image and text homework

Our homework this time is causing me trouble. It is to combine a photo that means something to me with some text. Everything I come up with is trite or too personal for putting out there.

As part of our discussion in class, we talked about various ways of getting images onto fabric. I have played with this idea before (here and here) but have never come up with one that I think is wonderful. It was fun to do and I learnt about the program and the process but I haven't had a good idea for its use yet.

In desperation, I went through some old files and came across some playing I did with Photoshop. I have quite a lot (QUITE a lot) of photos of Penny swimming in the Yarra.

I took one of these, at some stage, and played around with getting a textured background image. I can't quite remember which picture I used but it will have been very similar to this one.

 I cropped part of the water and then played around with colour.

The middle one is from the actual photo, then I played with hue and saturation.

I have been looking at various sites on how to transfer images to fabric and paper, as well as reading a few books that have some ideas. The most reliable seem to be ones that used pre-prepared fabric for feeding through the inkjet printer. Quite a lot of ideas come from the ATC books and articles.

I can't remember where I saw this idea (if I didn't misread or imagine it) but I tried it today.
I took another image I had, enlarged it quite a bit and played with hue until I got it to a bluish colour. It turned out quite pixilated but I decided I didn't mind the effect and went ahead and made it A4 sized.

Then I cut a piece of interfacing to A4 size, taped the leading edge to a piece of photocopy paper and put it through the printer - hoping like mad that it wouldn't mess up the printer!

It is not quite as pale as the photo makes it look but it is paler than on the computer.

I have an image. I don't know how colourfast it will be. I am leaving it to dry for 24 hours and then might take a piece and see if it is washable. Not that I intend using it as a wearable or quilt piece, it is just for experimenting with at this stage.

The interfacing is heat adhesive on one side, so I hope the heat sets the print as well. I haven't looked to see if our cartridges are pigment based, which are the more recommended sort, so it might all be just a waste of time. I suppose I will find out soon.

I am not going to fuss about the text at this stage, it is stopping me from playing as I can't think of anything exciting to include.