Inking on a Landscape

I've only worked a little with the Tsukineko Inks, but so far I love them.  Here's a landscape that I did a while back:

The colors a little off here on my monitor, sorry.  I used the inks with both paint brush and the Fantastix pens to paint in the shadows and highlights of the mountains in the background.  These were originally just a plain grey piece of fabric.  I also painted in the shadows of the island and the peninsula, as well as using some darker greens to shadow parts of the thread-painted treeline. 

Here's a more detailed look at the mountains.  I was able to get exactly the effect I wanted with washes of the inks, including light green highlights for the vegetation. 

 I'll dig up a copy of the original photo so you can see what I was trying to achieve.  In the meantime, I'm certainly going to check out the aleo gel as a medium for detailed painting!

Permanent Colored Pencils

I get a magazine called Machine Quilting Unlimited (the March issue arrived today) and there's an article in it about a technique called Colorque (pronounced Color Kay for those of us who don't speak French) written by Helen Stubbings. I googled her and came up with a tutorial she put on her blog, here's a link to it.

She uses Derwent Inktense Pencils and regular fabric medium, Folk Art Textile medium that you can get at Joann's or Michael's. Her article in Machine Quilting Unlimited also has a free design to use. If I can find the pencils at one of the craft stores, I think I'll give this technique a try!

Adventures in Ink

I am delighted to be the guest blogger here today.  However, I must begin by saying that I am no expert on inks.   I was invited to share my paltry experiences when I opened my big mouth (or is that typed with my big fingers?).  I have played around with Tsukineko all-purpose inks for a couple of years now.   My main influences were mentioned in the post below, "March's Technique." 


I have one other influence not mentioned in the previous post: Patt Blair.  Patt gave me permission to link here with her blog to show her color wheel.  She has done amazing work with these inks and she teaches classes, sadly though, never anywhere close to me.  

 I made this color key so that I can tell at a glance which color I need (try to ignore the mistake on number 33).  There are a couple of popular methods to using the inks.  They are very thin -- as in watery -- so it's possible to use a brush and get some nice watercolor looks.  I've been a little frustrated that they don't blend like acrylic paints because they're so watery.  Mixing them with clear aloe vera gel makes them thicker and easier to use with a brush.   

I used inks mixed with gel to paint this.  I traced the dragon from a Dover book with a thin pencil onto white cotton and used a brush to apply the ink/gel mixture.  I really like this method because it allowed me to mix colors on a palette like paints, but the inks don't change the hand of the fabric like paint does.   The only thing wrong with this was that I had to put it away for a while.  I forgot about it and when I remembered it, the ink/aloe mixes had dried out in the little bottles I used.  Maybe better bottles would have prevented this.  Or maybe a better memory...

My next big project was this portrait of my daughter.  I made a line drawing from a photo and covered it with a piece of very thin plastic from a dry-cleaning bag.  Then I taped it to the back of plain white cotton.  I referred to the color photo and used the "Fantastix" applicators to apply the inks.  It has a very "sketchy" look to me.  I started with the lightest colors and slowly went darker, layering the color.  I haven't really mastered smooth blending from one color to another with these applicators.  The background isn't finished; I am probably going to use textile paint because it seems to be the most efficient way to cover a big space. 

I mark my applicators with a Sharpie so I know what color I have used them for.  The color doesn't really rinse out of them, but they seem to work okay even after the ink has dried on them.  So I use a different one for each color.  And I store them in a  container with the point side down.

At the suggestion of Quilt Rat, I made up some samples using aloe gel painted on fabric,  then I blended the color over.  I allowed the gel to dry on the bottom two before painting on the ink.  I heat set (which is important with these), then hand-washed in the sink with Synthropol.  I left the picture large so it's obvious where the color flaked off.  The best blending was attained with a thin coat of aloe, then painting the ink onto the wet gel.  And the color stayed on the fabric.  

I made up these two samples using the same picture for comparison of the techniques.  The one on the left was done with the "Fantastix" applicators and the one on the right was done with a combination of techniques all using clear aloe vera gel and a series of paintbrushes.  There are things I like about each.  I find that the pointy "Fantastix" are really good for fine detail.  I had to wipe them on a scrap to get rid of the excess every time I dipped into the ink.  But they work really well for tiny details.  I like the more watery look of the background on the right.  I used gray for the upper part of the petals and I mixed the blues and yellows with the aloe on my palette, then painted those colors.  For the greens, I painted the background generously with aloe and painted ink on top of the wet gel.  

