I posted previously about making collagraphs using file folders ( see here). I’ve continued to experiment with my stash of file folders and lately I’ve been playing with overlapping the images to create fabric backgrounds.
Here’s some of my playing from this morning.
This picture shows the image as it is, with one layer:
Here is the image with several overlapping layers:
My goal today was to create a fabric that could be cut into a star shape to use as part of a Christmas card I’m designing. I used a piece of file folder to mask different areas to help me determine where I wanted to cut:
I made three different pieces of layered fabrics and these are the stars I’ve cut out so far:
My plan now is to applique one or more of these to a background waiting to be found in my box of hand-dyed fabric pieces. It may eventually be formatted, scanned and printed into this year’s Christmas card. It also may not, as something else from my box of scraps sometimes emerges. In that case, these will be used for something else when their time is right. It’s still early in December, so there is still time :D.
These images were made using Stockmar beeswax crayons on various pieces of fabric. I did heat set them with an iron with a piece of paper over and under them to absorb any stray wax, but I don’t really know about their washfastness as that doesn’t matter much for my current purposes. I do need to experiment with that one of these days.
One thing that I found very helpful that I hadn’t thought of before was to put my fabric in an embroidery hoop. In the past, I’d just taped it down, but fabric gives and moves more than paper which sometimes caused some fuzzy images. The embroidery hoop keeps the fabric nice and tight.
Hinzpired 