steganography
“The term steganography has been used to describe widely varied methods of encoding textual information, from lemon juice invisible ink to encrypted digital files."
A print by Candace Hicks, tested during her workshop on invisible printmaking at SGCI 2019 in Dallas. She used clear, UV reactive ink to hide a secret message. Her other method was the cyan text hidden amongst a red ant pattern, described fully elsewhere.
I designed the print knowing it would end up as silkscreen prints, so I purposely made the lines an even black weight. I made an attempt to copy the pattern onto a 9x12” sheet of acetate as a film for the silk screen process, but it was unsuccessful from the beginning and ultimately futile. The lines were not even and the ink was not completely opaque, which would break the illusion of a continuous pattern.
I also went back into Illustrator occasionally to see what the pattern would look like at different frequencies of repetition (repeating over 9x12” versus repeating over a wall size 120”x144”)
I first printed the repeat on paper. I purchased an 18x24” pad of bond paper, knowing the ultimate goal for these prints would be to wheat paste them on a wall as wallpaper (which works better with thinner paper). I printed about 60 of the 100 sheets in the giant paper pad.
I wanted to create a background for secret messages, in the same style of her red ant pattern. However, I also wanted the pattern to be more complex, in the style of Dan Funderburgh, where small details can hide amongst busy and familiar shapes. I borrowed a few elements from a previous pattern I had made from the experiences of Nellie Bly in her account “Around the World in 72 Days” (based of course on Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne, though she completed the circumnavigation in under 80). These original elements included her cigarette case, teacup, lamp (the lamp from the chapter where she met Jules Verne in France), and bird (from a passage where a crow was stealing her toast in the morning - coincidentally I used the bird as an homage to the famous William Morris pattern “The Strawberry Thieves” but did not make the connection between thieving birds until after this design was complete).
So I had it printed big instead!! I sent a file at 15”x32” to the kind folks at G & S Dye on Dundas West, very close to McCaul Street. The film looks beautiful even pinned up to the wall of the studio.
After printing on paper at the printmaking studio, I spoke with the technician in the MAAD textile studio to see if I could use the tables for printing yardage. The studio is very organized, and has sign up sheets for everything. I set aside an entire day to complete the printing on fabric, and asked my friend C. Johnson to come help me print. Printing this pattern as yardage was not an easy task. The repeat I designed has many places where tiny lines had to meet up. When I exposed the image on my screen, I was not precise with how square the film was to the edges so it was at a slight angle. We compensated for this by taping bits of cardboard at one corner of the screen so when it was lined up against the metal bar at the bottom, it would print at the correct angle to intersect. C. was a great help.
In all, I had calculated I would need about 6 yards of fabric to cut the pieces for a full three piece suit. I might have needed a little more, even to make up for the garments needing to be cut vertically (with the pattern facing the right way on the clothes, not sideways) or areas where the image did not print as well. However, the amount we printed ended up being just enough.
The full suit! Each piece was uncomplicated to sew, perhaps the most complicated (and best fitting) garment being the lined vest. The jacket was deceivingly simple. I also used leftover fabric to fashion a bow tie and hat band. It was clear from the start that because the wallpaper and suit are made from different materials (and because the suit has shape, and fits around a body instead of a more formless single garment like a poncho), that I was not intending to disappear perfectly into the wallpaper. However, the pieces of the suit blend incredible well with each other, as the single sheets of wallpaper blend incredibly well when lined up properly. While in the everyday I usually wear comfortable tshirts or dresses that could double as pjs, I feel more comfortable in a well-fitted suit of dense cotton than I would in some kind of silk robe or shapeless tunic.
I used a few separate sewing patterns that I still had from high school, never used. This was the perfect opportunity to create the articles of clothing I had wanted to make for so many years, in a way that truly did them justice. Pictured here is a pattern piece for pants. Note how the pattern is running vertically, I’m relieved to have had enough fabric, but I had to get creative with how each pattern piece was laid out on the fabric.
If I tried to write many secret lines on a wall in a different garment, I would only be distracted with its fluttering about. The fitted suit feels more intentional, and knowing I was capable of making it with my own hands gives me greater confidence. So finally, with my “Invisibility Suit” I set out to try the originally intended purpose of this wallpaper - write secret messages on it. I had hoped to perform this stream of consciousness (almost Surrealist “automatic writing”) exercise outside in public, but wanted to maintain recent social distancing protocols. The first attempt was an overwhelming success, I only wish I could share it with more strangers. Perhaps some day soon I will be able to take this project to the outside world.
