Inspired by a New Medium

Not long ago, I spent a Saturday with 6 other women trying something new to me. I know that many people dye their own fabric and I love the look of hand dyed fabric. I have tried it myself but found it to be time consuming and needing a lot of space and equipment. I had read of others who paint their own designs on fabric and wondered how that was done without making the fabric hard and crusty. I also wondered how, once it was painted, one could wash it if needed without the colour coming out.

I learned during this workshop of a product called The ColourVie Pigment System. It is a water-based product that is not harmful to the environment and it can be heat set onto fabric by ironing it.

It consists of a base that resembles the colour and thickness of vanilla yogurt. To this base you add drops of pure pigment. Once you have the colour you want you paint it onto white 100% cotton which has been pre-washed. If you layer two different colours, one on top of the other, you can use tools such as potatoe mashers or stamps or other tools to create a texture and designs in the paint. Then the fabric is hung to dry. After it is dried it is heat set with an iron. The fabric remains soft and pliable and can be cut and sewn with no problem.

This system will allow me to produce fabric of a colour I need for a project that I cannot find in a store. I will have to do a whole lot of experimentation with it to know exactly how to produce the colours I want but I truly had fun and really like what I ended up with.

Designs made with a hand made stamp and a potato masher.

This was the last piece I made just using up my leftover colours.

This one gives me an underwater feel.