Technique 8: Bleaching and Rastering

Technique 8: Bleaching and Rastering

Dyeing with Bleach:

Dyeing fabric with bleach is the idea of creating uniquely colored or patterned fabrics by removing the colour of the original fabric.

Materials: 

  1. Bleach
  2. Spray bottle or brush or dripper
  3. Cotton fabric (coloured)
  4. Objects chosen as a stencil- e.g. rubber bands, bottles caps, tapes, etc

Steps Needed: 

  1. Fill the bottle with a desired amount of bleach.
  2. Cover table with plastic to protect the table.
  3. Place the cloth and stencils chosen on the table.
  4. Spray bleach over the cloth and leave it for approximately 10-15 minutes to see the effect.

Trials #1: 

I sprayed the bleach over the cloth randomly and attempted to scrunch the cloth at certain areas, hence explaining the creases. This is the final result.

Trials #2: 

I tied the cloth in certain areas using rubber bands, hoping to have the spread out radial kind of effect from the bleach. However, that did not work too well and turned out to look like random bleach spots.. This is the final result.

Overall, I feel that the bleach is a little hard to control as it does not accommodate mistakes or slips very well. We can learn to have better control over how the bleach flows and sprays and perhaps make more interesting organic shapes from printing daily object surfaces on the fabric.

Applications:

Tie-dye bleach jeans.

Painting on fabrics with bleach- portraits and beyond.

Bleach dye canvas tote bags

Creating unique patterns on fabrics with bleach.

Rastering:

Procedures: [can be obtained from product design ADM website]

 1) Preparing File (Export from Rhino)

Vectors are needed in the CorelDRAW for clean and efficient laser cutting. Rhino is one of those software’s that exports vector curves and shapes. *.DXF format is the optimal format to be used in the laser cutting.

2) Starting the Laser Cutter

Before using the machine, please ensure that everything that’s necessary to operate the machine safely.

3) Turning on the Compressed Air

Here is another clip that shows you how to turn on and adjust the compressed air. Please do this step as soon as the machine is started,

4) Laser Focusing

Laser focusing determines the laser intensity that passes through the materials that you are cutting. Laser will not cut properly and efficiently if it is off-focused. In some cases, if may even ignite, damaging the laser machine in the process. Watch the clip to learn how to focus manually.

5) CorelDraw Settings

In CorelDRAW X3, follow the instructions in the video for proper settings. This step is very important as it will determine the final outcome of the cutting.

6) Print Layout & Setup

Setting page layout helps calibrating the canvas dimensions that you are printing on.

​​Before proceeding to printing (laser cutting), Print Setup is an important procedure as it determines the nature of this cutting session. A list of settings and details has been provided on the right side of the page for reference

Samples of rastering done: 

  

Trial:

I tried rastering text on acrylic. I wanted to see how a simple “Hello” turns out. The effect is quite nice since the words are white after rastering. I also laser cut a few small squares/ rectangles.

In summary, the effects of rastering are more defined on acrylic than on wood. However, if one prefers to have the gradient effect where there are slight changes to the colour of the raster, giving the piece some depth, I think the wood will be a better choice.

Applications:

Creating cool board games on acrylic.

Raster portrait art:

Personalised photo frames:

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