I’ve not done any sun printing since last summer. The sun was out Saturday so I played a bit.
If you are new to my blog, I’ve written several posts on sun printing. I started out using craft paint in this post. I also tried Dye-na-Flow in this post. But my favorite paint for this type of surface design is Pebeo Setacolor Fabric Paint (transparent). Here is my first post using that paint. I also have some additional posts on sun printing here.
So I’m back to using Setacolor and using less water when mixing the paint than I used in that first post about this paint. For this session I wanted to use leaves and flowers from our gardens. I’ve used ferns before and I love them as masks, but this time I also included lavender stems with flowers and thread leaf Coreopsis.
This is such an easy and fun technique. Here are the steps:
- Soak your fabric (should be natural – I use cotton) in water, wring it out lightly, and lay it on your work table covered in plastic. I put my table in the sun so I don’t have to move it when I get finished with my design.
- Add a little water to paint jars, add your Setacolors, and stir. The less water, the darker the color.
- Brush the color on your fabric. I use foam brushes.
- Place your masks on top of your PAINTED fabric. I know that doesn’t seem to make sense, but the fabric under the mask will turn white or the color of the original fabric.
- Let the fabric dry in the sun.
- Pull of the masks and you have your beautiful sun printed material.
- Iron it and you are all set.
Here is my fabric in the sun waiting to dry.
This first piece is the one with the ferns. I always love how they look and love the brighter colors.
Here is a closeup:
This one is using lavender as a resist. The lavender was too thin to really mask much of the sun so I was not happy with this one. You can see the lavender stems, but it is real faint.
This last one is my favorite where I used thread leaf Coreopsis. You can see some of the flowers and the thread leaves. Love how they made marks.
But you really have to see this closeup. Look at all of the thread leaves and the flowers.
I used these paints for my art apron and after washing it several times, it still looks great.
That was so much fun and so easy. If this sounds like fun to you, I hope you will try it.
One last reminder: Tomorrow is my live webinar on how to dye fabric with ice. There is still room for you. If you aren’t available on Tuesday at 1 pm ET, you still can sign up and you will receive the recording via email. It’s going to be fun. I look forward to sharing one of my obsessions! Here is the link to register.
I WANT TO BE YOU!!!!! I love, love, love your blog. Thanks for putting links to your previous posts on similar topics. It’s very helpful and informative to me as a newcomer to your blog. I’m so enamored of everything dyeing/fabric printing/surface design. There just aren’t enough hours in the day. You are SO appreciated!
Oh Judy, you are so funny! And thank you so much for your kind words. In addition to making me accountable (make me actually create instead of just read about creating), the blog for me is to encourage others to have some fun and play. Again, thank you.
They turned out great! I even like the lavender masked one. You could always paint over it and do it again with different leaves! Good luck with your webinar tomorrow! It is such a fun format.
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Lisa, Thanks. Yeah, I thought I’d either print over it or marble over it. Looking forward to tomorrow’s webinar. Thanks for the well wishes!
Oh I love these I will have to look and see if I can get these paints in the UK and have a play! Thank you for sharing this. x
How creative! Love it!
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Alli, Thank you and thanks for dropping by.
Kathy, I sure hope you can get them in the UK. Thanks for commenting.
Oh I love these sun prints. Thanks so much for the visit to my blog today.
Corrine, Thank you and thanks for dropping by my blog.
What a cool idea! I love all of them – especially the one with the ferns. Very pretty!
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Kimberlee, Thanks! And thanks for dropping by.
What a fabulous idea with stunning results 🙂 Thank you for sharing this 🙂 Rhondda
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Rhondda, Thank you!
Love your post…..I do sunprinting too and also found the Setacolor paints worked best. Your coreopsis fabric is gorgeous- I love how the colours blend subtly together.
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Marsha, Thanks. It was my fav too. Thanks for dropping by. Lynda
How long do you let it dry in the sun? Are we talking a couple of minutes? A few hours? All day?
Amy, It depends on how hot it is. It might take an hour or longer depending on the heat. If I do it on a hot day, it will take no longer than an hour. A week ago preparing for my class I tried to sun print when it was in the 70s outside. It finally dried but the impression was not good. So you need a sunny, hot day with very little wind. Usually we have lots of those days in the summer. This summer has been unseasonably cool. Hope that helps.
Do you know if you can use fabric dye to sun print?
I have some Tulip Tie-Dye kits (colors are mixed in small squirt bottles) … I was going to try tie-dying for the first time, but this sun printing looks more interesting and unique.
Maureen, I really don’t know, but doubt it because of how the dye binds to the fabric as opposed to the paint that sits on top. However, that said, you sure can experiment and see. Thanks for dropping by.
Hi, your blog is awesome! I’m just curious, can we use just any paint to sun printing? so it doesn’t necessarily have to be light-sensitive paint?
Hi. I have tested a variety of paints from cheap craft paint to textile paints. The problem with regular craft paint is that you change the “hand” or the feel of the fabric. Also, the cheap paints don’t have a lot of pigment in them so your results will be more pastels. My favorite sun printing paint is either Setacolor or Dye-Na-Flow. They both do a great job. Here is a link to all of my tutorials and posts over the years. You can see what I used and the results: https://lyndaheines.blog/craft-tutorials/sun-printing/ Hope that helps.