Awhile back I had tried this idea out in a printmaking workshop and well, learned a couple of things I needed to do differently and was quite excited to finally have an opportunity to put that knowledge to the test.
I also lucked out when visiting my local art stores' inventory sale, as I discovered the Sunprint fabric dye was being cleared out at a rock bottom price.
I guess I was the only one who thought this stuff was pretty cool to use! Lucky me as I headed to the counter with all the stock in my favorite colors.
So I asked each child to create a line drawing of an animal they would be likely to find while hiking in our local forest.
Or maybe something they really enjoyed discovering on our Monday hike.
Once they finished their line drawings and were happy, I put the papers under a piece of acetate and asked them to trace them onto the acetate with India Ink.
Then we put them aside to dry.
Now as fate would have it since I planned an outdoor art camp the first week of summer camps, the forecast for the week was rain.
Except for Monday when we hiked and Wednesday so as I collected t-shirts the parents had brought to camp for the kids to do the printmaking project on, I asked them to cross their fingers for enough sun to do it on Wednesday.
Evidently we all needed to cross our eyes, toes, legs, arms and fingers because while we did not wake up to rain on Wednesday, it also was not a beautiful sunny sky either. So with hopes the overcast sky would burn off as the morning proceeded, we took off for another hike to create some watercolors in the woods.
When we got back the skies were not great, but I told the kids it was now or never as the next two days were forecasting lots of rain. I was pretty upfront with them that I was not really sure what would happen if we didn't have real sunny skies, so it was a bit of a discovery for all of us.
I had placed some sturdy cardboard into each shirt and using masking tape, secured them tightly to the cardboard. The kids painted on the sunprint dye and then while it was wet, (lesson #one I learned from the first time), they placed their India Inked acetate over the top and pressed down.
We then put them out into the sun which was trying to find a break in the clouds and hoped for the best.
I left all the shirts outdoors longer than usual and when I went out to check on them, discovered that asking the parents to just cross their fingers had been enough. In hindsight we didn't need to cross toes, legs, arms or eyes as the project was successful!
HALLELUJAH
When finished, I followed the instructions for setting the dyes, washed their t-shirts that evening at my home, and had them stacked ready to wear when they arrived at camp the next morning.
Some kids put their shirts on immediately and others came sporting their creations to camp the next day.
I am thrilled they were all happy with them and am sure they will enjoy wearing them throughout the summer. I have no doubt they will receive a bounty of compliments on their original t-shirts too, far more than the bounty of sunshine we had during the week of Artistic Nature camp.
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