5.07.2005

And Now For Something Different

I took it into my head to PAINT on some fiber yesterday. Without any idea of what I was doing of course. Those fringed cotton placemats I got at the rummage sale were fresh out of the washer and something about the damp cloth got me to thinking what paint would do. Last fall I bought an acrylic paint additive (GAC) which is supposed to help heatset paint on fabric. All I know about acrylic on fiber is that once it's dried, your'e screwed - it's there for keeps. Years ago, everything I owned had paint on it somewhere. I picked up some odds and ends of different brands and types of fiber paint so I rounded everything up and took it down to the kitchen reasoning that this would be wetwork. I did not stop to think what to do with wet things once finished so I hung them with safety pins from clothes hangars with newspaper on the floor for drips. Does anyone out there in blogland do this kind of thing? Clues are welcome.
This is a linen dinner napkin that was quite wet when I started. The paint creeps all over the place. OK if that's what you are looking for. I don't think that crease will ever come out.
This is a cotton picnic napkin complete with an unruly fringe. The Jacquard metallic paints really work well - the underlying tint sinks in leaving the glitz on the surface.
I started this piece while I was still up NY. I had rolled a bunch of scraps into a bundle and stuffed them into my traveling sewing bag. One of my scores from the rummage sale included a set of woven cotton placemats that were really thick so I used one as a base and tacked a few interesting batik scraps in place. I added the painted circular element and started machine quilting the piece. I want to go slow with this once because I don't want to screw it up. So far, I like it.

5 Comments:

Logan said...

I like it - kind of cosmic pizza-ish with a dash of something funky.

11:35 PM  
Sonji Hunt said...

Of course, I love them, Deborah. Wet-into-really-wet painting gets the best looking layered effects in my opinion. You can achieve a lot of depth. It just takes forever for anything to dry. I really like the suggestive nature of the organic forms that origniate from the paint fanning out. The quilting in the bottom piece is looking great. I have such a problem with this in my own work and I really learn a lot looking at how you quilt your pieces.

9:34 AM  
JulieZS said...

Love the painted stuff, just great! You asked for ideas on what to do with the wet stuff. I usually wrap up in plastic garbage bags. If you roll it right you can keep the fabric from touching itself. Or there is always the clothesline outside, then you have a colorful lawn for a while (grin).

1:40 PM  
Kat B said...

Your stuff is beautiful..I love the one where the paint kept moving. I've been doing alot of fabric painting lately and I use a piece of form core covered with white contact paper to lay the fabric flat...if you take it out in the sun it dries really quickly.

9:06 AM  
deb said...

thanks kat, I am quilting that one now. when I think its done, I'll put up some more pics.

8:29 PM  

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