Saturday, April 20, 2013

This fabric was not destined to be considered art

Do you remember this fabric (old bed sheets) I overdyed from some fabric I originally dyed using food coloring?  I did this on Day 12.  I promised when the fabric was dry, I would iron it and show how it turned out.

Here I'm in my basement and have unveiled these pieces that I thought I was overdyeing.  What happened was, the original "dye," aka food coloring, went away while this fabric was soaking in either roses and potpourri (behind) or thyme (in front).  


After I ironed these pieces, they had seriously beautiful shading, but not much color.

The more I looked at them, the more I appreciated their subtle color.  But of course, I am a color, not SUBTLE color person.

That's when I grabbed my new ironing board and laid two layers of felt on top of it.

I covered the felt with an old bed sheet to protect the felt from paint.  I assembled my art supplies.

Supplies from left:
Golden Fluid Acrylics
Water in large bucket in back
Recycled blocks of wood covered with stamping bits (more on that later)
Foam brush
Empty container
Masking tape, low tack


The first thing I did was take the fabric I had overdyed using roses and potpourri and dampened it with my foam brush.  I was surprised at how much the color changed when I did this.

Next came some Green Gold Golden Fluid Acrylic and a tiny bit of water.

I was surprised how thin the paint now was, but was more than willing to stamp the image onto the fabric.  Note that I have placed some low tack tape on the top and bottom of the fabric to keep it from moving while stamping.

The paint was so thin it turned into a mess and ran.  It looked more like green blobs than circles.

I decided to dump the watery paint and use it straight from the bottle.  This worked marginally better.

However, the paint turned to foam on the foam stamp.  Not sure you can see it, but it's definitely foamy paint on that brush.  That's when I realized I needed to rethink this process.

It was obvious I didn't have the right paint for the job, and the foam brush was only adding to the problem.  However, I liked what I was seeing with this handmade stamp.


I would like to reiterate that for Day 20, I took three blocks of scrap wood and turned them into stamps for fabric.  The one on the left was made using gasket material I crafted from a 1 inch punch.  The middle block was more of the gasket material, but this time I cut it to the size of the block face.  The third block was covered with bubble wrap.

I know this fabric is salvageable, but for now, I have to rethink this process and work with different paint.



7 thoughtful remarks:

Rebeca Trevino said...

i, too, like where you are going with the hand made stamp.
what is 'gasket' material?

Halle said...

You definitely don't let anything get you down...good thinking with the fabric stamps.
Like the color too.

Dandelion and Daisy said...

This is getting interesting! Like an old serial movie...what will she do next? Actually, I love to watch your brave experiments I always learn something! Happy, almost, Birthday!

Dianne said...

I really like the stamp with the large circles on it! I have successfully stamped (and painted) fabric with regular artist's acrylic paint (from a tube) and it is permanent once dry. it can even be washed and will stay on there just fine. don't know if you have any, though. it can be expensive but sometimes you can find it in the mark down bin at craft stores. good luck!

Craftymoose Crafts said...

I like the way you keep charging ahead with a project that I probably would have abandoned after the first "fail"! You will get that fabric dyed yet!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the bit of environmental history. I was fishing water bottles out of a wetland this morning near our home....irritates the living daylights out of me that people litter - lazy is as lazy does.....I know you are an avid recycler, you do earth day proud. xox

Sabina Pamphili said...

I love your sweet blog - it always inspires me to carry on with what I have started and sometimes feel discouraged. Thanks for today. Love the accidentally dyed fabric. It looks ancient and gorgeous.