Friday, January 8, 2010

To Art, or Not to Art?


Have to tell you about the Good, Bad and Ugly of method experimentation. I mention this poker game as a clue that I need to learn when to keep them, when to ditch them, when to walk or run. Of the 4 pieces that I did the flour resist, two are good, one is bad and one is downright ugly. Lot to learn on the process of painting on cloth. While they were drying I decoupaged this flimsy cover of a sketchbook I want to work in. I also made some prints on deli-wrap papers with my new Golden Digital Grounds for an upcoming experiment. Next Friday is my workshop at Desert Art Supply but just couldn't wait! Also painted some of same papers black and stamped them with some foam art stamps I made. More on that later.

So now we come to the painted, flour resist pieces - where to go from here? I pinned them to my design wall and thought the wavy one looked like my pool and thought of embellishing it with some photos of said pool I had taken last summer. The 'ugly' one reminded me of a tree on the bank of a lake, so I pinned up this deli-paper print of a tree to think about it. Have no idea how much you will be able to see through the deli when I glue it down, so maybe organza? My favorite, the one that looks like window panes (because I spread the flour mix on my counter top which left the impressions of the tile) has a b&w photo of yours truly which works, but I may decide on another figure of some sort. The Power of Women I plan on quilting and painting after that and ideas are floating in as to embellishments.

3 comments:

Sunny in CA said...

There is something warm and inviting about your blog. Thanks. I needed that.

Sunny in CA

julzabro said...

Ok, I'm confused about the flour process. You make the flour paste mixture and you put it on muslin...?....Then u make your design in it and crunch it or whatever but then you rinse the flour off???? So the flour leaves an image on the muslin???? Anyways, maybe u can straighten my head out about the process u used. However, I do luv the outcome!!! Very kewel and altered looking!!! What kinda paint did u use to get such bright colors? R u gonna put all the squares together or are they all seperate pieces? Oh! And luv the pics u added of the mosaic and the cats...;)

Unknown said...

Right, Julie, you got it! Just a few notes for you. When the flour is spread onto the muslin (I used a dry wall spatula) let it set up just a bit so that marks you make won't melt back into the surface. Use your finger, the end of a brush, rubber stamps, combs or whatever you desire to 'scribe' into the paste. Now you must wait until completely dry. Probably at least overnight. Oh by the way, you want to have your muslin tacked to stretcher bars or pinned or taped to keep it taunt. Tried one just laying it on plastic and I got goulash! When it is completely dried you take it off what you pinned it to and crack away. The more you abuse it the cracks become finer. I basically rolled up, unrolled and then rolled the opposite side. Now you want to lay it on plastic while you brush on the black. India ink is good or you can use black acrylic mixed with enough water to make it flow into the cracks as well as any black fabric paint or dye.Now let that dry completely as well. You will be able to remove some of the dried flour before you start rinsing but it is quite tedious. If you have an bucket to soak it in (you don't want so much flour down your drains) and get most of it off and final rinse in the sink or washing machine. After all flour is removed I heat set my new batik with the iron on cotton setting but if you are going to paint it, then you can wait to do this step then. I used Lumiere fabric paints and Marvy fabric pins. You can use acrylics but this makes the fabric stiff and a fabric medium to mix in with the paint is advised. Hope this helps.