Friday, October 16, 2015

Painting Al Fresco- sun dyeing experiment

Sunny day...Check!
Cool comfortable weather...check!
No pressing schedule....check!
can't find the gift you bought for your friend's birthday so you want to make her something?? check!
I got this stuff out...
dy-na-flow paint, plastic takeaway cutlery, white fabric dampened, foamcore palette with freezer paper.
I started by pouring paint ( these are already thinned). Nice! Used all the colors. After the paint spread, I went to the yard, placed the cutlery on the painted fabric. Some leaves blew on so I left them and added some more.

Then I took another FQ of wet fabric, poured paint on, smooshed that one into a lump, and take it out to cook in the sun.

Some spiders crawled over and made the whole thing more halloween-y. As it dries, the pigment migrates away from the shadowed areas (cutlery) leaving an impression. Couldn't be easier except...
It works much better with really flat items so the knives and handles worked but the rest not so much.
Cole, ever interested in what Momma's doing, came by...
"There may be forks but it doesn't smell like food... and Momma has that "don't touch" look in her eye"
So he did his best guard dog impression...
After it dried, I peeked under the plastic to see if it worked. Is it interesting enough to send to my friend with the bit of gift I could find?
Here it is after drying and pressing with a hot dry iron to set the color...
.

You might be able to see the spoon, knives and fork on this shot, I got clear images of at least two forks, two spoons and four knives. The leaves, although flat, did not imprint at all.
So here's what I learned:
I think you need a hotter day, to dry it faster in order to get the pigment to move quickly enough to see a good edge.
Pouring the paint on left a lot more color and I like it... my other FQ is paler because I daubed the paint on with a sponge brush. Not quite enough pigment for me but it's perfect for a background or stenciling.
I call the experiment a success as I had fun, got to play with color, and see the cutlery images.
 stay tuned to see how I use the piece I kept....


15 comments:

Deb said...

Your cloth came out nice, this post reminded me I bought a Setacolor sun painting kit and put it aside until the cooler weather landed here in Florida, this morning it was 55 so I think I'll take mine out and give it a try. Again love how your cloth turned out.

Joanne said...

Hi LeeAnna,
You set the scene really well! Sounds like a great day to be outside!
Looking forward to seeing the result!
Take care,
Joanne

Joanne said...

Hi LeeAnna,
You set the scene really well! Sounds like a great day to be outside!
Looking forward to seeing the result!
Take care,
Joanne

Mary in Boulder said...

Can't spot the spoons but the knives look great and the fork is surprisingly detailed!

Sheryl said...

I think this experiment turned out quite well, pretty colours

Glen QuiltSwissy said...

How funny, i posted my Inkodye sunprint piece today too! LOL there's that great minds thing......

LA Paylor said...

thank you so much. It is more vibrant in person too.
Funny but I can see a leaf in the picture but not in person.
LeeAnna

Jackie Bouchard said...

That looks like a fun project. I never heard of that before! Love the look on Cole's face in the first pic. He's so cute!

Angela said...

Sun printing is so fun! One of my dogs actually ate a piece of paper I sun printed!

Gwyned Trefethen said...

Cole is far better behaved than my studio cat. I can't believe Cole didn't shift the utensils. Lucky friend that you "lost" present #1.

Zenia Rene said...

Such an interesting project. I can see forks and knives! Looking forward to seeing the other FQ.

quiltedfabricart said...

Ooh! I didn't realize dynaflow works for sun printing - it came out great!

Connie Kresin Campbell said...

Beautiful LeeAnna! I recently bought some of these dyes and have been meaning to try them out! Looks like you had fun and I can't wait to see what you make with your fabric.

Debbie At The Quilt Journal said...

Came out great LeeAnna.....and my birthday is in April LOL!!! The fabric alone is beautiful!!

Debbie At The Quilt Journal said...

Came out great LeeAnna.....and my birthday is in April LOL!!! The fabric alone is beautiful!!