The following photos show the progress of my latest project made with the FW Acrylic Inks.
White fabric painted randomly with about four ink colors (diluted approx. 50% with water). I used a blue disappearing ink pen (see more on this pen below) to draw the design lines onto the fabric. They are very difficult to see in the photo.
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Design was then marked with permanent ink. I used the Pentel Gel Roller for Fabric. I ironed a sheet of freezer paper to the back side to help stabilize the fabric while using the gel roller.
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More design lines are added with the gel roller. I love this pen! I need to get some more because after I completed this project I noticed that the ink level in the pen barrel is getting quite low.
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I accidentally skipped taking a photo before this one. That photo should show the darkened areas on the design. I painted those in with FW ink in black. The black of the FW ink and the gel roller go well together. So after all the black ink was on the fabric and allowed to dry, I then added another layer of diluted FW inks over the surface, but this time just in the background areas. You can see how vibrant that second layer made everything by comparing it to the single layer that is within the flower design. Because the inks were diluted, they were a little bit harder to control and I did get a little bleeding into the areas where I didn't want them. I only applied two ink colors for the second layer.
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This is my original drawing in my sketchbook. I drew this, oh maybe two years ago. Silly me didn't date the sketch.
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And here are photos of the finished piece. The size of this quilt is 14" x 14.25".
Doodle Flowers
I outline stitched the focal design with black thread and did an overall meander in the background with a variegated thread.
I did a wash test on the FW inks. Here is a picture I took before I washed the fabric.
And here is the result after washing. The lighting was different when I took the second photo, that is why the colors are much deeper in the photo above.
You can see that the left side, with no heat setting lost quite a bit of color. While the side that was heat set is much better, compared to the original in the middle I am able to detect a small loss of color/vibrancy. I know that I won't be using this product for anything that would need washing. This test may have different results for you because there are so many factors that could change the results. So if you want to know, I suggest doing your own test.
I mentioned the blue disappearing ink pen I used at the beginning of this project. My favorite disappearing ink pen is the Jacquard Auto Fade pen. The one thing that I really like about this pen is that you can iron over it and it won't set the ink. You will still be able to remove the blue ink with water. Cool. I have only seen this pen at Dharma Trading here.