A failed tutorial

 

Today I'm going to share an experiment that didn't work.

As always, here are the materials I will be using in this project (from left):

 

White bed sheet

Ferns

Scotch tape (clear tape)

Scruffy brush 2 inch 

Titan buff fluid acrylic paint (Golden brand)

Scissors

Bucket with water

Plastic bag covering plastic coated sign

I used the scissors to cut enough of the bed sheet in order to tear strips to size.

After tearing the bed sheet, I placed the torn sheets in the water.

I allowed the fabric to become completely saturated.

I laid the saturated fabric on the plastic board and photographed it before I straightened it and removed the air pockets.

I laid the ferns on the wet fabric, then held them in place using bits of the tape.

I used the last of my Titan Buff paint on and around the ferns.  By the time I added the last of the paint, it was too thin to make a good sun print.

 

Lesson learned: Make sure to have enough full strength paint to cover the fabric if you want a good sun print.

 

Thanks for joining Bleubeard and me today.  Bleubeard decided to stay in the cool office while I toiled in the sun and heat.  Check back tomorrow to see how I attempted to fix the problem.

 

What's On Your Workdesk this 485th Wednesday? Sun printing fabric

This will be my final WOYWW until I can get Mr. Linky working again.  I have once again asked Helen (H) to link me, and she has graciously agreed in true desker friendship, but it's not fair to her to have to do so, especially when others are vying for the # 1 slot.

Several people asked questions about the sun printing I did two weeks ago, I decided to create one more set of prints.  That means my work desk today is my front porch and driveway.  Julia, our desker queen and host at Stamping Ground hopes we will avoid long posts, so I will try to be brief, yet take you through the steps and hopefully answer your questions.

You need something sturdy like heavy cardboard or plastic for your base.  Then you need to cover that with something plastic that will accept water.  Mrs. D (Chris) asked if this technique worked with paper, and I am not sure, but if so, you would need very heavy watercolor paper, probably 300 lb. This weight of paper is like card stock.  300 lb. paper will dry flat without buckling and can take quite a bit of abuse. The reason I say that is because the fabric must be very wet when you start the project and kept wet while you spread the paint around. 

You can buy white cotton, or use an old bed sheet like I've done.  Fabric paints specifically created for sun printing can be purchased, but I use fluid acrylics.  You can water down heavy body acrylics, but DO NOT USE craft paint.  The pigment isn't strong enough.  Because the fabric is wet, the paint will begin to spread.

You can use a brush for each paint color, but I use the same brush for both and allow the colors to blend.  I usually apply three colors, but for this one, I chose only two.  If you are slow, your fabric will begin to dry, so you must add more water.  As you can see, my fabric began to dry, so I had to smooth the fabric out after I had painted it.

Once your background is to your liking, add your MASKS.  DO NOT USE STENCILS because they leave many white spots. 

It's now time to place the fabric in the heat.  Although it is called "sun printing," you don't actually need sun.  You DO NEED HEAT.

Be sure your masks are laid flat against the fabric.  Any element that isn't flat will not print, like the tail on the top right metal rocking horse.

Be sure it's not windy when you sun print your fabric,

or you'll find the fabric stuck to the plastic support and flipped upside down in the grass like I found this side.  You can tell some of the rocking horses were lost before the fabric under them dried, leaving shadows or ghosts.

The idea behind this is for the exposed fabric to dry quicker than the fabric under the mask.  The heat then slowly draws or wicks the paint slowly from under the mask, leaving the imprint, in this case some of my flat rocking horses.

It was obvious the rocking horse cookie cutter was not right for the job, because there was not enough surface to call it a true mask.  Stacy asked why we should not use stencils. When the paint is wicked away, all that is left are large blobs of white or whatever background color you started with.

What surprised me most was when I tried to color compensate this piece of fabric, I noticed the textured harlequin pattern embedded in the sheet.   Possibly a bonus, possibly a distraction.  I suspect you noticed the rocking horses I shared in this post that were from my collection!

Thanks for visiting today.  Your visit is always welcome, even though I can't leave comments to those on some G+ blogs, Instagram, Tumblr, and Facebook.  For everyone else, I'll be by to visit, although I seem to be playing nothing but catch up lately.  If you are coming from Julia's, please leave your number.  And Julia, please forgive me for this extra long post.

