Monday, February 14, 2011

Painting With Dye-Na-Flow

Lately I've been playing around with inks and painting layers of them onto fabric and creating whole cloth art quilts. This paint layering technique works best with transparent paints and inks. I decided to try the technique with Jacquard Dye-Na-Flow paint to see how it would work. I have several colors of Dye-Na-Flow in my stash, so I didn't have to go and buy them.

I followed the same steps as I had previously with the inks. I first applied a few colors of Dye-Na-Flow onto a piece of white, cotton fabric, and let it dry. I usually dilute my colors a bit with water, anywhere from 10 to 50%, although I don't measure precisely. Then I added some flower shapes with white acrylic paint and some stems with a dark green acrylic paint. After all was dry, I added another layer of Dye-Na-Flow in different colors from the first layer.

Here is my finished quilt using the Dye-Na-Flow paints.

Free-Form Flowers
16.25" x 10"



I free-motion quilted the piece, hand embroidered the French knots for the flower centers, mounted the quilt onto a fabric-covered piece of Timtex, and edged the focal quilt with black/white piping.

All in all, I think that most transparent inks and paints will work for this painted layering technique and of the three that I tried (Dr. Ph. Martin Bombay India Inks, FW Acrylic Inks, and Jacquard Dye-Na-Flow) I think that my favorite was the FW Acrylic Inks.  Next I would choose to use Dye-Na-Flow.  And the India Inks would be my last choice only for the fact that they smelled icky when ironing and may scorch.  I imagine that many other products could be used, such as Jacquard Textile Colors.  Paints that are thicker will need some thinning.  I did feel like the Dye-Na-Flow wanted to seep and spread in the fabric more so than the inks did, so that is something to consider if you are wanting a precise design.

My suggestion....test, play, have fun!  I sure am.

Oh and Happy Valentine's Day to all of you.