Category Archives: painted fabric

Photo Paper Fabric

After I figured this out I noticed that other people online have used photograph printer paper in place of Yupo paper for watercolor and ink. I didn’t look to see if anyone was doing exactly what I am, which is to use acrylic paint (textile and regular) and print/paint fabric from it. When done well, I ended up with not only a piece of fabric but a piece of paper that could be used in other projects too.

I made several pieces that didn’t make it into my new videos (below). The camera was on for some of them but I’m not sure if I’ll ever edit and publish them. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I could have painted fabric and paper for hours, just to see what would happen if…

Here are a few of the pieces.

The paint spreads on the fabric, depending on how heavily and thick it is applied to the paper.

I love the paper piece (below) from this flower piece more than the fabric. It could be stitched on, added to collage, or framed just as it is. There’s a lot that could be done with the fabric too… I think I’ll probably hand embroider on it.

I used different tools to get different outcomes. For the flower piece I used a tiny metal tip on the paint bottle and painted/printed the green. Then I used a dot tool and added first the violet color to the paper and printed/painted the fabric a second time. Then lifted it and added orange to the paper and laid the fabric on the paper for the last time.

This is the photo paper after the fabric had been lifted off.

These are just more exploring with different tools and layering. I used the tiny tip again, a mist bottle, a cheap bristle brush, an eyedropper, just poured from a little container, and of course, my fingers! I still need to heat set, maybe rinse, and press them.

I have two new videos, one shows how I painted the fabric using this technique, the other I showed in my previous post. Not my best videos but they do go through the How-to of it.

Five Techniques for Painting Fabric

I learned a lot while painting these fabrics so there are plenty of things I may do differently even though I really like the results. A couple of the techniques I will absolutely make again, probably for use behind embroidery work.

Here again are the painted fabrics in the giveaway and the video is below.

And here are the 6.5 inch squares (96 of them), also in the giveaway.

I hope you’ll share this post with anyone you know who may be interested in a chance to win either of these fabric bundles.

Reminder – The giveaway/sweepstakes ends on December 27, 2021, and I’ll post the two winner’s names on this blog December 29th, so if you’ve entered, please check to see if you are a fabric winner.

Here is my How-to video…

Happy Winter Solstice!

Always Ideas

I’m getting ready to teach a class on Sunday, these are strange times to be teaching live, but I really am looking forward to it.

As promised I have a new video. It seems the more I play with ways to get paint onto fabric the more ideas I get, and for me ideas lead to more ideas to try.

I’ll be announcing a new giveaway in October so if you are interested I hope you’ll stop by. For now enjoy the video, I hope it gives you some new ideas.

More Experimenting and Winners

I have been working on background fabrics. While I was making Crackle Vessel I ran into a disaster with the background fabric. I ended up loving that background but the way I made it was the problem, it involved (homemade) texture paste and removing it was a huge mess.

So for now, no more texture paste on fabric. Here are a few new fabric and paper pieces I worked on today. I’ll share more about how they were made in a future post or video.

Here it is wet, it dried much lighter but I think it’s so pretty.

When I hung this to dry it whipped onto itself wet and so I just rubbed it all over. It still has potential.

Thanks to those who entered the August/September giveaway/sweepstakes.

I’m not going to say who won what – it’ll be a surprise and happy mail. Even if you have before please email your mailing address to me at fiberdesignsbyann@gmail.com.

The winners are:

Karen G

Deborah F

Joyful Q

Cherie M

Chris W

I have a question for those of you who like to enter the giveaways – Would 5 or 6 inch squares of commercial fabric as a giveaway prize interest you? Please let me know in the comments, thanks.

I’ll announce another giveaway later this month. I’ll also share more painted and stitched fabric pieces and ideas.

Focus

I’m working on another project for Visions Art Museum Stir Crazy Member Challenge. I like to make a How-to video to go along with the project, it’ll be out in October and I’ll share it then.

I had a slight mishap in the studio (roller cart tipped over when a caster came unscrewed). My (adult and honest) daughter was trying to move through my studio yesterday and proclaimed “This studio is a disaster!” I can’t argue with her, but I’m working on it… It could have been so much worse.

Had to bring in a card table to hold the cart contents – Altered Art, a lot of little bits & pieces.

I also got new eyeglasses which are wrong, and so I’m waiting for new, new glasses. Needless to say, my focus has been all over the place!

I did find this piece of fabric while looking for another piece of fabric. I don’t remember painting it and I don’t remember where the top water and/or sky ended up either, but I liked it enough to hold on to it.

I quilted a roadrunner on it; the original drawing was by my daughter but I altered it slightly, and I’m going to quilt it a bit more.

I have an idea for a unusual finish, hopefully it works out, I’ll share it in a future post.

It Looks Like Watermelon to Me

I’ve put together two little fabric packets. One (#1) is white, blue, and red and the second (#2), what I’m calling watermelon/lavender, for the July giveaway/sweepstakes. Let me know which one (or either) you’d like a chance to win by following the rule instructions below.

Here’s the How-to video showing how I painted the watermelon colored fabrics that is in giveaway packet #2.

**Fabric packet #1** The flower pieces are 13″x10″ and 15 1/2″x8 1/2″, the Arashi/Shibori is 22 1/2″x 17 1/2″

**Fabric packet #2** Flower piece is 11 1/2″x16 1/2″, Lavender/crackle is11″x11 1/4″, Rope wrapped is 16″x12 1/2″

Sweepstakes/giveaway begins July 21, 2021 and ends at 9pm (Pacific Time) July 26, 2021.

