Thursday, July 10, 2014

From Small Block Print to Large Stencil - A How-to Guide

I am presently developing a quilted art work in which I am using one image in a variety of orientations, sizes and colors.  It started with a very large bird image that will appear on the front of the quilt but I also wanted it to appear on the reverse side. 

                                 From this                                  to this...


First I cut a block,
Soft Kut Printing Block

I printed the block in my sketchbook,

I cropped the top image and printed it in 2x2 
poster format and taped the pages together.

Next I cut enough freezer paper to cover the image

Here is the freezer paper laid over the image 
with the shiny side down.

 I traced around the image with a 
fine tip permanent marker.

A stencil is now ready to be cut with a craft knife,
BUT,.,

Before beginning to cut, I removed the posterized
 image from under the freezer paper.

Here is the beginning of the stencil cutout.

Here is what the partially cut stencil looked like.  
The remainder of the shapes were ultimately cut out.

I ironed the the fully cut out freezer paper stencil to
 the fabric on which I wanted the image to appear.

I used a plate as a makeshift palette, foam brush
and Setacolor opaque white fabric paint to paint
the stencil.

And here is the finished stenciled image that I believe
 successfully suggests a very large block print.
 
Always remember, never fear to experiment.  
Sometimes wonderful things happen.
 
 © Linda Friedman 2014.  All rights reserved.


2 comments:

  1. Great idea! Thank you for including all the steps on how your made this piece.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your thumb's up on this project. I was thinking yesterday that any block print could be enlarged to a maximum poster printing of 4 sheets across and 4 sheets down, making a total of 16 sheets. That might make a stunning faux block printed image. It wouldn't work for the piece I'm working on, but I will consider this possibility in the future, I'm sure.

      Delete