Working with Color

Uncooked wheat flour paste printed on transparent fabric paint

Last night, in my Exploring Surface Design class, we worked with fabric resists. I decided I wanted to try a "controlled breach" using yellow paint. This technique is something I discovered (a "happy accident") this past year while working on the Conant Grant.

After printing with the paste on wet transparent fabric paint, I let it dry. I then added a second layer of paint, this time it was violet.

After painting with the violet transparent fabric paint

After the second layer of paint dried, I heat set the paint and removed the flour paste.

Fabric after paste was removed

I've done this technique with other color combinations, but this was the first time I used yellow and violet. There were some subtle color variations but not as many as with other colors I've worked with before.

I ordered two books on color from Amazon. One arrived today, "Color Mixing Bible" by Ian Sidaway. The other book, "Skydyes" by Mickey Lawler should be here any day now. Both were recommended by students in the Potomac Fiber Arts Guild workshops I taught in January.

I'm looking forward to studying them and sharing them with my students. During my work on the Grant, I found out how tricky it can be to paint multiple transparent color washes on fabric.