Sunday, June 1, 2008

May TIF completed

This month I decided to do some monoprinting. The one thing that I discovered while doing this was that I'm not meant to be a monoprinter , especially in very warm and dry NM. For those not familar with monoprinting, you put paint down want, as many colors as you want, on a piece of glass or plastic. You can draw designs in the paint, just like fingerpainting when we were kids.
Next lay some cloth on top of the paint, then using a brayer smooth the cloth and carefully pick it us. There are extenders you can mix in the paint so that it doesn't dry too quickly. Unfortunately they didn't seem to help me very much.

The first time I did the printing I used about 1/2 yard of muslin and this is what it turned out like.

I was trying to do a design, flowers believe it or not, and this is what I wound up with. Oh well, first try, lets try again.
This was my second attempt to monoprint. As you can see, not much success. The furthest to the left is the first pass, then the next two are the second pass on the same glass. I was hoping I could show more color. Each piece is about a 6 x 8 piece of muslin.
I let these age in the garage for a few days, as we all know many times a little ageing makes things look better. I found after a few days they did look better, not good, but better.
I decided that for now this was the end of my monoprinting experiment. Maybe later I will attempt it again, but for now I've written FINI to this technique.
As far as the May TIF goes, I did say I would experiment with the technique, but thank goodness I didn't make any commitment to making anything with the product. But come to think of it, isn't the June TIF about stash and aren't these pieces of fabric going into my stash? Maybe I could..... guess you just have to wait until next month!

4 comments:

Elizabeth in NM said...

Great experiment for the TIF challenge--I've been wanting to try that myself--didn't think about the dry climate--good point. I think your pieces will make fun stash pieces---you could even overdye them to take them even further :)

Jane said...

Hi Meg,This technique sounds like alot of fun but I can see how it would dry quickly for you.. The colors you chose are great... Hvae you came on board the Stitching Fingers group yet ?? Heres the link
http://stitchinfingers.ning.com/
If you are there, what name are you using.. I'll look you up...
Happy Summer Solstice to you in NM!

MixPix said...

Hi Meg, thanks for the comment on my blog. Sometimes when I monoprint, I wet the fabric before taking the print - mind, I use silk paints which I dilute with water as well, so they spread differently. Because the fabric is wet, it takes up the paint without leaving those hard edges, and depending on the colours and their placement, it can produce very soft, cloudy effects. Hope you find this useful if you decide to have another go.

Jane said...

Hi Meg, What in the word have you been up to? Hope all is well with you and that you're OK!!
I nominated you for a Premio Award over on my blog. Don't feel any obligation to do it, especailly the meme part as that is something entirely different that Paula Hewitt sent as well LOL. If you can, just drop a quick note so I know that you're alright. Concerns from afar...