Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Alternate Fabrics

Artist: Eileen Gidman
Description: Hand (dye) painted on Rayon
Title: Crows (sold)


Cotton is the fabric I dye on at least 90 percent of the time but rayon has it’s advantages too. This crow panel is painted on rayon fabric. In my experience, the dye stays true to what I first paint, therefore very vibrant colours can be attained. The drape of rayon is especially appealing and sews well into clothing.
Sometimes though in wall hangings, I interface the rayon with a lightweight iron on interfacing in order to maintain a square alignment. Interfacing made for knits has worked particularly well.

Linen and natural cottons have there own properties and painting swatches of your favorite natural fiber fabrics with the same colours of thickened dyes to compare with each other is a valuable experiment.

1 comment:

Win Dinn, Artist said...

Your posts make me want to try painting on fabric - just one more thing to add to my list! (At least I know an excellent teacher when the time comes...)