Mixed Media Workshop

Do you remember bleaching your jeans back in the late 60's?  For a few days last week and again yesterday because I hadn't put all my stuff away yet, I played with bleach and discharging fabrics.  I had forgotten just how much fun this can be.  (Please remember to use caution-you are using bleach!-with fumes!) I work outside on my screened in porch-some people would call this a "Florida Room" and it's large enough I can spread out and get a good breeze for good ventilation.  When we were splattering our jeans we hadn't developed specific bleaching techniques yet, but today-well today we have a whole store full of bleaching tools and things to use to discharge fabrics.  Foam stamps, fun foam to design your own printing plates, foam brushes, fabric texture plates, clay texture plates, plastic tools, special spray bottles and the list goes on.  So, I gathered up all of these supplies that I would normally use for other techniques and decided to see just what they would do combined with either some liquid bleach or soft gel.  I gathered up a good supply (several yards) of a variety of every black fabric I could find in the quilting room.  I tore these into manageable sizes, roughly a fat quarter size and after dragging it all outside, setting up my work area with pans of water and buckets of soapy water to drop fabrics in. I got started.  It all went so fast because bleach reacts fast, so in a matter of a couple of hours I was done.  I wasn't satisfied, I needed more time to play-so I washed all the tools, emptied all the buckets and washed all the fabrics I had discharged and went to find more fabrics.  I gathered up colored, hand-dyed, printed and over-dyed.  Whatever I could find that held some interest and I went at it again the next day.  Still not satisfied, I attacked my closet for clothes to discharge and wow!  I hit the mother-lode and created some pretty awesome workout clothes to wear to the gym!  DH says he would buy some clothes like that too-so I'd better go attack his closet next!  :-D
Anyway, next month over at the Latest Trends in Mixed Media yahoo group-I will be sharing some of these awesome techniques with you in a free workshop I am putting together.  If you are not a member yet, please go click the button in my sidebar and get yourself registered as a participant in the bleach discharging workshop class.  Come join the fun!