The honey bear tale

This story begins with a honey bear. This honey bear originally held honey, but now it holds nothing. However, because it is so pliable, it is the perfect solution for a person like myself, born with a rare form of arthritis, who can't squeeze a pastry tube. This honey bear will help tell the tale of a fabric technique I have shown before, but have now modified.


Oh look. The honey bear is hiding!


On the other hand, Bleubeard is not hiding, but wandering out into the shady part of the grass (or what is left of it after this long, record breaking, hot, very dry summer).


He appears to be studying where the shade ends and the sun begins.


We'll leave him to his devices while we check out the materials for this project. You can see I've now added a few items to the table that I initially failed to bring outside.

Materials clockwise from back left:
Bleubeard (OK, he's just for show and not part of the materials)
Bucket filled with four cups of water
Empty cup to use in design
Several plastic bags, some new, some used, to cover work surface and hold fabric in place
Flour designated for crafting only
Fabric torn in various sizes
Empty honey bear container
Squeegee
Painters tape (low tack)
1 cup measuring cup partially filled with additional water
1/2 cup measuring cup
Chop sticks for stirring and writing
Plastic bag to cover work surface


The tale begins with the 4 cups of cold water, a chop stick for stirring, flour, and part of an old sheet that was taped to the plastic for stability.


It continues when I measure the flour which I plan to add 1/2 cup at a time, beating until all lumps are gone.


It didn't take long until I realized the chop stick was not the right tool for stirring 4 cups of flour into the water, so it was off to the house for a "bigger stick."


A whisk made much quicker work of the process.


Once the flour was well mixed with the water,


the little honey bear took over to tell the tale.


Because his squeeze top would leak at this angle, I placed the cover back on him. You can see the flour/water mixture is quite wet and took well to the fabric. The honey bear is pleased.


The little honey bear held a lot of mix, as is evident even after I added the mix to the second fabric. I'm not very good with "random" patterns, but I really tried to make these random both in size and position.


There was still some flour/water mix left in the honey bear after I attempted writing. Now you see why I don't like my handwriting.


Finally, after all kinds of squiggles and words of love, the honey bear was now quite empty!

I left each piece of fabric taped to its plastic backing and laid them on the ground to dry.


I replaced the honey bear's lid and placed it aside so it wouldn't dry before I could clean it. Then I added another 1/2 cup of flour, because I felt the mix was a bit too thin for spreading.

Next, I ran a bead of mix across the above fabric and used the squeegee to spread the mix. However, I accidentally deleted the photo of that step. And when it was gone, it was most assuredly and most horribly gone (to paraphrase the Wizard of Oz)!


You can see the results of the squeegeed fabric with the word "love" written several times using a chop stick. When I tried to lift the fabric, it was now too heavy, so I left it in place and


moved to the other side, only to discover where Bleubeard had been napping after I started to pull the chair away from the table to take the photo.


You can see the squeegee in the upper left of the photo. I used the same technique on this fabric, running a thick bead of mix along the top of the fabric and using the squeegee to spread the mix. I then used the old cup to make circular impressions in the mix.

It was quite windy by this time, so I had to weigh the plastic down on the edges while the fabric dried a bit. I then cleaned the materials that had mix in or on them and returned them to their proper storage places. Once dry enough to move, I took all the fabric pieces with the plastic intact, inside overnight.


The next morning, although it was quite windy, I hung each of the fabric pieces on the line. Some of the pieces are beginning to curl at the bottom. This is to be expected.


You can see the flour/water mix is beginning to dry, because it is starting to change colors. As an aside, don't you just adore my clothespin bag made by a friend? She used tea dyed fabric in the design.


For now, this is my favorite piece, maybe because it took the longest to make, and maybe because I anticipate visualizing how it will look once the paint is added. Hopefully, I will be able to show the finished fabric pieces either Thursday or Saturday. I know this is a very long post, but I hope you enjoyed the tale of the honey bear and how I used it in my resist dyeing. I really LOVE how I am able to gently squeeze the flour mix (using both hands) from the bear and neither my hands nor the bear were hurt afterward!