye during the finishing rinse so that residual dye does not stain other areas. Can also be used an excellent scouring soap or as a wetting agent for dyeing wool or other fabrics that do not absorb moisture well.
Sodium Alginate: Neutral thickening agent developed from seaweed and used for thickening the dye for direct applications.
Thiourea Dioxide (Thiox): Used to remove colour from natural fibres. With hot tap water, Thiox is an excellent colour reducer for re-dyeing. It may also be added to print pastes for discharge printing and is used for bleaching natural wools to obtain clear colours in subsequent dyeing.

On Going Sales

Remember that the sale for silk scarves and books is over at the end of April. Pick them up while supplies last!

Call for sizes and availability.

Workshops

Our current workshop schedule
is almost completed. There will be a new one included in the next newsletter. But in the meantime, these classes are still ongoing.

Marbling				$50.00
April 13				11-4pm		

Intro to Dyeing 		$100.00
April 20 & 21st		11-5pm
		
Silk Painting 		$35.00
April 27				10-4pm		

Country Classics

Last edition, Country Classic was so well received, that we have added five more colours, for a total of 33. The new colours are Persimmon (#37), Kiwi (#76), Lilac (#83), Raspberry (#82) and Spring Green (#70). Colour charts unfortunately are still not ready. We have in the meantime, colour photocopied our only chart. The colours are quite accurate. There is a nominal $1.50 charge to cover the cost for the copy.

Tip of the Season

This edition's tip was provided by Theresa Walker of Pictou, N.S. She will receive a $25.00 gift certificate for her contribution. Keep those suggestions coming.

Theresa has an alternative to the traditional stretching method for silk painting. Normally, one needs a frame that attaches the silk by suspension hooks or push pins.

Theresa writes:
"The idea is to underlay a glass plate with white paper covering the glass. Lay the silk flat on the glass plate. You then stretch it around the edges of the glass with masking tape (see diagram). Then paint as usual. The advantage of this method is that it enables you to rest your hand on the table and glass plate while painting."

We have tested this method and had decent results. I find that free form techniques (salting and basic blending) worked best. The silk also must be stretched well or the image is distorted and hard to paint. The best silk for this method is Habotai 8 - 12 mm. Crepe De Chine and other fabrics that have a bit of stretch are not recommended.

Heat Transfers

Lynne Heller did a wonderful job with our Heat Transfer Plus Fabrics workshop. She introduced to many for the first time this wonderful medium. For those unfortunate to not have attended, I shall try to explain to you how simple and what great opportunities are possible when you use these papers.
Heat Transfer Paper is a special polymer plastic coated paper which can accept oil based inks or pigments. That means you can draw (oil pastels, crayons, permanent markers, pen ink) or photocopy directly onto the paper. After the image is applied to the paper, you can then simple transfer it to most fabrics, papers, wood, metal or smooth surfaced objects. The image is set and fully washable.

Technology plays a great part in modern heat transfer. The advent of colour photocopier machines allows one to reproduce any photo, object (2D & 3D), diagram, illustration, magazine picture, drawing, or computer image onto the heat transfer papers. If your local copy place has the newer Canon 700 or 800 series machines, they can even directly take computer files from the most popular illustration and photo imaging programs.

The simplest use for this product is to transfer photos to T-shirts. Although it has been done quite often at local T-shirt shops, there is so much more that can be achieved. Imagine producing small images for your quilts, pillows, and duvets.
Personalize clothing with your favorite logos, make your own individualized mouse pads, change the look and feel of you photos by applying them to different papers, the list is endless. This product was originally made for fabric but the three example below only start to touch on the flexibility of the product.

Fabrics
A few students from the class experimented with different fabrics, weaves, colours and textures. All four variables can greatly change the feel of the transfer.

One of the most interesting fabric was silk organza. The translucent nature of the fabric allowed the image to be seen from both sides. This was also a nice fabric to layer over existing images from other fabrics.

The woven patterns in silk jacquards worked with the transparent nature of the transfers. It allowed the jacquard prints to subtlety appear through the transfer, giving it a unique character.

Again using the transparent nature of the product, we were able to use lighter coloured fabrics (blues, greens, greys, peaches, ivory) to slightly tint the images which ever way. Skys appeared teal-like over off-white cottons and clouds became a soft peach on peach coloured ramie.

The different textures of raw silk and silk corduroy also provided a softer image when compared with the sharp clear prints that a smooth Egyptian/Sea Island Cotton gave.

Paper
Have you ever wondered what your favorite photo could look like on hand made paper? Recently a local photographer, Maylynn Quan, transferred some wonderful photos on slightly textured white paper. The paper gave the photos a much warmer and natural look. The textures even came through the photo and gave the solid area much more depth. She matted and framed the work.

Glass, Metal & Wood
Lynne Heller showed us during the workshop some wonderful samples with metal sheet. The effect was amazing. The sheet was highly polished and made it look like a mirror. Imagine what your mirrors, windows, could be transformed into.

How to Transfer
Pre-heat iron for on low 'cotton' setting. Do not use steam. Place transfer colour side DOWN on the garment. Press iron firmly in one area for 10 - 15 seconds. Move to another area and repeat till whole image has been covered. USE TWO HANDS AND BODY PRESSURE WHEN PRESSING TO ACHIEVE MAXIMUM PRESSURE. Immediately reheat entire surface with iron, being certain to cover all edges and corners. Peel transfer from garment while HOT. {date}