Batik, Tie Dyeing, Stenciling, Silk Screen, Block Printing

Book excerpt: Stenciling, batik, block printing, tie dyeing, freehand painting, silk screen printing, and a number of novelty decorations such as relief and ball point painting, flocking, and transferring pictures are all covered in this well-known introduction. If you have ever wanted to create your own fabric designs, from adding stenciled or printed details to creating overall designs with batik or tie dying, this book will guide you quickly and easily to the best techniques. Through over 350 illustrations and complete step-by-step explanations, the author leads you through every step of each technique from gathering materials and creating designs all the way through until the finishing touches have been completed. Along the way you will have learned basic design considerations — the way each technique creates its own design limitations, two- and three-color processes, the best inks and dues for each technique, the tools (including how to make many of them), the working area set up, and many unusual effects with basic exercises, specific projects, and the best procedures for using all the basic methods you are likely to use. With so many methods contained in one book, you can easily discover the ones best suited to your own time, budget, and needs. In addition, a number of illustrations of completed items give you a better idea of the possibilities of each technique and show the best examples of each. Artists, designers, students, and craftsmen will welcome this opportunity to learn a number of techniques for the hand decoration of fabric. By the time you finish you will be well acquainted with the most successful methods that you can use and can go on to design and decorate fabrics on your own.