Monday 15 August 2011

Transfer Paints.

I read an interesting article in Quilting Arts Magazine about using transfer dyes and plant material to create pattern on fabric. The dyes used by the author of the article came in powder form, but I remembered I had some liquid transfer paints tucked away, probably from when I went to college 2o or more years ago! They work in a similar way by being painted onto paper and when dry you place the coloured paper face down onto synthetic fabric and iron until the colour is transferred. I watered mine down as the colours can be very intense and I didn't want that and the fact that I recycled an old cotton/polyester sheet for my fabric probably softened them further.

To create my patterns I had previously picked a few different leaves from the garden and pressed them in a very fat dictionary for a few days. I am very pleased with the clear image of the fern in the picture above. The first example was made using geranium leaves.

This one is not so clear as I sprayed it with Glimmer Mist and have lost the sharpness. The slight orangey tinge to the tips of the fern is due to the fact that I reversed the leaf from the previous sample and some of the colour from that application has adhered to the leaf and transferred itself onto the fabric for this sample.





I sprayed this one as well to get rid of the rather nasty pink I ended up with. I left the leaves in place and sprayed over them.


I mixed the colours slightly on some sheets and quite like the effect. These leaves are from my Goat's Rue plant.


Another Goat's Rue sample. I like the streaky effect of the background and think it would be extremely difficult not to get streaks when brushing the paint onto the paper. The paper absorbs the colour quite fast before you can get another brushful ready to apply.



Ivy leaves this time. If you look carefully you can see where the veins of the leaves have been impressed into the fabric. I don't know how long they will stay like that.


Getting adventurous with colour here, or was I just using up the leftover paint?!


This is almost identical to the first one - I must have liked that arrangement. All I have to do now is decide how to use them.


There may still be unspent colour left on these papers but even if not, I have some rather nice sheets to use for other projects. They might be very useful during the online course I am about to enrol on . I am very attracted to the Creative Sketchbooks course offered by Distant Stitch which was set up by Sian Martin. It will be a double challenge but that will be good for me as I will have to extend my computer knowledge and skills as well as my artistic ones. Scary but good scary!





















12 comments:

Maggi said...

Great results Heather. It just goes to show that you shouldn't throw anything away. Enjoy your course, it sounds very good.

Carol Q said...

that worked so well Heather. didn't you get a wonderfully clear image of the fern. I hope you do the sketchbooks course so that I can enjoy watching your progress (how selfish! lol) I had a good look round the distant stitch site. very interesting. I hope the summer drawing project stays up for a while - would love to have a go.

Julie said...

You've obvioulsy had great fun with this Heather and the results are wonderful. I do love working with plant material. Good luck with your distant learning course, it will be very rewarding I'm sure. xx

Lyn said...

I love silhouettes of leaves and as you say you get to recycle the papers.
xxx

Anonymous said...

Lovely stuff Heather, do you have a plan for these samples or are you saving them for your sketch book?

Heather said...

I think some of them will be used on the sketchbook course Liz, but I may think of other ways to use them.

Clare Wassermann said...

wonderful - I bought some transfer paints at the Festival of Quilts last week - I'm looking forward to trying them now!

The Weaver of Grass said...

I think I have some old transfer paints somewhere too Heather - am just off upstairs to have a look for them.

Anonymous said...

They look marvellous, you don't hold back when it comes to new experiences do you? Well done I say.

Val said...

Just catching up with all your posts Heather! Love the macro shots, and the transfer dyed pieces you have done are soooper! I'm sure you'll really enjoy the distant learning Sketchbook Workshop - look forward to seeing what you get up to, if you are allowed toshare it! Thanks for all your lovely comments on my blog recently.

Robin Mac said...

I love transfer paints, you have come up with some very interesting pages. I usually spray my paper with water before I paint on the transfer paint, then there are no streaky bits, just interesting bleeding of colours into each other. Enjoy your online course, I hope you are allowed to show us photos of your progress. Cheers

Julie said...

Hi Heather Can you send me your postal address please and I'll gladly pop a doily in the post to you.