Adding texture to textiles

I have a new video about adding texture to your textile work. If you want to see it larger on YouTube click on this link: artygirl2010 video.

The technique is quite simple using any art mediums you have. You can add colour or other items to the gels and pastes then spread them on your fabrics using a palette knife or brush. I used both natural and synthetic fibers and they both worked, some colour reacted differently on the fabrics and mediums. I did a lot of experimenting with the different mediums I own. I did a sample of each of the things I tried, noting down what they were. I then hand stitched, machine stitched and machine stitched with metallic thread on each of the samples so I could get an idea of how hard they were to stitch into. I also did a blue stripe of fabric paint and another stripe of turquoise acrylic paint to see how it handled the colour.

As mentioned in the video I am putting photos here of all the samples I shared. Click on each photo if you want to see a close up photo.
 

Teabag paper

Tyvek melted with a heat gun

Dress pattern and sand texture

Dress pattern reverse

Lutrador with stencilled texture paste melted with heat gun.

Some of the other samples I shared in the video are these ones where I added Dylusions Turquoise spray to the mediums before I spread them on the fabric.

 This first photo is the leftover bits of medium I spread onto scrap fabric and sprayed during the video. You can see the variety of colours that showed up. I also rubbed a very small amount of copper wax in a few areas to highlight the texture.

 This is another sample from the video where the colour was mixed into the mediums first. I have since sprayed turquoise mica spray on some squares. I also painted copper acrylic paint on the back of the corner squares so it would not colour the texture on the front of those sections. The lower middle textures have metallic wax rubbed onto the texture.

This is the fiber paste sample I made during the video with copper acrylic painted on the reverse side when it had dried. I did all of these small pieces so I could cut them up for a larger project.

In this trial layout I have used all of the above samples including the larger leftovers piece. I used a lettering stencil to trace and cut out the letters from the leftover piece. As I started to embellish and stitch each square for my piece I did change the layout many times until I was happy with how it looked.

The finished piece has a lot of hand stitching, beads, stones and jewelry findings. It was for my textile group's colour challenge.

Pumice gel on fabric

One of the workshops I did from the Workshop on the Web series was about using texture paste on fabric. I didn't have any texture paste left (my old jar dried up) so I used the Golden Pumice gel instead. I tried it on a variety of surfaces and was quite impressed with how it stuck to everything I tried.

The first surface I tested was craft Vilene (interfacing). I spread the gel through a stencil and left it to dry. It was a little too coarse for spreading but I somehow managed to get it to work. It stuck really well and I have finished it off with some hand stitching.

The next surface is heavy Lutrador.  I added some soft gel medium to the coarse pumice gel to make it more spreadable. It worked great and when I use it again I would do the same, even on canvas. This will be another page in my fabric art journal.

My favorite surface I tried was teabags. I overlapped them to make a larger surface and then applied the gel through a stencil.  Later on I added a machine stitched outline and hand stitching accents. The gel stuck super well to the tea bags and none of it rubbed off when I stitched.

This surface is laminated tissue paper that was stamped and then had fiber paste applied on top (I had used up all the pumice gel). Again I added stitched details.

My final surface was to laminate the pumice gel between two pieces of tissue paper. I really like this technique because you still get the texture of the pumice but as it is trapped below tissue no little grains of sand fall off when you are stitching it. I think for this technique you could even use a little sand mixed into a soft gel medium to get the same effect. I painted the tissue with metallic paint then sprayed on various mica sprays (Moon Shadow mists) to highlight the raised areas. It was difficult to photograph but you get the idea anyway.

Thanks for looking and see you again soon. 

ICAD 2013

blank index card

So what is ICAD 2013 I hear you ask? It is a challenge by Tammy Garcia to create some art work on an index card each day for the months of June and July. I will post the link on the right. There are no rules other than the work must be done on an index card either 3 x 5 inches or 4 x 6. The reason for this is explained by Tammy but basically it frees you up to experiment because if you really don't like what you have done you can just start over with another card. You can use lined or plain cards, tabbed or not. I am using a selection of lined and plain cards from my stash in the 4 x 6 size.

There are prompts posted on the challenge page but you don't have to use them if you don't want to. I am using them at the moment. The weekly prompt was colour and the one for this card was wallpaper.

 I did use distress stain to colour the card first for another idea then changed my mind. I decided to use fiber paste to create a raised effect. I placed the stencil over the card and spread fiber paste across it using an old credit card. When I carefully lifted the stencil off I was left with the flower design on the card. I let it dry for a couple of hours.

Note: if you don't have fiber paste you could use texture paste, molding paste or even a thick gel medium. They will give you a smoother finish.

 I then used twinkling H2Os by Luminarte to paint the whole card. I let this dry for about an hour.

The next step was to spray the card with Lindys Stamp Gang spray in the Jolly Roger Red shade. I sprayed it quite generously while it was flat and left it to dry overnight. The sprays are a lot darker when wet. When it dries the spray collects around any textured areas and highlights them.  It also washed some of the watercolour off the raised areas.

I like the finished index card. It reminds me of an old piece of embossed wallpaper.

#1 This card was the first one I did using the prompts colour - red and zebra.  I sketched a zebra from a photo then painted in the stripes with twinkling H2O (hot cinnamon shade). I then sprayed a little water along the bottom and watched the colour spread. Simple technique but very effective.

#2 This card used the prompts colour - orange and candyland. Another experiment using twinks and black pen outlines. I think in the future I will be using some of these cards as a jumping off point for a journal page.

If you are interested in joining in it is not too late. Check out the link on the right.

ATCs my way

My ATCs this week may look a little plain to some. I often see them around the net with a lot of different elements on each card. I like to give my images a little breathing room, especially if the background is an interesting technique. 

This week I used molding paste or fiber paste to make a textured background. This was then painted when dry and rubbed with Inka Gold creams to highlight the texture. It is an interesting look.

Fiber paste applied with a stencil brush.

Molding paste applied with a stencil brush

Molding paste applied lightly with a paint brush then more applied through sequin waste to make the stars.

 The images were supplied by my atc teacher so I don't know where she got them from. They are lovely though.