Geri deGruy's blog of art, musings, and inspiration

Experimentation is so much fun!!!!

Recently I've been experimenting (the professional sounding word for "PLAYING") with all sorts of materials and scraps to make unique cloth. Here is the first of the "methods." I have this is quotes because it is actually random play.

I'll share the process I took step by step.

1. Cut a piece of Wonder Under (a fabric adhesive in a roll which has a paper liner on one side and a rough sticky side) the size of the final piece. Paint the rough side with water soluble paints. The paper will roll as the paint gets on it so I put a tiny piece of blue tape on all the corners. You can also let it dry rolled up.

I painted this one with silk paints but I don't recommend them for this. My painting was full of blues and turquoise and very little of it came off onto the base.

I have MUCH better results with dilute liquid acrylic paints (about half water, half paint.) I find that a limited number of colors helps keep order in the piece but play with color and see what you think.

2. Let the painted Wonder Under dry completely. (Argh! I hate to wait.)

When it is dry, lay it paint-side down on your base fabric. I chose to use a piece of commercial green batik fabric as my base. But you can paint your own base fabric or experiment with any fabric you think will look good with your painting on top of it. 

Put a piece of parchment paper under your base fabric and one on top of the 2 pieces (base and painted Wonder Under) so your iron doesn't get schmutzy.

3. Iron this at the temp of your base fabric. Mine was cotton so I ironed on the cotton setting. Cover the whole piece with the iron for about 10-15 seconds. The hard part now is waiting for it to totally cool. Really!  When it is cool, gently lift the Wonder Under off of the base fabric. Most of the painting should now be stuck to the base fabric. And it is still sticky.

4. I added Jones Tones foiling by simply setting the foil on my piece, color side UP (seems wrong but it's not) and randomly hitting spots with my iron. Since the piece is still sticky, you don't have to add any other adhesive. But you must use the parchment paper under and over your ironing!

Again, let it cool... Then lift off the foil sheet and there will be spots of shiny color. In this piece, I used blue, turquoise and gold foils, randomly spattered about.

5. Next I spread out pieces of cheesecloth that I had dyed awhile ago. Parchment paper over and under and iron. It sticks!

6. Finally I ironed a piece of light yellow tulle over the entire piece. It gives lovely texture and tones down the foils a bit. Now I can further embellish with stitching, beads, ribbons, embroidery etc. I haven't done any of that because I'm not sure what I want to do with it yet.

So that is piece #1. Stay tuned for more!