Seth's Buried Treasures (Shaving cream fabric: a tutorial)

I just learned that Seth at The Altered Page is having another edition of his famous Digging for Buried Treasure events. The last couple of times I joined this, I visited many wonderful altered artists, artists who think and make art like me. This post originally hit the internet airways on July 14, 2011. If you've been with me since then, or if you have read my tutorials, this will be old news. If you're a recent or new visitor, please enjoy. I have drug this out of the archives, shown the spotlight on it, and put it center stage. Thanks for visiting. Even though I made a couple of mistakes, it's still a good tutorial and produced a fabric surface technique I'm very proud of, especially since I have never seen it on the internet.

In case you're wondering, I'm # 42 on the list, so please check out the other artists. You'll be glad you did.

As promised, here is my tutorial and it is on dyeing fabric using dye based ink and shaving cream.

Materials and tools from upper left, clockwise:

Empty plastic containers
Credit or old hotel card
Shaving cream, inexpensive and not gel
Dye reinkers (I ended up not using these)
Distress reinkers
Stencils of your choice
Fabric of your choice, prepared for dyeing (please note I used part of an old bed sheet that I saturated with water)

Instructions:

Place a bit of shaving cream into a small plastic container. You need to use plastic instead of foam or paper containers, which will absorb the ink and dilute the color. I remember reading that somewhere years ago, but don't remember where. I just remember that you don't want to lose any ink to a paper or foam cup.

Once you have placed shaving cream in each of the cups, begin adding a few drops of dye based ink in each of the containers.

I used various distress inks, because the fabric I chose had previously been subjected to rust and white paint, but left a lot to be desired. Using the distress inks seemed like a good choice for a more vintage look I was sure I would accomplish.

I have found dye based ink, including the brand marked "distress ink," works best when using shaving cream. Although I have used pigment ink with shaving cream, I don't recommend it. Pigment ink is sticky and thicker than dye ink. It ends up making a mess on paper, so I would hate to think what it would do on fabric. Also, you don't want to add solvent based ink or embossing ink to shaving cream (EDIT: apologies for my old camera that took really illegible photos).

Once you have added your ink to the shaving cream, mix it as little or as much as you choose. Mix it a lot and the color will be the same throughout the cream. Mix it a little, and you will get mottled effects.


Lay your stencil in place, then spread the shaving cream and dye ink mix over it.


The big problem with these "vintage" style colors is the light colored ones seem to blend into the background. Perhaps if I try a darker color, it will help. Remember what I said about a mottled look?


Continue the previous steps until you have used all your shaving cream and dye ink mixtures.


Once complete, I laid the fabric out to dry so I could take a photo. It was at this time I realized I should never have wet the fabric. What gave me that idea was you are supposed to wet fabric before dyeing it. However, when using shaving cream, you don't need to wet the fabric. So, do as I say and not as I did and don't wet your fabric before using this technique.


Shaving cream and dye ink dry very quickly, and don't need the fabric to be wet.


Use bright colors for this technique. The dull, drab, vintage-y colors that are prevalent with these distress inks, only blended into the fabric I was using.


You can see that some of the images were nearly lost due to the colors being so similar to the background.

Ruminations:

1. I should never have wet the fabric. These inks spread water around as it is, and wetting the fabric only gave the ink a place to migrate.

2. Choose your ink colors carefully with your background in mind. Perhaps once the fabric has dried, some of the colors will show better.

Overall, I was quite pleased with the results, and if I've saved anyone from making my mistakes, it was well worth it. I hope you enjoyed this and I will add this link to my page of tutorials, so it is easy to find.