Monoprinting Results-Quilter Beth

I finally had a chance to get to some monoprinting. This is a really fun technique to do. I spent the afternoon playing--it really is like finger painting for adults!

I used textile paints on a large piece of plexiglass to do these pieces. After each piece was monoprinted (except the pink one), I mixed a little paint with an extender to make the color very transparent and scraped color across the fabrics using an old credit card. I like the finish that gives to the pieces.

This is a large piece which started off as an unsuccessful pink shibori that I did early on in this adventure. First--I don't really like pink; second--the shibori didn't really show up. I figured...what do I have to lose! In the upper left-hand corner, I put down some paints and swirled a round sponge in them to make the circles. In the upper right-hand corner, I put a vegetable bag (looked like a grid) under the fabric and rolled some left-over paint on it with a sponge roller. (I'm not sure why only the vertical stripes came through.) I then put the cloth over some leftover paint on the plexiglass (after misting it with water) and used a brayer to take up the last of the paint. The bottom left is just paint on the plexiglass, and I used a brayer on the back of the fabric to transfer the paint. On the right, I painted a piece of bubble wrap (bubble wrap with squares rather than circles) and placed the fabric down onto that.

This is a piece of an old tablecloth. I used some metallic textile paints on the plexiglass sheet along with some "regular" paint. After that, I used the vegetable bag and the sponge roller to make the vertical lines.

I love orange and red, so I used those colors for this piece. The circles were made by putting a metal kitchen utensil into the paint and swirling the colors. I'd like it better if the red wasn't so "blobby." I really like the top of the piece.

I did the top and bottom of this piece separately. For the top I just swirled my fingers in the paint. For the bottom, I misted some of the leftover paints that were on the plexiglass from other prints and swirled the round sponge in it. I like the transparent effect this gives.

I had this leftover piece of black fabric and thought I'd try some metallic paints on it. I used a paintbrush to put the paint on the outside edge. I like that look and wish I had done more with that.

These last pieces were some that I had previously used to try some techniques--unsuccessfully, I might add. Some of those previous techniques include--using inks on fabric, screenprinting, and marbling. I think they look like drop-cloths--clean-up rags.