Block Printing with Foam #4

Three Layers of Transparent Wash

The first picture in this post is the printed fabric with three overlays of color.  It's rather like eating dessert first and then having dinner.  What follows is how the wash overlays were accomplished.

If you have been following along with my series of 31 Day Block Writing posts about block printing with foam, please bear with me as I reference earlier steps for those who are just now joining in.   To follow along from the beginning link to:  Step #1, Step #2, and Step #3 here.

Step 4 of using the block prints in a large work involved using simple tools.

Tools

Spray Bottle with Clear Water

 

Inexpensive Brushes from a Home Improvement Store

I first sprayed the entire piece of fabric with clear water to make it quite damp.  In a canning jar I then made a mixture of Setacolor Lemon Yellow a very few drops of Setacolor Bright Orange transparent fabric paint, and then mixed it with clear water in a 1:1 ratio of paint-to-water.  Then the paint brush was dunked into the paint/water mixture and washed across the entire fabric.

Partial Overlay of Yellow/Orange Wash

Once the fabric was completely washed with the Yellow/Orange color, the fabric was quite wet.  That actually turned out to be a good thing because it allow the next wash of Setacolor Cobalt Blue to migrate in a serendipitous manner into the Yellow/Orange wash .  I mixed the blue fabric paint in the same 1:1 paint-to-water mixture as I did with the yellow/orange fabric paint.  Here it is, ready to use, in a canning jar.

Jar to Mix and Store Fabric Paint

Partial Wash of Setacolor Cobalt Blue over 1st Wash of Setacolor Yellow/Orang

Here is what the two transparent layers of washes over the block printed fabric looked like.

Setacolor Cobalt Blue Randomly Added

Note:  My work surface was not wide enough to lay out the entire fabric, so I covered 2" thick insulation board with a plastic drop cloth, put that on top of my table and it was a perfect size to work on.

I failed to mention in my earlier posts that because of the to-be-announced theme, I believed that there needed to be intersecting lines.  To achieve this, I taped 3 pieces of 8.5" x 11" card stock together lengthwise, cut out a 7/8" strip with a craft knife and used it as a template to paint black strips to visually define the levels

Tomorrow I will blog about the finishing touches to this background piece.

Note:  These posts are my participation in the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge.  If you, too, would like to participate, link to Cheryl Sleboda's:  http://muppin.com/…/inde…/the-31-day-blog-writing-challenge/

 Until tomorrow...

Always remember, never fear to experiment.  

Sometimes wonderful things happen.

© Linda Friedman 2015.  All rights reserved

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.