A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I used snow to paint some fabric that became part of my Spruces of Utah quilt. Today I want to show you how screamingly easy it is to do this. The only thing you really can't do without is snow...
Overly enthusiastic as usual, I shoveled up much more snow than I really needed. Besides a piece of fabric (I used unbleached muslin torn to size), you'll need some paints, dyes, or other colorants. If you use dyes, you'll get much stronger colors than I did. I used acrylic paints, watered down a lot, so by the time the process was finished, only the softest haze of color was left in most areas. That's what I wanted. The paint colors that I picked are known for their transparency, even before diluting them.
It's nice to have a sheet of acrylic or glass and a pan for it to drain into, but it's really not necessary. I angled the acrylic sheet so that the melting snow would collect in the pan. Several times during the process, I went in and drained off the water, but that's not really necessary either. See how few things are necessary? Isn't this easy?
Scrunch up the fabric so that it fits on the sheet. Cover it with snow, and pour on your dyes or thinned paints.
After the snow has completely melted and your fabric has air dried over night, you can iron it to heat set if you'd like.
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Comments
Cool technique - literally ;-)