I read an interesting article in Quilting Arts Magazine about using transfer dyes and plant material to create pattern on fabric. The dyes used by the author of the article came in powder form, but I remembered I had some liquid transfer paints tucked away, probably from when I went to college 2o or more years ago! They work in a similar way by being painted onto paper and when dry you place the coloured paper face down onto synthetic fabric and iron until the colour is transferred. I watered mine down as the colours can be very intense and I didn't want that and the fact that I recycled an old cotton/polyester sheet for my fabric probably softened them further.
To create my patterns I had previously picked a few different leaves from the garden and pressed them in a very fat dictionary for a few days. I am very pleased with the clear image of the fern in the picture above. The first example was made using geranium leaves.
This one is not so clear as I sprayed it with Glimmer Mist and have lost the sharpness. The slight orangey tinge to the tips of the fern is due to the fact that I reversed the leaf from the previous sample and some of the colour from that application has adhered to the leaf and transferred itself onto the fabric for this sample.
I sprayed this one as well to get rid of the rather nasty pink I ended up with. I left the leaves in place and sprayed over them.
I mixed the colours slightly on some sheets and quite like the effect. These leaves are from my Goat's Rue plant.
Another Goat's Rue sample. I like the streaky effect of the background and think it would be extremely difficult not to get streaks when brushing the paint onto the paper. The paper absorbs the colour quite fast before you can get another brushful ready to apply.
Ivy leaves this time. If you look carefully you can see where the veins of the leaves have been impressed into the fabric. I don't know how long they will stay like that.
Getting adventurous with colour here, or was I just using up the leftover paint?!
This is almost identical to the first one - I must have liked that arrangement. All I have to do now is decide how to use them.
There may still be unspent colour left on these papers but even if not, I have some rather nice sheets to use for other projects. They might be very useful during the online course I am about to enrol on . I am very attracted to the Creative Sketchbooks course offered by Distant Stitch which was set up by Sian Martin. It will be a double challenge but that will be good for me as I will have to extend my computer knowledge and skills as well as my artistic ones. Scary but good scary!
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