Perhaps this is not a question you regularly ask fabric.

Sometimes I do.

This week I had some small pieces of fabric that needed to be made into something and some leftover wheat paste and glue resist supplies. So, I looked at the fabric and wondered what it might become.

One of the interesting things about resist printing is that – until it’s complete — it’s backwards. The colors do not appear to you like they will be. So, you have to envision how they will turn out. (Kinda like kids.)

Here’s where I started.

I had some red-orange fabric and some light blue fabric. In this picture I have already applied the wheat paste resist. (The circle shapes were stamped. The irregular pattern shapes were rolled over a stencil.) You see it as white.  But, those shapes will not be white in the final fabric. The shapes will appear as the color that is now the background of the fabric, and some other color will be overprinted. Then the resist washes off.

Orange first.

I’m mixing up some paint that is lighter than the current red-orange fabric.

A reminder that when you put lighter over dark, there has to be at least a little white in the color mix or it won’t be opaque. You can see the light orange I’m mixing has a slight cantaloupe-hue in the mix. That’s from the white. Now I painted the light over the existing orange fabric.

Time for blue

This time, because the background blue fabric is so light in value and hue, I’m making the overprint darker. One of my favorite colors to mix: a nice deep teal, created from blue + raw sienna.

Now I overpaint. In the lower right, the color I am applying is darker than the background. On the left, that strip of blue fabric is pretty dark. So I mixed a little white into the paint so it would show up.

Now everybody goes out in the Florida sun to dry.

Then everybody got dunked in a bucket of water to dissolve the resist. Then I washed the dissolved resist off of the fabric. (Use hands, a soft cloth or a spoon to scrape.)

Tadaa! Now the fabric has been transformed. I have some new yardage to incorporate into projects.

The next stage of the life journey of this fabric is to be incorporated into artwork. Much as I enjoy creating original fabric, that’s not the end game. It’s just part of the process.

What comes next... still on the drawing board.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating 

Thank you for reading.
I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

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