Here are the finished postcards with their stitching.  

Another thing to try with the inks would be to mix them with textile medium instead of the aloe vera gel.  The aloe is probably cheaper, but I wonder if the mediums might be more versatile?    It would be fun to experiment with all the different viscosities

WOW - A NEW TECHNIQUE

It is Saturday and I was just minding my own business washing out some of my newly dyed fabrics.Threw in two color catchers into washer. Took out the color catchers and threw the fabric in the dryer. Ironed the fabric and the color catchers. That is where all normality stopped. I am working on a design that requires rocks on the bottom of a stream. I really didn't know what I was going to use. WELL, I took one look at the color catchers (that came out a nice charcoal grey) and thought "that kinda looks like rocks, kinda".

That was when the Dyeing powers that be took my mind and body over. I started to think, "color catchers, dyes, color catchers, dyes". So then I dyed two color catchers with Havana Brown. Then I dyed two color catchers with my husbands coffee. I then poured some of the Havana Brown into the coffee.

All this looked very nice but now quite what I wanted. SOOO, I began to wonder what would happen if I put the catchers in a soda ash solution and then sprinkled with straight dye powder. The first thing that happened was the two charcoal grey catchers turned kind of a moss green when put in the soda ash solution. (??? who knew). But I was in a trance and had to keep going. So I put all my catchers on a plastic tablecloth and proceeded to sprinkle dye powder in little areas. (Oh course, all rigged up with mask and gloves.)

The powers that be were not quite done with me yet. The Havana Brown catchers were almost black and that would not do. Again I began to think, "black, dark.......bleach!!!!" I got out a spray bottle and proceeded to put bleach in and spritzed the dark catchers. Hmm..... wonder what the spray would do to the others. I could not stop my hand as they lightly spritzed the other ones.

Well, here is what happened. (Snicker!!)

Last but not least is the clean up color catcher. I plan on using this for rocks that have mottled light on them.

I know it is not my turn for a technique, but, I was so excited I wanted to share it with everyone.

I guess I am sort of back normal (as normal as I get) and my stomach tells me it is almost 1:30pm and I have not had my lunch. Thank all of you for letting me share. After all is was not my fault ;o)

Finally...a Little Time to Work on My Soy Wax Batik

I have been busy working on a wall quilt that has to be finished and photographed before March 9th. It is to a point now that I think I can actually get it finished, so I decided tonight was the night to work on some of my soy wax batik pieces. I have several fabrics waxed but haven't had time to dye or paint them. I only had time to do a couple of pieces tonight.

I really don't have anything new to add to what everyone else has said about working with soy wax. I thought it was pretty easy. The only thing I might mention is that I used a sponge to put some wax on the fabric. It soaked up a "ton" of wax, and it also put a lot of wax down onto the fabric. Maybe I should have squeezed it out a bit more before putting it on my fabric? I can tell you that the sponge is REALLY stiff with dried wax right now!

Here are the before and after pics of the couple of fabrics I got to do tonight.

This first fabric was a commercial piece of fabric with a pattern. I just put wax circles on it.

This is the same fabric with a chocolate brown paint added. I used quite a bit of extender with the paint to make it more transparent. I like the pattern within the circles left from the commercial fabric. 

This was a piece of that ugly orange fabric that I worked with last month. I used the shibori technique on it and just didn't like it at all. This is the piece with the wax applied. I didn't really uses a pattern when applying the wax (as you can easily see).

 Oooooo, I like it much better with the blue added.

I did crackle the wax a bit before adding the paint.

I have several other pieces that are ready for paint or dye. I really want to dye and over dye some of those pieces. I just didn't have time to do that this month.

Hopefully, I'll have a little more time next month to play with the inks I have ordered (although I have trips to New York and Chicago planned). I'm trying to find some clear aloe vera gel to use with the inks, but I had no luck with that today. I can only find blue or green gel. Anyone have any idea where to find the clear gel? I looked at Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Dollar General, Dollar Store, my local grocery store, and Big Lots.

Not the last of my batik

I have found out this month that I really like batik.  A co-worker hired me to dye some onesies for her.  I parfait dyed them and then batiked and overdyed a few. Co-worker loves them.

Another use of Ink in surface design

I was checking out YouTube for anything having to do with surface design and inks.  I came across this video.