Resist(ance) is not futile! Giveaway

Giveaway is closed. Congratulations to Darla Catalano from Lancaster, PA!  Stay tuned for more craft giveaways.

I don’t care what the Borg said (for all of your Star Trek fans), resist is not futile. In fact it’s fun and quite easy!

While working on my review of Art Cloth by Jane Dunnewold, I played with one of her resist techniques. But before I show you that, let me tell you about this book and my giveaway!

If you have ever wanted to create some beautiful fabric, this is just the information you need. Jane Dunnewold walks you through the steps to creating some absolutely to-die-for art cloth. Her chapters include Adding color with dyes and textile paints, Discharge Methods, Making Tools: Stamps and Stencils, Water Based Resists, Screenprinting, and Foiling and Leafing.

In each chapter she provides a supply list, and step-by-step instructions with color photos. At the end of the chapter she lists questions and answers that could help the reader troubleshoot any problems with the techniques. Looking at the back of the chapter on water-based resists, a couple of her troubleshooting Q & A included Did you allow the resist to dry completely? Removing resist too early can compromise color, pattern, or both and Was fabric with a soy-wax resist immersed in a hot dyebath too soon, melting the wax? Cool the dyebath slightly before adding the cloth. The book is like having her standing right next to you as you try these different methods.

It is evident that Ms Dunnewold is enthusiastic and passionate about her craft. She says, “You hold in your hands my best shot at sharing reliable processes with you…Art cloth can be anything, but a great place to start is with the layering process. Perhaps as you add layers to your cloth, you’ll peel back a few about yourself. There is a rich opportunity to discover yourself through making.”

So before I tell you about the giveaway, let me show you one of the techniques I learned from this book. It’s using water-soluble glue as a resist with textile paints.

Before you start, you need to make a padded base to work on. I covered a piece of plywood with two layers of felt. Then to keep the felt clean, I slipped an old pillowcase over it. Now I had my work surface that I’ll be able to use over and over because I know there will be more resist in my future!

Now to the fabric. She says you can experiment with a variety of fabrics but I used my 100% cotton muslin I had in my stash.

1. Wash and dry the fabric.

2. Pin it to the padded work base.

3. This is where the fun comes in! Apply your glue. It must be water-soluble so I used Elmer’s School Glue.  You can stamp or draw or whatever you want to do with this glue. I just drew some lines and circles.

4. Now we need to wait until it dries – at least 24 hours. (I hate waiting, but it was worth it!) As she said, the fabric must be dry to touch.

5. After it is dry, apply your textile paints. I used some cheap ones I’ve had around the house.

6. Heat set the paint. I did this by placing a piece of parchment paper over the  right side of the fabric (to protect the iron) and ironed.

7. Wash the fabric in cool water in the washing machine. It took two cycles to get most of the glue out. I ended up rubbing the rest off.

And this is what I ended up with. Drum roll….

Pretty neat. Jane goes on to say you can now add more resist and add more coloring. I’m not ready to mess up this masterpiece just yet. Now, I’ve been thinking about all of the different things I can try with this technique – stamping, stenciling, writing – and on and on. Also, it would be fun to experiment with different fabric.

I like this because it’s easy and again I’m using stuff I already have around the house. Another great project with kids except for the glue waiting!

This was just one of the techniques in the resist chapter. It’s a great book if you want to really learn how to make art cloth.

Now for the giveaway, this giveaway is open to US readers only. To enter all you need to do is comment on this post and be sure you leave your email address for me to contact you. Winner will be drawn by random.org. The deadline to enter is Thursday, August 19 at 8 am Central Standard Time. If you don’t win, you can purchase this book Here. This is another wonderful craft book from Interweave Press. Good Luck!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are 100% my own. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review and received no monetary compensation. The giveaway prize being offered is the review copy I received.