What If-ing Weeds Part 2

Yesterday, played with printing some weeds from my garden... doing a lot of what if-ing. In yesterday's post, I showed some of the results using Opaque Pebeo Setacolor Fabric Paint.

I also experimented with diluted Transparent Pebeo Setacolor Fabric Paint. I worked with a dilution of about 1 part paint to 1.5 parts water.

First, I just painted directly on the back (veiny) side of the weed with the large leaf; placed it on a piece of Prepared for Dyeing cotton and pressed to release the paint.

I also tried printing a leaf on some white felt.

Next, I decided to paint both sides of the leaf.

I made a sandwich...bottom layer of Habotai silk, second layer of PFD cotton, then the painted leaf with the veiny side down and finally another piece of PFD cotton on top. I used my hands to press down on all the layers. Here are the results.

Top piece of PFD cotton that picked up the paint from the top of the leaf.

Layer of PFD cotton directly under leaf picked up the paint from the bottom of the leaf.

Silk under the cotton picked up residual paint.

I noticed that the small veins of the leaf had absorbed some transparent paint so I placed the leaf down on another piece of PFD cotton and rolled over the leaf with my foam brayer.

I also tried working with the Velcro weed. I painted both sides, placed it on a piece of PFD cotton and folded some of the cotton over to get two prints at the same time. I did this a few times.

I can see that there are a lot of possibilities. I'm planning to take a large piece of fabric, a plastic drop cloth and my paints out to the garden to do some plein air printing. Who knows where this is leading exactly...just gotta keep what if-ing...

What If-ing Weeds

Experimenting with printing weeds

 Having been inspired by my Skype session with Pam and Jennifer, I decided to do a bit of what if-ing with the weeds in my garden.

My exhibiting group, F.I.N.E., has an exhibition planned for next year called, All Over the Map. I decided to focus on ways of mapping the weeds in my garden. So far, I have two finished hangings based on my drawings of Wood Sorrel. I've been trying to figure out some other ways of working with weeds.

The what if-ing began with gathering some weeds. My garden is overrun with a weed that is as sticky as Velcro! Another weed had large broad leaves.

I first decided to put the weeds under cotton fabric and roll over them (a brayer rubbing) with Opaque Pebeo Setacolor Fabric Paint.

I noticed that the weeds left a design on the paint on the foam brayer and if I rolled it out on another piece of fabric, I could get soft impressions of the designs.

I then tried some direct printing. I rolled opaque paint out on the glass palette and placed the weeds on the paint. I then applied more paint to the other side of the weed/leaf. I sandwiched the weeds between two pieces of cotton fabric and pressed down so the fabric paint would release onto both pieces of fabric.

This worked especially well with the large leaves.

In addition to working with the opaque fabric paint, I also did some techniques using diluted Transparent Pebeo Setacolor Fabric Paint. I'll show you the results of those experiments tomorrow.