Writing on Fabric

Today I’m writing on fabric and not doing a real good job of it!

Several years ago, early on my blogging journey, one of my local readers ran into me at the local Joann’s. She came up to me and asked if I was the one who wrote this blog. I guess I really looked like my picture.

She complimented me on my art and mentioned how it all looked great. I told her that it all wasn’t. There were lots of ugly work that I don’t post. “Why don’t you post those so readers know it takes mistakes to get to the finished piece?” Great question!

So today you will see a couple not so good pieces!

I’ve been wanting to write on fabric with thickened dyes. I could write with fabric paint, but I wanted the hand (feel) of the fabric to stay soft. If you’re not familiar with thickened dyes, it takes a little prep. You have to first make chemical water by mixing warm water with urea. Then you mix the chemical water and sodium alginate and you get print paste which you add dye to make the thickened dye. It’s not difficult, but just takes a little time.

The dry fabric which has been soda soaked the day before is pinned to a padded surface. Then the fun begins. I rarely use black so I chose to use Raven and a Cardinal Red for this experiment. The first piece I wrote on the fabric with large words and then wrote over again and again.

Writing of fabric textOne of the tricks is to make sure the bottle tip is touching the fabric. Otherwise you get big globs. I set it aside to dry and worked on another piece.

Writing of fabric with scribblesLooking back now, I really liked how this piece turned out. If I would have just left it alone but, no, I had to add more. So I set it aside and after it was dry added red dye and some circles. I don’t like it at all now!! Often when something gets this far it’s time to push through it, but I don’t see how anything would make this piece look better.

Writing on fabric adding red to scribblesMeanwhile, after the first piece dried I added red to it.

Writing on fabric adding redThat turned out okay, but again something I wouldn’t reproduce. It will probably be okay cut in small pieces. We’ll see.

So now you see some of the dreadful stuff I create! Reminds me of the saying, “You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince.” I think I have lots of frog kissing before I get this writing on fabric blog worthy!

In other art news, my Icy Delights is now $10 off. The sale lasts until December 20 at 11:45 pm CST and then the registration will be closed until February 1. If you would like to take the class, make sure and use this link before that date. Once you register, you can access the classroom whenever it fits your schedule. All of the pdfs can be downloaded to your computer if you wish, and the videos are in the classroom available when you have a break from you busy schedule. So if you have been wanting to take the class, this is the last opportunity until February.

Ice Dyed FabricIf you are already a student, nothing will change for you. You will still be able to access the classroom and the Facebook page.

Thanks for dropping by today to see my “mistakes.” Hope you are having a creative day. I’d love to hear about your adventures in writing on fabric.