Fabric Inking Lesson 2

Warning: This is completely a fabric post, so if you're not into fabric and such you may want to skip this post all together.

This is lesson 2 out of 3 of the Fabric Inking with a Journal class. This week we were told how to use Shaving Cream and Ice to apply the ink to the fabric. I began with 10"x 42" lengths of fabric but quickly cut those up into smaller pieces as it was much easier to control.

These first pictures are of the shaving cream technique. It was suppose to give the fabric a marbled look and I was a little dissapppointed to find that the iron actually smeared the colors a bit because the shaving cream was still there. I think I should have either wiped off the shaving cream first or used a hair dryer to heat set the ink first before using the iron. Oh well, that's what a class is for, to learn as you go.

Actually three pieces were made from the same shaving cream and ink setup. These are two of them.

Next time I'll use a tray that holds the entire piece of fabric and try to cover all of the fabric so there isn't a white border all around.

This piece was created with the leftover shaving cream and ink. I used a foam brush and painted it on a 10"x10" piece of fabric. I can see this having hand and machine stitches added and perhaps some beads. It should be fun to play with.

This piece was made with crushed ice.


This piece was made with chunks of ice in a slightly different method than the crushed ice.


These samples don't look nearly as nice as the teacher's, but I think they can be cut up and used. We'll just have to see where they turn up in future art pieces.

There was also a method that involves using snow and letting it melt and move the inks around on the fabric. I already know this can be done with snow. My dye class friend, Judi Yakab, already does an excellent job with that and had an article in a magazine describing how it's done. (Sorry Judi, I can't remember the magazine, but if you comment with that it would be wonderful!) (Thank you Judi, see the comments below for the magazine information!) I think I'll just use the dyes for that, since this ink is much more expensive!

I'm definitely going to try these methods with fiber reactive dyes. I'm thinking that they may work on pre-soaked soda ash fabric, but we'll see. Stay tuned for that in the spring when it's warm enough to leave it long enough to batch.

New Joggles Online Class Lesson 1 - Fabric Inking with a Journal

So I've finished up one class and started another one. This one is only three weeks long. It's rather abstract and uses fabric and inks. We're learning how to use Tsukineko Pigment Inks on fabric which after heat set with an iron are suppose to be permanent. The pros of using inks over dyes is that it's very quick set up and clean up with the inks. They basically are completely washable in water as long as they haven't been heat set. This means they can be taken out and applied very quickly without worries about temperatures and batching times. The cons are that they come in very small quantities and applied with a very small brush. This means it takes a good deal of time to cover a large piece of fabric. But for a quick small project it's a great choice. The other possible con is the longevity after it's applied to the fabric. It's suppose to be permanent after it's heat set, but time will tell. With the dyes I use, there is an actual chemical reaction between the dyes and the natural fibers in the cloth so the result is much more permanet. Well as permanet as anything on this earth. But so far I like these inks and they seem very easy to apply and control which might translate into painting directly on the fabric at some point in the futre, we'll see. Here's what I have so far.

These first two pictures are of the same piece of cloth. They are detail shots and the letters are there for the class to identify the different items I used to place under the cloth and rub the ink on to get the texture. (Similar to what kids do with crayons and leaves to make the rubbings.)

If you are interested and want to know what is that I used, just comment with the letter and I can give you the item that I used to get that texture.

So this is the piece after I added another layer of texture. I used stamps, both commercial and handmade. Also such things as a plastic coaster, an end off a big roll of aluminum foil, etc. Again if you're interested I can give you more details.

It measures 10" x 44" on cotton and these are details shots of the same fabric.

I used some acrylic rubber lettering stamps to create a few words. They turned out rather faint, but that seems to be a nice effect. This one says "Discover" which is what I was doing with the inks and the various stamping and rubbing tools.

After I was finished with that piece of fabric, then I found what I considered to be an ugly piece of my hand dyed fabric, an army green camo color. I used a nice tile that my daughter-in-law's mother (nothing is safe when I visit and see interesting textured items that can be used) gave me and rubbed the design from that onto the cloth in a couple of different colors. It's already turned this very ugly fabric into something that I might actually use.

Final Online Sketch Class - Lesson Six

Yeah!!! I made it all the way through without giving up! If you've been following along, you know I've been taking a six week online sketching and watercolor journal style class. This was done through Joggles and it was great. For those interested, Jane LaFazio will be teaching this particular class again March 3 - April 7. I'm sad to see this class end, but she will also teach a "Journal Style on Location" class in January through Joggles and I hope to take that one. So we'll see how that goes.

