I. Fiber etching
Fiber etching works using the specific type of etching liquid that removes fiber, hence the velvet needs to be a mixture of both rayon and silk. We first prepare our velvet (which was very tricky to buy in Singapore) by steaming its surface, then using a silkscreen and sufficient amount of etching liquid, we slowly applied evenly throughout the entire velvet and remove the screen. We left the velvet to dry over a few days, and the liquid starts eating up almost immediately. We ironed on the reverse side til the thing turns golden brown, and then we used our finger nails to slowly scratch it out. The parts that were sufficiently applied came off very easily, but it was very dusty thus we had to use masks. And lastly we washed it and let dry.
Fig. 1, 2, 3: Process of preparing the velvet, using the silkscreen and the velvet right after application
Fig. 4: Velvet after ironing and removing the fiber
II. Bleaching
We used black and dark colour fabric for bleaching. We diluted the bleach into a spray bottle using half water half bleach ratio, and spray with some pattern created using rope and strings. The concentration of the bleach was the tricky part because the concentration could affect the speed of the bleaching and the whiteness of the bleach.
Fig. 5: Initial pattern
Fig. 6, 7, 8: The initial pattern did not really work because there were too many folds, hence I took out the elastic and hold it by the corner instead
Fig. 9, 10: Final product – before and after drying