Tien Chiu

  • Home
  • About Tien
    • Honors, Awards, and Publications
  • Online Teaching
  • Gallery
  • Essays
  • Travels
  • Book
  • Blog
  • Dye samples
You are here: Home / All blog posts / Monoprinting
Previous post: First experiments in surface design
Next post: Muslin progress

May 27, 2013 by Tien Chiu

Monoprinting

I’ve spent the last two days working on bits of this and that, but mostly I’ve been doing monoprinting! Monoprinting is great fun, and a wonderful antithesis to the extremely planned world of weaving. In monoprinting, you spread a thin layer of thickened dye or paint on a plate of glass (plexiglass, heavy weight plastic, etc.) and then lay the cloth over plate, transferring the dye to the fabric. It has all the gleeful, spontaneous messiness of finger painting, and because the paint/dye dries quickly in such a thin layer, you have to work fast and print before it dries. It’s improvisational and awesomely fun.

I did seventeen fat quarters on Saturday, and another five or six on Sunday. On Sunday, Sharon (my sewing mentor) came down to play, and we did monoprinting, fish printing, and fashion draping. (Fish painting is where you take a fish, paint the surface with thin paints or inks, and then lay the fabric across the fish, transferring the paint to the fabric and getting a lovely imprint of the body, fins, and scales.) As a result, I have tons of monoprinted fabric, at least six or seven yards’ worth, and I am going to monoprint more today. I am having way too much fun to stop now!

Also on the slate for today is tying and dyeing mandalas (stars). I owe a couple people T-shirts, and I want to practice my star-tying, so I’m going to play with those for a few hours. After that, it will be cleanup time! And there is a lot to clean up…so I am booking the entire afternoon/evening for that.

Here are photos of all the monoprints…enjoy!

IMG_5859 IMG_5858 IMG_5857 IMG_5856 IMG_5854 IMG_5853 IMG_5852 IMG_5851 IMG_5850 IMG_5849 IMG_5848 IMG_5867 IMG_5866 IMG_5865 IMG_5864 IMG_5863 IMG_5862 IMG_5861 IMG_5860

Share this post!

  • Tweet
  • More
  • Reddit
  • Email
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Print

Filed Under: All blog posts, dyeing, surface design, textiles

Previous post: First experiments in surface design
Next post: Muslin progress

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Archives

Tags

aids lifecycle outfits autumn splendor book cashmere coat cats celtic braid coat color study cross dyeing design design class devore doubleweave doubleweave shawls drawing dye samples dye study group gradient colors house infinite warp jacquard loom katazome knitted blanks kodachrome jacket ma's memorial mohair coat network drafted jacket/shawl project network drafting painted warp phoenix rising phoenix rising dress phoenix rising kimono phoenix rising reloaded pre-weavolution project sea turtles taquete tie-dye tied weaves tomatoes velvet weaving drafts web design website redesign wedding wedding dress woven shibori

Categories

  • Africa
  • aids lifecycle
  • All blog posts
  • All travel posts
  • Asia
  • Bangkok
  • Belize
  • Cambodia
  • Central America
  • Chai Ya (Wat Suon Mok)
  • Chiang Mai
  • Chiang Rai (Akha)
  • China
  • chocolate
  • computer stuff
  • creating craft
  • Creative works
  • cycling
  • Delhi
  • Dharamsala
  • drawing
  • dyeing
  • Fiber Arts
  • finished
  • food
  • garden
  • Ghana
  • Guatemala
  • Hanoi
  • Ho Chi Minh City
  • Hoi An
  • India
  • Khao Lak
  • Knitting
  • knitting
  • Ko Chang
  • Laos
  • Luang Namtha
  • Luang Prabang
  • markleeville death ride
  • meditations on craft
  • mental illness
  • musings
  • Phnom Penh
  • powerlifting
  • Rewalsar (Tso Pema)
  • sewing
  • Siem Reap (Angkor Wat)
  • Southeast Asia
  • surface design
  • textiles
  • Thailand
  • travel
  • Vangvieng
  • Vientiane
  • Vietnam
  • Warp & Weave
  • Weaving
  • weaving
  • weavolution
  • writing

© Copyright 2025 Tien Chiu · All Rights Reserved ·

 

Loading Comments...