Building Layers in Fabric

I have always loved photographs of hills that go off into the distance. You can see the atmospheric perspective very well in them. Atmospheric perspective is when the closer objects (hills) are crisp and clear and brighter in colour and as the further hills recede into the background they become less distinct and a little greyer or bluer in colour.

I recreated this effect with watercolour on paper by layering the colours. Starting first with one colour and letting it dry completely before placing another colour overlapping it. Because the watercolour is transparent you can still see the layer of paint underneath the second application.

I then wanted to take my experimentation further and try to reproduce the effect with fabric. Many retailers were handing out their products in organza bags around Christmas time and I had saved them to use in my fabric creations. Organza has a beautiful sheen to it and is transparent and it comes in a large variety of colours. I thought these bags would be perfect for this experiment.

This was my first attempt and I like the effect.

After experimenting some more, I ended up making some
fabric cards out of them. This one has a watery feel to it.

This one could be used for Valentine's Day

I was happy with the result of the experiment and so I will try to use this technique in different ways in the future. Perhaps I'll use it in a larger piece of work sometime.