This whole thing got started when Mistress Jacquette posted a picture of some shalwar she blockprinted in the SCA Ottoman group on Facebook.
Baroness Sibella had done some block printing previously and had a local friend willing to make some blocks for her at a very reasonable price, so she organized a block printing day at her house. I already had a smallish Ottoman carnation block that I'd never used and Sibella ordered a block of çintamani dots and a lovely Ottoman tulip block.
My original plan was just to play around with scrap fabric learning the technique, but I decided the night before to cut out a kaftan out of some red linen I had on hand. I thought about block printing the fabric and then cutting the pieces out, but with my usual layout, half the gores would have the pattern upside down on them. And that made my OCD-ness twitch despite there being extant garments made that way.
So Pietro and I drove down to Sibella's and joined Rhonwyn, Angharat, Baronessa Isabetta and Hannah for a day of fun. Mistress Leda made a surprise appearance to keep us company and work on her current gown (well away from the paint)
I thought I was going to use my small carnation block with gold paint, but a test on the fabric proved that was a poor choice. The larger blocks would make the process much faster and the gold against the red looked very faded. When I was telling another friend, who has experience block printing, about the afternoon, her comment was: "Red is difficult to print on -you're very brave to use it for your very first attempt." Brave, not so much. I just didn't know any better.
Baroness Sibella had done some block printing previously and had a local friend willing to make some blocks for her at a very reasonable price, so she organized a block printing day at her house. I already had a smallish Ottoman carnation block that I'd never used and Sibella ordered a block of çintamani dots and a lovely Ottoman tulip block.
My original plan was just to play around with scrap fabric learning the technique, but I decided the night before to cut out a kaftan out of some red linen I had on hand. I thought about block printing the fabric and then cutting the pieces out, but with my usual layout, half the gores would have the pattern upside down on them. And that made my OCD-ness twitch despite there being extant garments made that way.
Lafayette and Charlie supervising the kaftan cutting
So Pietro and I drove down to Sibella's and joined Rhonwyn, Angharat, Baronessa Isabetta and Hannah for a day of fun. Mistress Leda made a surprise appearance to keep us company and work on her current gown (well away from the paint)
Sibella made sure we had plenty of supplies!
photo credit: Pietro
I thought I was going to use my small carnation block with gold paint, but a test on the fabric proved that was a poor choice. The larger blocks would make the process much faster and the gold against the red looked very faded. When I was telling another friend, who has experience block printing, about the afternoon, her comment was: "Red is difficult to print on -you're very brave to use it for your very first attempt." Brave, not so much. I just didn't know any better.
Nope. Gold is not going to work. Onto Plan B!
Turquoise, however, worked well, especially when lightened a bit with some additional white. Personally, I love turquoise and red together, and it's a very Ottoman combination, so turquoise it was!
Plan B: Turquoise!
photo credit: Pietro
There were 2 of every stamp Sibella had ordered and Isabetta and Angharat were kind enough to ink blocks while I was stamping, but even still, it took a couple of hours to get all the pieces stamped.
Stamping a sleeve
photo credit: Pietro
The back panel taking shape
Fabric drying in Sibella's Sunroom
There are a few oopses on the pieces, but all and all pretty good for a first attempt, I'd say. Now I'm hooked and want to do more!
SQUEE!
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