silk painting 2 with raw edge applique

When we finished the last post about silk painting you should have a nice piece of hand painted silk, which will serve as our back ground. I would suggest fusing to the back of the fabric Pellon’s Wonder Under.

Now you are going to fuse more Wonder Under to un- painted PDF white silk, on which you are going to paint your elements s to be appliquéd to the background fabric. You can draw first on the fabric a picture of what you want in your quilt, flowers, birds, trees whatever you want. Use a quilters disappearing marker or last resort a pencil, NOT a PEN.

Now you can use a product called gutta to out line the lines where that you don’t want the colors to run together, it comes in a water based formula-meaning it will rinse out easily. On the water based gutta you must paint while it’s still wet. It is not totally effective but helpful. I would do a small area at a time so it doesn’t dry out. The water based silk paints are mentioned in previous post, Pebeo Setacolor transparent, and or Dye-na-Flow. These both can be mixed together, they’re water based. You can use them straight out of the bottle undiluted, or add water to thin. To thicken up for details you want to stay put and not run, add Pebeo  setacolor thickener [good stuff!!].   For color mixing consult your books and color wheel [remember those books I mentioned in the last post on this? They are going to be helpful, especially  if you're not skilled with mixing paints].You can add more details on you background fabric if you wish as well.

You can add more layers of color after it drys as well, so don’t muddy the colors up too much. I like some blending so a bit of sprayed on water will accomplish that when you’re ready for blending. Or get a clean brush dipped into water and go over the areas you want to blend. Go lightly with the water either way.

Let it dry, add more colors as needed-highlights shading ect. Hint with areas you want light don’t paint there until you’re highlighting or paint very lightly. Dharma white base is pretty good, but in general it’s hard to add white over dark areas.

Hint 2 if you color mixing is producing colors that are too bright or garish add a tiny tiny drop of black to tone them down.

Hint #3-With shading use the next darker color placed by the lighter area side by side. Now while it’s still wet  go over the two areas  with a wet brush to blend the two.

After it is dry-next day or when ever it is really dry.Peal the paper backing off . Hint- use a pin to make a slight scratch in the paper edge side,  to help get a piece of paper to start pulling the backing  off. Place this wherever you want it on your backing fabric.

Silk painting 101

I’m having so much fun with fabric painting for art quilts, that I thought I’d share a few things about it with you and then include some links to some really great information on fabric painting and dying.

You’ve just got to try it you’ll love , love ,love it.

I’m going to keep this simple and short, you can get a lot more detailed info through the web and the links I’m including as well. This will be the 1st lesson, more will follow in the weeks to come.

To get started you’ll need PFD fabric, it’s not coated with anything that would cause the dye or paint not to take correctly. I  prefer painting on silk, but you can get any kind of fabric you want, cotton, broadcloth & so on. Get WHITE-very important for true colors.

Get a color wheel and a  book or 2 on mixing colors , especially if you’re unfamiliar with painting and color mixing. I would recommend “Color by Design” by Ann Johnson, another good book “Fabric Dyer’s Dictionary” by Linda Johansen. Even a quilter’s 3-in-1 color tool by Joen Wolfrom is very handy.

Now you need paint and a really good line of silk paints is Pebeo Setasilk -the transparents are best for me, or Dye-na-Flow is good, not as vibrant , thinner. These paints are set with a hot iron and are color fast, so this is very easy. Bonus: with the silk paints, when washed they feel soft again like fabric should feel.  Dharma  Trading  Co. [online] has everything you’ll need and some education on their products as as well too. They have it all and ship super fast. I think I should get some free product from this plug, you might mention that to them when you order from them!!HA ha, no really feel free!

You will also need Pebeo thickener, and a lightening agent ,the best is Dharma Pigment Dye WHITE BASE.

These are essentials.

You will need Synthrapol  to pre wash your fabric first then iron it.

And when you finished the painting &  have heat set your creation, you wash it in Retayne to get out any small amounts of   loose dye with out it bleeding into the other colors.

O- TAY you is ready to start!!!

Opps, you is NOT ready to start-, I forgot one little important detail . You’ll need to make or buy a frame to tack your fabric tightly to when painting it, it’s easy to make. A big card board box could be used to stretch out the fabric in a pinch. It will drip, so put plastic under every thing. Believe me lots and lots of plastic!

O-TAY - now you is ready to start…There  are a lot of techniques, it’s a lot like water color. You can spray down your fabric first and the colors when applied will run together beautifully. Spray more on if you want them to blend even more. Tilt the frame to make them run together and blend.

 

Or start with dry fabric, it  gives you more control.You can mix  some water  into your dyes or no water or thicken it with  the Pebeo . You can spray water on when  you’re done  to run everything beautifully together, or not. If you don’t want the running and mixing of colors you can use something called gutta-[more on that later this is you're 1st lesson remember]. Or easier still,  you can  use rubbing alcohol  mixed into the paint instead of  water to thin it, and the paint  it will stay put better &  not blend the colors together as  much.

Play around have some fun it will turn out cool pretty much no matter what you do.

I would suggest to start by applying some pretty colors side by side onto wet  fabric[not dripping wet slightly wet. Spray it with a spray bottle lightly], then when you’re finished applying the paints spray a little more water on  it and tilt it a bit to get the blending and running together. You can add course kosher salt to sprinkled on the wet fabric and it will draw the color into little star burst designs as it drys.[I've even used Epson Salts}  It will brush off and wash off in you final wash.

All the paints and products I mentioned are interchangeable.  MIX EM AND MATCH EM HOW EVER YOU LIKE.  Thin them, thicken them, water them down, or use them straight out of the bottle . They are transparent paints, so you can add more layers of color after they dry as well,  if you want to.

Let dry 24 hours or a good long while,   then heat set it with an iron or even in the dryer.

And viola! This is what you end up with:

 

You can see the color  blending and the  runs and little star bursts . Idn't it pruddy? You betcha!!  Think of all the fun ways you could use this; quilt it, applique  it, make clothing, scarfs. T shirts....endless possibilities.

The next post I'll show you how to paint and applique with the painted fabrics to make a real picture. Like this...

Here's those awesome links I promised you.

The first is my girl Tracy McCabe Stewart [ she not mine, barely knows me], I just love her work she’s a master with fabric design and dying. Look around at her archives there’s so much information on fabric dying and a whole lot more..

And the next link is an awesome video interview with Denise Tallon Havlon on how she achieves her amazing art quilts and painted faces, she explains the fabric painting process she uses really well. It’s on Bonnie  McCaffery’s site, which you definitely should explore, it’s so so good. Put it in your favorites, you’ll want to put Tracy’s in too.