Fashion Mixed Media Prints and Frame

Fashion: A glance back in time

This is a project in two parts: the first is print making and a little mixed media to create mini fashion prints; secondly, putting them together in a frame or mount to finish the process. This project originally featured as part of my role in the Rinea DT.

Print making

Starting with the background layer, I saw a technique where you could use a laser print as a resist, and initially I was going to use this combined with typography to add a texture to the background. However, would the same resist would work in the shades of grey. Queue black and white photos and lots of experimentation.

You need high contrast, graphical style photos for this technique to work. The final photos I laser printed were high contrast, heavily tonered prints of London, New York and Paris; accordingly I selected fashion rubber stamps from Crackerbox & Suzy. I was also constrained size wise as I only had the small shaped Gelli plates; something I’ve since added larger sizes to my collection. Consider is if you want to invert your image so you pull off the highlights.

Start by applying a thin layer of paint to your gel plate; less is definitely more with this technique. Next, lie your printed photo toner side down onto the plate, smooth over the plate using your hand or a brayer. Pull the print back to reveal the image on your plate. Allow the paint to slightly dry on the plate, and clean your brayer. Apply a thin layer of white paint using your brayer to pull your print. Use a cartridge paper or similar to pull your print or cheap white card.

I highlighted the elements of some of the prints where they added to the story of the print; such as the phone box above adds to the London story.

Taking it a step further: adding fashion stamps by Crackerbox & Suzy

The printed backgrounds were only a starting point though and they were very much tied into my stamp selection. To complete the prints, I wanted to use bold colours to contrast against the black and white backgrounds.

Stamp the mannequin fashion stamp image onto yellow, red and blue card. I added to the mannequin stamped images with doodling to allow the colour to come through stronger; while also adding tints of colour with inks and blending brushes or markers. My approach was all about extending the designs to make the stamps more versatile

I also added a fashion related verse using WOW embossing powder for added texture without adding dimension. At this point, I was very much keeping my options open for the finished presentation.

The frame

I wanted the pieces together into one frame, but the frame itself to be both handmade and able to standalone. To do this, I reinforced the Rinea foiled paper with a view to make the piece have longevity. You could just use coated cardstock such as a gloss or metallic foiled finish.