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Saturday, June 7, 2014

EPlay Challenge .... Gesso and Fabric!

Howdy EPeeps!! One of my favorite ways to create texture is to paint fabric with gesso.  The fabric becomes stiff and also becomes a canvas that you can work with!  When I heard Andie's challenge was fabric, I was super excited because I just LOVE to gesso fabric and I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to try!


I started with white cotton fabric.  Squirt on the gesso and spread around a thin layer.  I use a credit card or room key card to make a super thin layer without brush strokes!



I also gesso'ed a couple of other fabrics just to play around - they will make fantastic canvases later on!


I hung them up to dry.

Then I took out my inspiration piece.  I found two of these Peony plates at Goodwill - awesome find!! But two plates, just didn't work for me on the wall.  So I thought I could create a little canvas to become the 3rd 'plate!'  I used a 6x6 canvas, that are not gesso'ed, to start with a cream color!


I found a piece of scrap paper to create a background and glued it down and covered it with clear gesso, so we could see the patterns.  When it was dry, I ended up mixing titan buff color paint and acrylic glazing to coat it with a transparent color!


When the gesso'ed fabric was dry, I painted the fabric with colors to match my plates. Once dry, the fabric easily tears into strips.


Using Helmar 450 adhesive and the fabric, I played around until I made ruffled circles that looked like flowers! I glued them down and placed unpainted yellow fabric in the middle! 


Then I cut out green leaves and I tried to match the leaf shapes to the ones on the plate. Even plain, they looked pretty.  I used more paint and my white gel pen to create the details to make them pop!



I doodled, found an amazing quote, "Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live" and finished off the project!




(And now I need to make something to go with my Russian Doll Canvas too....)



So now, go play with fabric!! I promise you, fabric is amazing to use with mixed media projects!! Come and join the EPlay challenge!!

-Karen
http://ijustneedmoreglue.blogspot.com

14 comments:

Clare Lloyd said...

Such a gorgeous project.

Sue Lelli said...

Your flowers are absolutely GORGEOUS, Karen! LOVE whay you created and that's such a FAB sentiment!

Suman Pandit said...

Oh I love this,Karen !! absolutely amazing and completes the trio beautifully :)

SusanK said...

This is so so cool! And thank you for the step out photos and great instructions. What a way to finish your 'series' of peony plates!

Unknown said...

I saw this on FB Karen and immediately loved it. So glad I popped by here to see your process and your inspiration piece. You totally nailed it and I love the gorgeous color you get from Dina's paints. I love your canvas!!!

Julia Aston said...

What a wonderful project inspired by your lovely plate Karen! The flowers are So pretty - thanks for sharing your technique!

Dolly LaBelle said...

Beautiful work of art. I love the trio hung together. What a great idea to add to a collection of art.

mamablitger said...

Wow.... What a great idea to make a canvas to match your plates. You achieved such a pretty result. Love your fabric flowers and the white you added to the leaves makes it all pop. Thanks a lot for the good tutorial.
You are very creative !!
Hugs from SPAIN

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous project Karen ! I love your flowers, totally amazing ! Sue C x

BlackDamaskDesigns said...

This is do creative & awesome!

Micki said...

Wow, your canvas is gorgeous. The flowers look like they were created at the same time as the plates. Wonderful. And combined with the plates on the wall it looks beautiful .

Mary-Ann Maldonado said...

Great art! Love how you hung the creation next to the inspiration. It is stunning.

Andiepants said...

These flowers are amazing. You are so talented.

Rupa Swaminathan said...

This is stunning. It compliments the plates and an amazing wall decor!