Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Fabric Painting

Well I'm always up for experimenting.  I see those wonderful things on website and/or Pinterest and say "I can do that.  Easy."   Goodness, the powers that be must be laughing at me.

You know the phrase "there is no free lunch," well I put "nothing is as easy at it looks" right on the same plane.  So I have seen people paint fabric using fruits and vegetables time and time again. Easy, right? What could be to it? Well, to be clear, it's stamping on fabric with paint using fruit and vegetables as your stamp. 

Anyway...one recent day I set out to do it.  I grabbed the celery from the fridge, cut off the end about 2" above the bottom to use that as my "rose petal flower" (which it does resemble when done correctly).  Well the impression didn't look like a rose. 

Here's what I got ------------------------------>>>>>>>>>

Doesn't look right, does it?  Nope.  So what did I do wrong?  I followed the easy steps from a pin on Pinterest. That must be right.  Well off to do some research. The missing link is that AFTER you cut the fruit or vegetable you have to leave it as at least 30 minutes or overnight to "dry" out so that the juices from these items doesn't mingle with the paint and water it down making a less than perfect impression. (refer to photo above).

AND you really need to cut it off about 4 inches from the bottom to get more of the "petals" defined in the stamp.  So with other bunch of celery, I cut it higher from the base and let it dry out. 

Okay the celery is "dry" now, let's do this.   I put paint on the end of the bunch of celery and tested the stamp on some white muslin.  WOW it worked and beautifully too.  So pretty, I got carried away changed colors and even doubled up colors to make two toned flowers.  Check it out!  I have to do this on an actual tote bag now and some flour sack towels for my kitchen. I'll post those on Facebook when done.




So after the success of the celery, what else do I have in the house -- I know LEMONS.  Yes, more juicy than celery but again dry aging is the key. SO I cut a lemon in half and let it sit on the counter for 3 hours.  I have to say it turned out very pretty.  What do you think?


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