Check out this fugitive art work

Check this out!  I really like the use of fugitive medium on this piece!

Better Late Than Never--Fugitive Media

I FINALLY got to play with my colored pencils and chalk pastels today. I had intended to do it last month (since this was last month's technique), but...life stepped in! I must say, I like the effect. This is the original fabric--a piece I had snow dyed this past winter.

This piece always reminded me of the geyser pools I had seen when we went to Yellowstone several years ago. My favorite was Morning Glory. The colors in this piece were wrong for that, but I used pictures of Morning Glory for inspiration. I wanted to define the outer circular shape a bit more and emphasize what looked to me (and to Judith when I got to meet her in Indy this past week) like bubbles.

(The difference is way more subtle in the pictures than it is in person.) I used the chalk pastels to emphasize the edge of the "pool" and add some shadows around the "bubble" areas. Hopefully, it gives it a bit more dimension. I used a little colored pencil too, but that barely shows up on this piece.

 Close Up of Fugitive Medium on Snow-Dyed Fabric

I now can visualize how I will hand quilt this piece (if time permits)...organic lines out from the edge of the pool and lots of circles for the bubbles within the pool. I even found some silver embroidery floss that I might use to give it a bit of shine--like a reflection. I might also add a little shine with a bit of metallic paint.

Thanks Judith for sharing this new technique...now on to "setting things on fire!"

Using Charcoal on Quilts

I plan to post several small articles on using different types of fugitive mediums so that you can see some of the benefits of using it on quilts. To show you the benefit of using charcoal on a quilt I want to show you two different quilts I made.




The first one is painted fusible on a light colored fabric.  I really, really liked the results so I tried it again.

The second quilt has the same painted fusible but now on a darker colored fabric. 

Can you tell it is the same painted fusible?  Hardly! The painted fusible blends in so well that it didn't have enough strength to announce itself on that fabric.    Then I used charcoal to darken the outer edges of the box of painted fusible.  WOW!  Now you can see the boxes. The painted fusible is still timid and demure in the darker background but with the addition of the contrast around the edges, you know where to look for it.

So, benefit number one for me is to increase contrast to direct the eye of the viewer.

As far as technique goes, I drew along the edges of the painted fusible with the charcoal and then used my finger to smudge the edge out away from the box. When I got it as dark as I wanted it, I then painted the charcoal with a 50/50 mix of water and base extender.  While I did not try it, I should be able to throw this little quilt into the washer and the charcoal still remain.