Fabric Paint that works like dye

 It being 2/10/20, I had to post today!

And I have something of interest - to me, anyway.

As part of the Blackwork course I am doing, we were asked to play with some colouring of the fabric. I know that dyes for plant-based fabrics usually mean you have to mordant the fabric and, honestly, I just couldn't be bothered. 

But then I saw an article in Embellish magazine, about using paint on fabric (except I didn't realise that it was paint at first, it looked like silk painting with dyes). 

The article was interesting. The person who wrote it has done several articles in this magazine over the last few years and I have read them with mild interest. But this one happened to co-incide with the need to colour my linen (or linen-cotton in some cases). 

I contacted her and bought some of her fabric paints: Liquid Radiance. It also happened that she was running a free workshop on Zoom that I could 'attend'. So I did! 

The paints have worked well on the linen and I have had a small play with using coloured (variegated) threads and black threads. I have, once again, only used what I had seeing we still can't go to the shops - they aren't open yet! 

I only used red, yellow and blue. They travel and mix well. They can be put on dry fabric or dampened. Some fabrics didn't work very well dry, especially if they had not been prewashed. The fabric sometimes resisted the water soaking in. 

This piece was so small I had to attach it to some calico to put it in the hoop. 

The paint makes the fabric a tiny bit stiffer, which isn't a bad thing, I think it is less likely to fray. 

Some of the darker patches were a little bit harder to see for the embroidery but, overall, it was successful. 

I have done some samples, now to see if I can come up with a design. 

I did also play with some Shiva Oil sticks but haven't tried to sew on that fabric yet. The colours are nice and strong and I have heat set and washed it, which did get rid of some of the residue. 

Not having any idea of what I was wanting to achieve, I just rubbed on some colour and now need to play with some sewing. If it shows up, the colour is rather strong.