Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Playing with adding color

Since one of my current projects "Solar Powered" will have color added after quilting, I thought I'd experiment with using a wet technique this time instead of the usual dry techniques of colored pencils or Shiva paintstiks.

Making painted wholecloths is not a new thing for me, I have made many. But I have always painted first and quilted after.  So I wanted to see how it would work doing it the other way.  I quilted a small 12" x12" piece to play on. Pimatex PFD top and warm&white batting on the bottom, Quilters Dream Puff in the middle and Hobbs Ploydown as the top batting.  I also used the Pimatex for the backing so I could see if there was any bleed through to the back.

I tried several different textile paints and inks.  Some worked without bleeding and soaking thru, some did not. The paints that were medium to heavy body...Jacquard's textile paint, neopaque, and Lumiere worked very well. It is a little fussier than the dry technique, but I like the look.  Stewart Gill paints also worked well.  Jacquard's Dye-Na-Flow did not, also none of the inks worked either. They are all to "fluid" and bled past the stitching lines.

I used all of those products as well as the colored pencils and Shiva stiks so I would have a comparison all on one piece.  I also decided to try some sparkle..I brushed some of Jo Sonja's "Opal Dust" over everything.

100_7423

Fun and I got some useful information!

5 comments:

  1. I think I may have read somewhere that people thicken the inks with aloe. Have you heard of that?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mmmm, I really like the sparkly... :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your colors are a lot more vivid than the quilts in this *style* that I've seen. Makes the other ones look washed out.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow! This is really cool. I especially like the sparkle dust!

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is a great design. I really like how you quilted the background area. Have you tried applying the inks with those foam brush sticks, I think they are called Fantastiks?

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!