Dyed (not died)

I had these photos on my camera, so thought I should share them today, since I'm still not ready to stay for any length of time on my computer.  Now is the time I wish I had wi-fi and a laptop.  I could sit in bed and visit everyone.  Unfortunately, that isn't the case.

Last autumn, I sun dyed some white bed sheet fabric using fluid acrylics.  If you missed the post where I dyed the keys using the same process, it is here. Be aware, the link no longer opens in a new window.

A couple of years ago, I bought 10 yards of some ugly leaf pattern fabric for $4.00 (USD) at my local thrift store.  I'm not sure what I was thinking, because it is not something I can easily work with.  That's when I decided to try various dying techniques.

I started with sun dyeing, because it was a beautiful sunny and not too windy day.  For the left side, I combined yellow, orange, and gold fluid acrylics.

I pressed leaves I had dried the previous year into the wet fabric.

Since the pattern in the fabric was so large, I also chose a couple of large leaves, too.

Next, I combined turquoise and blue fluid acrylics and

pressed more leaves into the very wet fabric.

I found a single rock in case the wind picked up.  That's when I realized I had a shadow of my arm in the picture.

I backed up a bit so my body wasn't in the picture.  The sun was practically overhead at that time.

Fast forward to the next day and here are the results.

I admit, the results, although they were acceptable,


were not what I was hoping for.

Here is the warm fabric

laid out on my dining room table.

Now I just need to iron the fabric and it will be ready to use if and when the spirit moves me.

I see I'm going to need to rethink this fabric and the type of dyeing I will need in order to turn this fabric into something I will actually enjoy using.

Thanks for visiting today.  I hope to catch up with everyone later today (Sunday).  Thanks for being so patient and waiting for me to catch up on your lives and your art.

Sort, sort, sort

I decided to participate in a new project thought up by the incredible

Seth Apter who invited us to join him in his year long collaborative project he calls ARTifacts.  You can see his first post announcing it here and his second post sharing his first ARTifacts here.  Since Seth first announced it, I knew I wanted to join the collaborative.  I even knew the book I wanted to create, so Thursday

I decided to sort some of the sewn pages I had created in hopes I would have enough that would speak to me.  I know this looks like a real mess at the moment.

I sorted and sorted and sorted.  I made sure that no two page colors were the same (i.e. next to each other).

That alone took forever.   I created signatures of 48 pages each.  I always put two signatures in a book.  That means there are 96 pages in each book I create.

I kept out pages for a Paris scrappy journal, a seasons scrappy journal, and an art doll scrappy journal, but I don't have enough pages for any of these yet.

However, of all the pages I sorted,

none of them spoke to me.

The good news is, I have enough pages to make SIX scrappy journals from what I have sorted

and I have hundreds more to go through as I sort the rest of these.

Because I stand to work, I needed a day to recoup.  So yesterday (Friday)

I sorted more.  I now had sorted enough to create five more scrappy journals.

Before I gave up, I sorted these, and have enough to make four more scrappy journals.

That makes 15 scrappy journals in all that are ready to be sewn to fabric covers.

These are all that I have left to go through.

These are all I've sorted, and that includes the art doll, seasons, and Paris pages that are in cardboard priority mail containers.  The sorted and assembled ones are in tyvek containers.

I could tell I was in trouble when all that spoke to me were these eight.  I need a total of 24 to make 96 pages.  Yes, I'm a math major, so here's how I got the number.  Each page is folded in half, then decorated on both sides.  Each signature contains 12 of these four sided pages which consist of 48 single sided spreads to write, doodle, or make some type of memories on.

It looks like it will be awhile before I can share my first month's ARTifact with Seth, but at least I'm working on it.  Possibly you have wanted to keep a calendar or journal that speaks to you.  If so, head to Seth's and join in the fun.

Of course, the scrappy journal pages will go

in my sun dyed Rocking Horse journal.  This is the outside

and this is the inside.  Now I just need to create 72 more pages that speak to me.

Thank you for visiting today.  And please don't forget to check out Seth's ARTifacts.