Painting the Apron

Last year I painted an apron to submit to the Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine for the Mixed Media Apron Reader Challenge.  It was selected as a finalist, and I was really thrilled to see it in the July/August 2016 issue.

      

The apron was created in layers with fabric paints and my own designed stencils and masks.  Below are some pictures of the process and some details.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

The background was created with stencils over a round Tyvek stencil with a sponge.  The idea was to cover the background with interesting shapes and different colors.  I think I got a bit carried away with the colors :)

Using leaf and flower stencils and masks, I added a watery layer over the background.  I held the flower masks in place, and pounced with the sponge around it.  The leaves were done with the stencil first (painting the inside), then a mask over it, to get the shapes inside the leaves.

The leaf and flower shapes were outlined with a fabric pen.

Next the shapes (from the first layer) were now outlined inside the flowers.  Shadows were added to the flower shapes to make them stand out a bit more.

Some of the background shapes were still too strong and competing with the foreground, so they got a layer of white dots through sequin waste.

Finished!  Added some doodling to some of the leaf shapes, and put it away so I wouldn't keep messing with it :)

While it was gone, I started another apron and a tea towel with some of what I had learned.  I got Textile paint and decided to go with greens and blues.  Below you will see the first step and the finished pieces.

Challenge #176 and Stamp Carving: Quarter repeat

Challenge #176

This weeks' challenge was to Bring Your Own Beverage to your tangling session :).  So, spill your drink on your tile, or paint with it, or do whatever you want, then tangle over it.  Fun, fun!!  You can see the directions here.

 

I started with my morning tea and with the stirrer, made a few marks (the lighter ones.  Then once the tea had steeped, I made a few more marks with a corner of the teabag (the darker ones in the middle).  Then added some drops around with my afternoon tea :).

This tile was spilled on the same way (at the same time) as the one above.  I ironed both tiles today, and then chose the second one to tangle on.  Here is what I came up with.

 I decided to tangle only on the "tea painted" parts, and used the tea stains as my string.  It turned out really weird, but I really enjoyed the process.

Stamp Carving: Quarter Repeat

This is the next to the last lesson based on Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's book Carve Stamp Play. :(  I enjoyed it too much!!

Here are the stamps I created for the quarter repeat.  Actually, these were just tests with a cheap eraser I got (that carved like butter!), but since our condo is up for sale all my art stuff was put away (even the little box I had separated to stay) and I have not had time or patience to go to the basement and look for it... these will have to do for now :).

I started out with a very simple one, all it has is a "leaf" shape from one corner to the opposing corner, with 2 squiggly things at each of the other corners.  When you stamp it several times, this is what you get:

Left: just the pattern printed over 5 times across and down
Right: the same piece, after being painted with H2Os and outlined in pen and ink

This pattern is also very simple: a squiggle at opposing corners joining at the center around a circle, and a V at each of the other 2 corners.

Left: stamped 5 times across and 5 times down
Right: after I played with it with H2O's and pen and ink