This lesson was to sketch a machine made item that was meaningful to us. So I chose a Dutch Oven because I have many fond memories of my Girl Scouting Days and then family camping trips (both growing up and with my own children.) The Dutch Oven was always a center of attention and always held something very delicious to eat. I've amazed many a guest camper with cakes, biscuits, and assortment of casseroles and stews. My family has grown to expect it and they now do their own Dutch Oven cooking when they go camping.

So this brings this official class to an end, but I'll continue to sketch and draw and will occassionally post more here from time to time.

Online Sketch Class - Lesson Five

I'm still at it, and we've got one more lesson to go! Yeah!! I love this class, and I'm really pleased that I've done each lesson even when I really didn't want to. It always seems so hard at first, but I've surprised myself. This week we were instructed to draw shoes, or a shoe to develop texture techniques. I wear, plain black shoes, white tennis shoes, and Crocs. Yes, still wearing Crocs. I wore Crocs before anyone else was wearing them. I was stopped all the time by people asking me if they were as comfortable as they looked. Yes, they were and they are still so easy to slip on and run an errand. But I don't wear them as much as I use to. I've found the draw backs of wearing shoes with holes in them in the rain. Your feet do get wet and after the shoes get old, they are very slick in the rain, which leads to lots of slipping and sliding. I have several pairs in an assortment of colors, but these are my current pair. Yes, the color is very close to what you see here. A pinkish color that is dirty. This turned out much better than I expected when I picked up the pencil to draw. The writing at the bottom says that my son called me the "Original Rubber Shoe Lady." I was wearing rubber shoes before Crocs became popular. I had found a pair of white rubber garden shoes at the grocery store for $1.00, yep one dollar. That was a deal and they were great to wear when running quick errands. The teenagers in my house thought it was horrible! Well, when Crocs came out, I got a pair from my future son-in-law who was wearing them. After they became so popluar, my son gave me the nickname, "Original Rubber Shoe Lady." Now I need to find a new comfortable style of shoe to wear to start a new trend.

Online Sketch Class - Lesson Four

I'm still at it! Yeah, I haven't given up yet....I wasn't sure if I'd get time to complete this week's lesson. First it was a BBQ contest to get ready for on Thursday and then the actual contest on Friday and Saturday. Then Sunday, my grandchildren came for a two night "Spend the Night" party! What fun, but no time for sketching in a journal. Today, I finally had time to go get some flowers to sketch for our assignment. With the recent freeze all of mine had died off. Flowers are harder than they look to sketch! These are Alstroemeria which are often in mixed bouquets, but I'm cheap and just bought one bunch. There were sunflowers so I might go back and get one of those to try later on when I have a bit more time on my hands.

The photographs above don't accurately reflect the colors, which are more purple/red than pink.

What I like is the blend of yellows into the purple color.

So I combined two of the blooms and a couple of the buds. After I photographed the flowers I realized I should have left the edges much more light than I did. Oh well... I may try to redo these tomorrow. I do like the lettering I chose. Again from the computer and then basically traced on to the piece. I explained my technique for this in lesson two.

Online Sketch Class - Lesson Three

I'm still at with my lessons in the online sketch class. I really didn't look forward to doing this one, so of course waited until the very last minute! Our next lesson comes out tomorrow. So this may make you think that I've regressed a bit, but actually it's suppose to be a continuous line drawing. With the previous sketches, we were to use a pencil first and then go over it with a permanent marker. Then use watercolors to paint them. So with this sketch we were instructed to start out with the black permanent marker and draw without lifting our pen. We could backtrack with the pen, but not lift it. This means any miscalculations in proportions or placement of lines cannot be corrected. The activity is intended to make our drawings more loose and therefore giving the sketch more character or fun. For some reason, mine was still a bit stiff, so maybe next time I'll try to draw more quickly.

This is of a watering can that my son and his wife gave me for I think Mother's Day or something. I loved it, and over time as it has sat outside on my patio it has rusted and the paint has faded, revealing the silver color underneath. I love the colors and while the drawing isn't accurate the colors are pretty close. I had trouble with the inside rim of the top, but that will be something to work on for the future. The shadows cast forward worked out better for me this time.

The main thing is that I got it done! Yeah, I haven't quit or given up yet! There are six lessons so I'm half way there! So far it's really be a great class and I highly recommend it!