Second Thursday Tutorial (on Wednesday): cheesecloth

I'm having trouble keeping my internet going.  That normally happens when it rains, but the rains aren't supposed to hit until about 2 to 3 a.m. my time.  If I don't drop by to visit for awhile, you at least know why.  Now let's hope I can keep my internet connection going through this tutorial.

I'm posting this a day early so I can be available for Rain's Art Date tomorrow.  Originally, I was going to continue with my Lutrador tutorials, but since Jo's theme this month at Art Journal Journey is Texture, I thought I would share something that might inspire others in their quest for texture.

As with all my tutorials, I'll begin with the supplies.  From left to right:

Cheesecloth*
Scissors
Water
Spoon
Plastic lid used as a palette
Disposable gloves
Parchment paper or Teflon non-stick craft mat

*Cheesecloth is 100% cotton and will take paint well.  You can buy cheesecloth at your grocery store or market in the baking department, or at the hardware or paint store in the paint department.  Cheesecloth may be more tightly or loosely woven, depending on where you purchase it.  You should experiment with more than one style and brand to see which you prefer.

Now it's time to pull out your paint.  I am using fluid acrylics, because I like the fact they can be watered down and not lose their color (pigment).  Craft acrylics, on the other hand, when watered down, will lose their pigmentation and act more like pale watered down watercolors.

Open your cheesecloth and decide

how much you want to use on the project. 

Cut the cheesecloth into manageable pieces.  Remember, the cheesecloth is folded into four ply, so you are only seeing 1/4 of the surface in each of these pieces.  Don't be too careful with your cutting either, because you don't want precision with this step. 

Allow your cheesecloth to sit in water long enough for it to get completely wet.

Remove one piece and wring out well.  Do as I say and not as I do, because my hands don't wring well.

Choose three analogous colors.  I was shocked that I had NO green except the green gold that was truly green.  I was sure I had tons of green to play with.  Sadly, that was not the case.  Unfortunately, I had to use colors that were not analogous for this part of the project.

It appears I didn't shake the colors enough when I laid them out on the palette.  I was surprised how much the two green ones ran.

Use about a teaspoon of water to facilitate mixing.

Mix the three colors together with the water.  This isn't rocket science, so a bit more or less water isn't going to hurt. 

Making sure you are wearing gloves, run your moist (or in my case, wet) cheesecloth through the paint.

Do the same for as many of the pieces of cheesecloth you have dedicated to these colors.

Because I'm incredibly cheap frugal, I mopped up the excess paint with some German text that was handy.

Then it was off to clean things a bit.   I learned that once the paint dried on the plastic palette it didn't want to come off.

Now I truly DO have three analogous colors.

I learned from before I didn't need much paint, but wasn't expecting the one paint to come rushing out.

Goodness, it looks like a mess to me.

Slightly better than I anticipated, but still not exactly what I was hoping for.

All I can hope is they will lighten when they dry.

Now it's time to play the waiting game so they can dry overnight.  More tomorrow.

They still weren't dry the next day, so the waiting game continued.

Finally dry, it was now time

to cut them.  You should cut them on the bias wherever possible so they will stretch in whatever way you need them to.

One strip is  

now ready to be used.  

I had a plan.  I'm not someone who can paint things that are realistic.  In fact, I'm not much of a painter at all.  I don't draw.  It's just not something I care to do, or even learn.  We all have our strengths and weaknesses, and I am well aware of mine.

I was hoping, though, that I could create a scene of a lake and a forest.

It worked better in my mind than on paper, but I'm still happy with this abstract I seem to have created.

The forest turned out to be a bit puny, but the sky and the clouds turned out great.  The clouds are cheesecloth from a different batch and the weave is different.

The lake was supposed to be an oval, but when I tried to sew it that way, the shape got lost in the sewing.  The foreground was supposed to be darker, and initially, it was.  But once I sewed it in place, it didn't look like foreground anymore.  I thought about sewing vertical stitches to portray grass, but I don't have a way for feed dogs to drop, which meant it would take forever to twist and turn the paper.

I felt like something was lacking.

Then it hit me.

I could turn the foreground into a field of flowers.

Now I like it much better.  It's still an abstract, but one I actually like.

Ruminations:

I ended up with far more of one color than another in each of my color blendings.  It works best when the colors are equally blended, but not blended enough you get "mud."

In the past, I have used permanent inks to dye cheesecloth and they didn't change the "hand," or the softness of the cheesecloth.  Acrylic paint, even good paint, stiffens the cheesecloth.  It will do the same to your 100% cotton fabrics too, unless you use a product that softens the hand of the paint.  I know they make such a product, but I've never used it and am not sure what it's called.

If you want to accentuate the color of your cheesecloth, you might want to use watercolors or water soluble crayons to paint the background, like I did the lake.

I used two different variegated threads, but you might have clear thread (which I don't) that you want to use so the sewing doesn't show.

I suggest, instead of a complete scene like I created, you might want to use painted cheesecloth as accents or to create a bit of texture around your fabric in an art quilt.

________

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  I created it for Jo's (at Let's Art Journal) Texture theme.  She is our host this month at Art Journal Journey.

As soon as this post goes live you will be able to find it any time on my Tutorials page under Painting cheesecloth.