Saturday, January 30, 2010

Autumn leaves and transfer paints . . .

 . . but a nice wintry sunrise to get the colour appreciation going, taken from our front door steps, about 8.30 - ? -ish.  This beech tree supplied the leaves that appear in some of the postcards that follow.

  This idea of printing with real leaves is always around in my head.  It was revived recently because one of my Christmas presents was a subscription to Design Matters TV, run by Linda and Laura Kemshall.  I'm really enjoying looking at all the video workshops provided.  One of them is on using transfer paints / disperse dyes.  These are the ones you paint on to paper, then when it is dry you can iron the colour off onto fabric.  These dyes are picked up primarily by polyester, so a polycotton mix, or any true polyester fabric are the sorts to use.  The colour comes out the strongest on the latter. 
I laid the leaves down as a mask, and ironed colour over.  Some colour comes off on the leaf, so that can also be transferred.  I had painted my papers with a mix of colours, using a sponge often to get a textural look.  Then it was a question of thinking of different ways to free machine stitch the backgrounds after outlining the leaves and veins, then make them up into postcards.

5 comments:

Mandy said...

Hello Barbara,
You have been busy!
Thanks for mentioning Design Matters TV. I had not heard of this before. It certainly looks really interesting. What a marvellous present to have been given.

Anonymous said...

Just browsing and came across your very interesting blog. So much to look at and enjoy. I have recently brought transfer paints but not used them yet. Carol.

Vintage Knit Crochet said...

These are lovely. Although the paint techniques an subdued, but colorful, it's your wonderful open stitching that gives each of these movement and personality.

Primitive Rob said...

Hello! Just bloghopping. Great blog!

Happy blogging! :)

Mihaela said...

Wow! Great!!!!