And the Winners Are.......

There was a lot of wet fabric, Gelatos, Derwent Inktense pencils, and running the heat gun and iron going on at my house this week and the results were interesting, if not exactly what I expected. Now, I can't emphasize this enough, but you absolutely have to wash the sizing out of Aida (or stuff out of any other fabric you are using), because it definitely affects the colorfastness. Also, you have to heat set with an iron. I tried it with a heat gun and the results were poor, but if you iron it in, the color stays on.


From upper left, the Gelatos Iridescent; to the
right is the metallic Gelato and the bottom is
the Derwent Inktense Pencil. The dark spots look
funny in the photo but they actually are just where
the green is a little bit darker because of the wrinkles
in the fabric when I applied the color pencil. It
actually is very pretty and not stained looking. :o)

First off, let's talk about the Gelatos. They are a definite winner in the color fastness test. I did an iridescent and a metallic Gelato first and they both heat set beautifully without any bleeding of the color. The iridescence was still beautiful after the heat and the sheen was still on the metallic afterward as well. I soaked them down well with water after drying and got wonderful results.
Next up are the Derwent Inktense Watercolor Pencils. These did very well too, the same as the Gelatos, no bleeding after being heat set with an iron.

What I was keeping my fingers crossed for was the Twinkling H2O's. I was pretty disappointed. I tried everything. Heat gun, iron, and even used Liquitex Fabric Medium, and it bleeds like crazy when rewet no matter what. Not only that, but the beautiful sparkle mostly disappeared with the heat setting. I'm still going to play with these a bit more in hopes of finding a solution to the bleeding, but for now I can't recommend them for any permanence or performance on fabric. Ugh! I had such high hopes too!

The Gelatos maintained a pretty soft hand, although the Derwent Inktense pencil sample had a somewhat stiffer hand. It wasn't anything that couldn't be worked with, just know that there is a difference in the two hands and that may or may not be important to you. In the past, I actually had to scrap a whole project because the paint made the fabric so hard it would break my needles. Truly! And it was made for fabric! So I know that the softness of the paint's hand is important.

So here is something to note as well. I used the Tattered Angels on top of the Derwent Inktense pencils and it seemed to counteract the colorfastness. This is after heat setting both. The blue faded from the color loss and I had both ingredients running off all over the place. If you want to combine different media, be absolutely sure to test it on a piece of scrap to see how they work together first. Maybe some are meant to be used solely alone and you need to know that for yourself before you proceed.

I heat set my samples by placing them between two sheets of parchment paper and then pressing with a medium to high heat. I would flip them over several times, heating the front and back. I believe the pencils may take a little bit longer to heat set but I'm sure that will vary with different irons and heat settings. You will have to experiment with yours to see what works best. Next week I am going to play with the Jacquard Lumiere's and Shiva Paintsticks to figure out their colorfastness, so be sure to stay tuned.

MORE SILK FIBERS


Beautiful, beautiful silk fibers that come in a huge variety of colors
and shades. Wonderful to work with too!

Some of the Access Commodities Soie d'Alger I own. I noticed
a few of the Kreinik silks snuck in there as well! LOL!

Au Ver a Soie d'Alger from Access Commodities is a 7 ply stranded spun silk that is easily divided. What is so very special about this particular product is that it comes in 623 colors in 107 shade families. If they don't have the color, you don't need it! I mean really, could your color choices be more than that? Yes, because they introduce new colors from time to time. They also retire colors too, so if you find a particular color you adore, get it when you can and how much you can because you never know when it might go away and something else take its place. Also, order in the same dye lot just in case too. It comes in 5 meter pull-skeins, 45 meter hanks, 100 gram hanks and 200 gram cones (about 780 meters). This stuff has been made in France by the same company since the late 1800's.

This is truly an absolutely gorgeous silk that is soft, smooth, and lustrous. For special projects this is a go to for me, where I need to invest time in more delicate stitching and with a little bit pricier product. I know I would absolutely have no problem finding the correct color I need in this selection. Now once again be aware that it is recommended by the company that it be dry cleaned, so make sure any other fibers you use can be dry cleaned as well.

Here is a link to Access Commodities:
 http://www.accesscommodities.com/

Next time we will talk about my all time favorite silk fiber.

Until then here is your thought nugget:

"If you are willing to do something that might not work, you're closer to being an artist."
~Seth Godin

Working with Shiva Paintstiks

Shiva Painstiks are a wonderful way to add color to fabric. What makes them exceptional is that they are made from oil rather than acrylic, so they have a rich depth of color that is hard to beat. They come in a nice variety of colors, are blendable, and have beautiful iridescent colors as well. They stay put when applied and do not bleed around the borders of their color. Clean up is easy. The down side is that they are difficult to apply evenly to a rough textured fabric like Aida cloth and they do take a while to dry. They are a bit messier than acrylics as well, since they have a tendency to leave tiny bits of themselves around the work area (so you have to be diligent since they are permanent). That is why you see the parchment paper under the items. But they are washable (not dry cleanable) and they are OIL paints for use on fabric which I absolutely love. So here you can see that I am experimenting with the different colors to see how they look and how fast they dry on my samples of Aida. I'm also looking at silk fibers and Floche to see how those match up as well. I will be playing with acrylics next and maybe, if I am still undecided, I'll get the fabric markers out too. Right now I just want to get the fabric prepped for the next project so I can start to work right away when ready.

I am loving the colors for this project!

Big thank you to Joe for getting my laptop back so quickly and doing a great job!

Until next time a small thought nugget:

"If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are."
~Montesquieu