Altering Fabrics: Oil Sticks and Paint

All the cool stuff Bev gave me got me thinking about stamping and other surface design techniques.  This was timely, since I needed fabrics to depict a distant forest in early spring.  I was looking for small scale, low contrast prints in browns and greens.  As you might guess, there was nothing in my stash like that.  So, I went to work.

First, I selected fairly small scaled prints, some of which had previously been painted.

Click any image for a larger view

Then, I hunted for stamps and other things to help me depict busy branches.  I found what I needed to do rubbings with oil sticks in green, brown, and white.

Later, I over painted in green and brown.

Several other fabrics got the same treatment, so I think I now have what I need.

I’ll get to work on this new piece pretty soon.  That’s always exciting (and maybe a little bit intimidating, too.)  It all gets better after I make the first few decisions.

Ellen Lindner

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