Today is all about over sun printing. Over sun printing is like over dyeing or over marbling. We are sun printing over an already sun printed piece. For directions on how to sun print, check out my posts here.
If you don’t have an already sun printed piece, go ahead and sun print your fabric. Once it’s dry, iron (to heat set), and then sun print again. If you have any questions about sun printing, check out my tutorials here.
For the above piece I used fresh ferns from the shade garden as the masks. I’m using Setacolor Light paints. This is the original piece.
It’s pretty, but it needed more. Also over sun printing is a great way to fix those “mistakes” or pieces you really don’t like. I added magenta over the wet fabric and added additional ferns. Here is my result again.
I went looking in my stash for a couple old sun printed pieces to over sun print. Here is the original.
I added orange and added the letter stencils again.
Another original.
I added orange and needlepoint canvas.
Here is another fern print which is a bit brighter than the first one I showed you. I forgot to take a before picture.
My friend Lisa Chin wrote a good post about this technique on the Printed Fabric Bee blog back in September. Check it out here.
I love how over sun printing adds a bit of complexity and depth to the piece. As I mentioned earlier, I also love how it can fix a piece.
I’ve learned quit a bit over the last several years about sun printing. I’ll be sharing some tips in my next post.
It’s such a fun technique that produces beautiful results. I hope you will try it this year.
Linking up to
Off The Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Mary
Can I get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Artist
Lynda, over sun printing is a great idea! Your pieces turned out great. I have a number of pieces that could use “something more,” so I’ll definitely give this a try. I’ll also check out Lisa Chin’s post. Now, if only the sun would come out . . . We have had a really rainy stretch. ;-()
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Janice, Thanks! I think you will definitely like your new pieces. We’ve had a lot of hot and sun, but we really need your rain! Thanks for dropping by.
Such great results…I’ve done a lot of sun printing but never over printing – love it and will have to try it
Love the fern pieces!
Judy, I hadn’t either and am amazed how beautiful they are with that extra layer.
Angela, Thanks! I do love ferns.
i recently grabbed some laua’e ferns ( that needed thinning out anyway) to use as a mask for a hand painted fabric that needed a boost. i overpainted the fabric,again, with slightly darker inks and placed the yardage with ferns in borders . i have used versatex screen printing inks for decades and still am in awe of them. i love your over sun printed fern fabrics, thanks for sharing the processes,material and mindful!!
Sonja, Thanks. I found that screen printing inks really changed the hand of the fabric as opposed to setacolor light or dye-na-flow. However, the colors were wonderful. I did a post comparing textile paints vs screen printing inks here: https://lyndaheines.blog/2014/07/sun-printing-textile-paint-screen-printing-ink/ Thanks for dropping by.