fabric printing- primary art workshop-help!

[kate252]

i have bought a ton of fabric from a charity shop - it was £15 and it goes on forever and ever- its ideal for fabric painting in a primary school workshop-

the only thing is- the paints
i have looked into fabric paints and they are expensive- little pots of fabric which are expensive considering they would get devoured in one sitting and this would leave me working at a considerable loss!

my aim is to make a small profit! ( to be paid for my time)

so whyat paints can i use? i was thinking about indian fabricv printing and wondered what paints they use- because they wouldnt survive or make profit on their printing if they usedf those little pots of fabric paints- can you imagine? dipping those fabulous woodblocks into a small dish of "dylon" frabric paint-

so it seems im loosing the plot on this one- it normally comes kind of natural this sought of stuff- i think its because inm not a textile person and havent painted on fabric before

i could use acrylic i suppose

my idea was to use potatoes- dont laugh- but a lot of beautiful indian fabrics have used potatoes- professional textile printers have used them

so i thought of sup[plying a load of different cut shapes with the potatoes as i dont want anyone cutting in my class- and after they had done their design on the fabric banner- i thoguht of dipping the whole banner in a bucket of fabric dye to give the banner a coloured background

the whole aim was for them to choose what colour background after they had done their design so they could see what colour would go best- they are to think aboutn their colour range and to keep it simple with three or four colours that match and are unified

i suppose acrylics ishnt it- has anyone does this kind of thing before?

any help would be much appreciated

the aims were to teach fabric printing and how others have done it in past (african/indian)
to carefully plan a design which is neat and well presented
to think about colour palette
for examples to do a reds/warm
or greens and blues
that kind of thing- to see if they can they have a plan and see it through

any ideas or advice would be appreciated!

[loobyteacher]

Jello makes a great dye! I have a friend that uses it to dye her wool to make skeins. I haven't used it, but it sounds like a cheap way to dye. You might try an online search for organic dyes.... Just some thoughts