Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Painting pattern onto cloth



Taking my inspiration from the painted collage above, I pulled some of my hand-dyed cottons in blues and oranges




and assembled some of my jars of ProChem fabric paint




with the idea of making some patterned cloth to assemble into a larger piece. I always enjoy spending a day making collage papers, and this is much the same, except I'm beginning with hand-dyed cloth instead of paper. Of course, I have lots of printed cottons in my stash, but doing the patterning myself results in something a little different, with the "hand of the artist" more evident. It's like the difference between handwriting and using a computer-generated font.








When stencilling with paint, sometimes it's effective to flip the stencil and press the painted side onto the cloth, transferring the wet paint and producing a negative image. You can see three examples of this above. I use a brayer to do this. It's a good way to use up paint that would otherwise be washed down the drain.




Two stencils, three colours of paint, three colours of cotton, four variations


Applying paint using a stencil and a stencil brush results in an uneven application of the paint, which adds interest.




For these next two, I first applied white paint, and then followed up with a different colour, to add a sense of depth.






The hand-dyed cotton I  chose for a base has a marbled variation of colour intensity, and applying an opaque paint to that makes for an intriguing contrast. See below.




These next two were stamped with an African hand-carved wooden block.





By limiting myself to working with blue, orange and white, in a wide range of darks and lights, I hope to have created a useful collection of patterned cloth that just might find its way into a larger composition.

4 comments:

jane said...

I'm impressed with your inquiry into pattern

Dianne Robinson said...

These are gorgeous Heather!!

June Robertson said...

Your generosity in posting every little detail of your process is heart-warming! Thanks, Heather, I feel as though I have just taken a short workshop with you!

Heather Dubreuil said...

It's great to get this positive response to my post about painting pattern onto cloth. I see more patterned cloth in my future!