To enter: You must live in the US only (no international entries). One entry per person. NOTE: (If applicable) If your name is drawn as the first winner it will be removed for the second drawing.

Leave a comment that you would like to win – #1 (white, blue, red) either/or #2 (watermelon/lavender) and include your first and last name (or last initial).

On July 27, 2021 I’ll use a random drawer and announce the winner/s on my next blog post. Winner/s will email me their mailing information and I will mail the fabric packet ASAP. If I don’t hear from the winner within five days of drawing date, I will run another random draw. Good luck!

Painted Fabric – Cardboard Resist

This is the first cardboard resist piece I made, it was made on a painted (light wash) piece of fabric and I used two colors for the design. Read on to find out more and for the How-to video see below.

For this next piece I left some of the backside tip fabric unpainted (no yellow), once dry and pressed I painted orange dots to the centers. I didn’t like that result, they felt too deliberate. The holes were in a tighter placement and I don’t think the overall results were as good, BUT maybe it’s just the colors; I think these colors would have been more striking on a white background.

Below is the only piece (so far) painted on white fabric, the picture doesn’t show how pretty it really is. I forgot to take a photo before I cut some pieces out, that’s the photo-shopped out white areas.

The next piece didn’t go as I had hoped. I started with a piece of rope wrapped fabric in green (more about that in a future post). I used three colors on the green background, which was an okay idea, but again the holes were too close. I’ve concluded that there needs to be more fabric and space between the holes.

I did use the the above fabric but it doesn’t look anything like it did after painting. In my previous post I share the crackle/crinkle painted fabric and said I’d try to share an artwork using that technique and this newest paint technique. Here it is… Mixed media collage, raffia, coffee filter, and hand painted fabric. I may talk about the background wall fabric in a future post.

I learned more… One – I wanted the vase to be shiny so I painted Mod Podge on it, when it dried it was shiny BUT the crackles and crinkles were no longer visible. And two – Dry Mod Podge is really hard to wash out of fabric! I ended up flipping the fabric over and that worked fine, it’s actually darker than it appears in this photo.

After painting a few pieces I have more ideas for using this technique. If you paint fabric using any of these techniques I hope you’ll share your results.

Stay tuned for the next sweepstakes/giveaway announcement.

Crackle – Crinkle Technique

I mentioned in my previous post that I have been working on new painted fabric techniques. I’m sharing a one here, though for me it’s not new because I accidentally made a piece of this fabric a long time ago. Below is a short video that demonstrates just how easy it is.

A couple things I should say – First, it is best to use darker paint to get the most obvious results. And, unless you have large hands or a large handed helper, this technique is really only for making small size pieces of fabric.

Next week I’ll share another new technique and if time permits, an artwork using the two techniques.

Below is another piece of fabric I made using this crackle/crinkle technique. I used black paint and after I rinsed it, I had a sad feeling that it didn’t work (see left side below). But I should have known better… Just a hot iron and the crackle appears, like magic! In this photo the right side has been press completely flat (except for the little crease on the right edge).

Below, the fabric front is on the left and the back on the right. Any brown color is just from bad lighting; the piece is nice dark charcoal gray. I like the fabric back as much as the front and now I see plaster walls, cave walls, or rocks… Note to self – Must try in brown.

I look forward to sharing more painted fabric pieces and hope you’ll say tuned. Thanks for stopping by.

It’s a Fabric Wrap

I have painted pole wrapped fabric, and dyed a wrapped rope, and I’ve never been disappointed with the results, there is always something good that can come from them.

A few things to keep in mind – Traditional pole wrapping, Arashi shibori, is not what I’m doing. I use paints and don’t follow the correct wrapping and stringing process, so I realize my results will not look like the real thing. Paint stays more on top, whereas dye bonds and soaks through the wrapped layers.

I recently used rainbow colors and instead of my usually 4″ ABS pipe, I used three PVC pipes taped together, making a triangle. Here are pictures of the process, the result, and some finished works.

Placed paper towel under pole. Placed outside to dry, I rotated it once in awhile.

This makes me think of the lower leaf filled branches of a tree. May have to try that all in greens sometime but turned it looks like fish. It’s like finding images in the clouds!

I usually put fabric under to catch the drips but this time I used several paper towels.

First paper towel caught the most, of course. This will be fun to use in collage.

Dye does give a richer, more even, and more beautiful result. Paint is just easier for me.

Have you made any pole wrapped fabric?

Next time I’ll share at least one other painting on fabric techniques. Thanks for stopping by.

Painted Fabric and Giveaway

I’m excited to announce that next week I’ll be posting the Photograph and Fiber pieces. There is a little something for everyone – great ideas and, I think, they’re very inspiring.

I’ll be showing some of the fabrics I’ve been painting lately in futures posts but for now, here is the most recent sky painting video…

I’m happy so many of you entered for a chance to win a piece of hand painted fabric. And the Giveaway/Sweepstakes winners are –

Lynne K.

Chris W.

Christine B.

Naomi M.

Joy Q.

Please email your mailing info to me and I will mail the fabric ASAP.

If you make anything with the fabric I hope you will share photos, I’d love to see what you come up with.

Thanks for stopping by.

Fiber Designs by Ann

Fiber art Design, Instruction, Sales