Further Adventures of Paint on Fabric

I wrote about my first attempt to use acrylic paint on fabric which I learned after read Deborah Boschert’s book , Art Quilt Collage (C&T Publishing, 2016) about a month ago.  I had used a toilet paper roll, folded in different shapes and dipped in acrylic paint to make designs on a piece of fabric.  I had so much fun, I decided to see what other items I could use to ‘paint’ with. 

Since I had everything set up int the kitchen, I looked around there to see what I could find.  I had some plastic wrap so I cut a little piece off the roll and scrunched it up to give it some texture.

Plastic wrap

I dipped it in the paint and started stamping it on the fabric.  What I found was that the surface of the plastic wrap even scrunched up held a lot of paint.  And what I got when I stamped it was just a thick blob of paint.  Not a good thing to have.   It took a while for the paint to reduce and when there was very little paint on the foil it gave it a whispy look to the stamping (look toward the bottom of the picture).  I liked that look but a lot of paint was used to get to that point.

Plastic wrap painting

If I use plastic wrap again, I will use a cloth to stamp first and get most of the paint off before I put it on whatever I am creating.

The next item I tried was scrunched up aluminum foil.

Aluminum Foil

This had some what of the same effect as the plastic wrap.  But as I continued to stamp it (without putting it back in the paint) the more of a scattered looking design was produced. I liked that.

Foil painting

The third thing I tried was a prescription medicine bottle.  I liked the smaller circle it created as compared to the circle of the toilet paper roll. 

medicine bottle

This was fun to use because I could make designs with interlocking circles.  And just think of the designs if you interlocked different size circles from different size bottles or ends of thread spools (I thought of the spools after I had cleaned and put everything away).

Plastic fork

The last thing I tried was a plastic fork from a take out order (the fork hadn’t been used). When I get take out I usually bring it home and use my own utensils and not the plastic ones.  So I had some of these. 

Fork painting

This gave an interesting parallel design that I thought was fun.  I stamped it in different directions just to make a pattern.  Now with this, since the fork is curved, you have to rock it a bit on the fabric to get all the paint off.  And depending on the pressure you use on the fork, determines the width of the lines.

I am definitely going to see how I can add paint to my art quilts.  I might stamp it first and then use the fabric, rather than stamping after the quilt is made.  If I didn’t like how the paint looked, I would be very disappointed.  But it is fun to do this paint/stamping.  Almost like doing finger painting as a kid.

©2019- Cheryl Fillion