I had used paste resist (made of plain flour, rice flour and starch) before when working with indigo, a combed example above left and on the Indigo page; and I had used a paste resist that I had simply drawn into, and used in a more linear way (above right, and Others page), but it took me a while to realise what fun the possibilities were with big blocks of colour!
The stripes are made using my selection of graining tools on the gloopy paste that I had brushed over the relevant section. I also have various other tile adhesive spreaders and homemade battlemented bits of perspex.
The scarves on the left have paste resist stripes across the scarf width which, when dry, big triangles have been coloured in with acid dye print pastes with the aid of masking tape. When the print paste was dry the fabric was steamed and washed thoroughly, including a final go in the washing machine, to ensure all traces of the floury paste was removed, which would affect the feel of the fabric.Then back to the print table for touching up and printing the back with a simple all over block to match the colours and shapes and make it more presentable and interesting - this is visible on the blue and yellow scarf.
The scarf in the middle has one side of the front combed horizontally and the other diagonally., and then I have filled the colour in by hand, rather than using tape, as I felt it reflected better the tiger I had in mind! Again, the back has been block printed appropriately. Some more examples are below.
I discovered that I could see through undyed fabric and the paste gloop to a design drawn out with thick black marker onto paper underneath the fabric. And if I used tracing paper I could reuse the design. I have just been working on scarves and banners incorporating dragons using these techniques, and am amazed by how well the freehand 'drawing' into the gloopy paste works. The outlines are drawn into the wet paste which is allowed to dry thoroughly before painting over with the outline colour, in this case black.Following steaming and washing the fabric may be 'coloured in'. The end of one of the scarves is pictured above right. The design also includes use of a handblocked border.