Textures and More with Fabric Paints

This past Tuesday, Kathi Battles and I taught a class on using fabric paints. She is also a member of The Cutting Edge Fiber Arts group. These classes were taught at Studios on the Park in Paso Robles, in conjunction with our Art Quilts exhibit.

 Below is a picture of Kathi teaching and demonstrating to everyone how to take advantage of the versatility of printing techniques one can use with the gelli printing plates.  Her enthusiasm was catching and students made some very. cool and complex, layered prints.

Here's everyone painting away!

I taught the first hour of the class showing how to use wet into wet watercolor techniques to create textures, followed by painting on dry fabric with a natural sponge  in an impressionistic style. This was followed by showing everyone how to do simple arashi shibori.

One of the cool things about using paint is you get two fabrics from the work of making one. One side is always lighter than the other.

We ran out of time and didn't get a chance to do the Itajime with paint. My sample is below. It is accordion folded first one way then the other way and clipped together with clothes pins. Paint is then brushed onto the fabric, getting into the folded layers. Let it dry, and unveil 

for some interesting patterns.

Below is a picture of all the fabrics drying.