Surface design differs from stitching, embroidering, and embellishing just like it sounds—something is applied to the surface of the fabric to alter or enhance it. Printing, painting, and stamping are examples of surface design techniques.
VARIETY OF TECHNIQUES FOR SURFACE DESIGN
Fabric surface design encompasses a wide variety of techniques for altering the surface of a fabric, whether it is cotton, silk, wool, or a piece of synthetic fabric. Altered fabric surfaces can be accomplished by any of the following techniques, either individually or in combinations:
Stitching, either by machine or hand
Painting on fabric
Dyeing fabric
Printing on fabric
Using heat transfer paints or crayons
Adding color, pattern, and design with paint sticks
Removing the color from already dyed fabrics with a decolourant
Layering different types of fabrics, as in a fabric collage
Waxing
Burning an image into the fabric to create a design or to reveal the layers underneath
Rusting fabric
Using various transfer mediums and transfer papers to transfer an image to the fabric
Digitally printing on fabric
Felting onto a surface
Embellishing with beads, crystals, buttons, charms, fibers, and other found objects
This is just a tiny glimpse into the world of fabric surface design and all of its possibilities – a little teaser of things to come as we explore this exciting world.
PAINTING ON FABRIC
For today, let’s just explore some of the options that you have if you decide you would like to create a piece of fabric art by painting on fabric. Painting on fabric is one of the easiest and fastest ways to alter the surface of the fabric. There are so many ways to apply the paint that you don’t need to be able to draw the proverbial “straight line.” Chances are you already have some of the paints that can be used on fabric, such as specially manufactured fabric paints, acrylic paints, puff paints, and other dimensional paints, silk paints, and heat transfer paints, to name just a few.
THE PAINTS COME IN A VARIETY OF FINISHES:
Matte
Metallic
Iridescent
Neon
Transparent
Opaque
Sometimes the acrylic paints will “change the hand” of the fabric, i.e., make it stiff. If this is an issue, there are fabric mediums that can be added to the paints to help retain the “hand” of the fabric.
For right now, you don’t have to go out and buy any special fabrics. If you have fabrics such as tightly- woven quality cotton, silk, or even synthetic fabric, they will work. If you are not using fabrics that are specially manufactured without any finishes (i.e., already prepared for dyeing), then it is best to pre-wash and iron the fabric.
When you are deciding on the color of the paint you are going to use, you need to take into consideration whether you will be painting on fabric that is a solid color, white, black, or maybe even an already printed commercial fabric. You want to use a color that will show up against the background.
METHODS FOR APPLYING PAINT TO FABRIC
The various ways of painting on fabric is another whole discussion. Some possibilities, just to name a few are:
Paint it on with a brush to cover a portion of the surface, or maybe even the entire surface
Apply it to rubber or carved wood stamp with a sponge and then stamp the fabric
Draw designs with fabric markers
Make a monoprint
Stencil an image, using either a commercial one or one that you have made
Silkscreen the image
Apply it with a brayer
Apply it with a sponge
Apply it with a credit card or other found object to create a design
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