{"id":702,"date":"2007-07-09T19:33:24","date_gmt":"2007-07-10T00:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mimikirchner.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/07\/playing-with-fabric-printing\/"},"modified":"2011-05-12T19:51:31","modified_gmt":"2011-05-12T23:51:31","slug":"playing-with-fabric-printing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mimikirchner.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/07\/playing-with-fabric-printing\/","title":{"rendered":"playing with fabric printing"},"content":{"rendered":"

I mentioned at the end of the last post that I was starting to work on my pieces for the printed fabric swap over at Bitter Betty Blogs<\/a>. I signed up because I have been wanting to try it forever and this is the push I need.<\/p>\n

I decided to go with stamping as opposed to silk screen or something. I wanted to try it with the least possible capital outlay and the fewest new skills to learn. I was already feeling totally over my head and have had a very hard time finding any information. The first confusion was over the Speedball Speedy-Cut block- pink or white? What is the difference? The people in my local art store couldn’t enlighten me. Later I found this<\/a> on Alma Stoller<\/a> site, so now I know. I ended up buying the white because it cost less and I had no idea what else to base the choice on! Carving was easy and fun! I was having so much fun with the carving part, I was very reluctant to transition to the next step…
\n\"79stamps.jpg\"<\/p>\n

printing. I REALLY didn’t want to go out and buy printing inks- I know, I’m cheap. But I have so many types of color mediums already- I just couldn’t imagine bringing something new into the house. I was thinking about oil paints, oil bars, acrylic paints, to start the list. I found this<\/a> article and it helped me settle on acrylic paints. This<\/a> is another page of useful links and information. I wanted something that would be washable and have a good feel, not stiff- I want to be able to actually use this fabric!<\/p>\n

The first step was to try out my stamps on paper. I used inexpensive craft type acrylic paint- the kind that comes in the little bottles. I sponged the paint onto my stamps using pieces of make-up sponges- those things are a great art tool! Here’s what I got-<\/p>\n

\"79paper.jpg\"<\/p>\n

The brown stamp on white was my first attempt on fabric.<\/p>\n

Based on the various bits of information I could find, this is what I have figured out so far.<\/p>\n

-Acrylic paints work very well, but don’t try using a brayer or a brush of any kind- I couldn’t manage anything that wasn’t very streaky. Daubing the paint onto the stamp works very well- I used the make-up sponges and also some wads of felt.<\/p>\n

-adding drying retardant was helpful both in slowing the drying and also making the paint a bit gummier.<\/p>\n

-one article suggested dampening the fabric first. I had no better results when I tried that. Actually I had some color bleeding so I’d say forget that idea.<\/p>\n

-after I finished printing\/stamping, I let the fabric dry for a bit (1\/2 hour?). Then I ironed the fabric on both sides with steam on a cotton setting. I have no idea if this was necessary. I then threw them all into the washer at a regular warm wash. I noticed no change in the color at all, after the wash. Yeah!<\/p>\n

Here are my test pieces after washing-<\/p>\n

\"79flowerhand.jpg\"<\/p>\n

detail-<\/p>\n

\"79flowerface.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"79bugfish.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"79birdleaf.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Now I have to think about doing my bigger pieces- yikes! This is actually a lot harder then I ever thought. I am nervous about the 1\/2 yard pieces with no major screw-ups. Also, choosing the colors turns out to be a lot harder then I thought it would be. I will be coming out of this project with a new respect for fabric designers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I mentioned at the end of the last post that I was starting to work on my pieces for the printed fabric swap over at Bitter Betty Blogs. I signed up because I have been wanting to try it forever … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,14,17,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mimikirchner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mimikirchner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mimikirchner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mimikirchner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mimikirchner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mimikirchner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4207,"href":"https:\/\/mimikirchner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions\/4207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mimikirchner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mimikirchner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mimikirchner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}