Using Gel Medium to Block In a Silk Screen

Just found this little tutorial in the on-line Art Trader Magazine about using gel medium to block in a silk screen.  I believe the author called it Guerilla Screen Printing.  http://www.arttradermag.com/how-to/guerrilla-screen-printing/  I'll write a follow-up on how well this works once I have tried it.  Would like to include pictures here, but don't want to infringe on a copyright.

Tea Bags, Checkerboards and Birds

The Surface Design Journey Continues...

The question is:  Is Enough Enough Now?

When designing a recent quilt for a "Gates" challenge for group, Quilts on the Wall, I painted a few birds on fabric.  Two of them worked, but this Blue Jay was lost on a field of blue, so it was not used.  Although the two birds that I chose for the "Gates" quilt were hand appliqued onto the background, I tried another method on this Tea Bags and Checkerboards.  Since this is an exploration of surface design and not of hand stitching, I applied the bird to the background with matte gel medium and grounded it by painting a tree limb for it to sit on.  I think that perhaps enough is now enough.  The next question is:  "Shall it have a border?"  We shall see...

Close-up of Blue Jay fabric painted bird. 

Applying the cutout with matte gel medium made the figure seem as if it is almost part of the fabric.

Now I wish that the fabric scrap that I started with had been a 12 1/2" square.  It is shy by 3/4" so in order to make it 12"x12" I must add a border.  Phoey.  But, ahhh, this may be another "opportunity" to get creative.

More to come...