Painted rusty nail fabric

Last week, I shared with you about some muslin that I rusted, using the old nails from our roof.  Well, I got excited about the colors in one of the pieces, especially since quite a bit of the fabric was left unrusted.  Out came the acrylic paints and foam brushes!

1. Make sure the rust has been set as well as possible by ironing with a hot iron (hopefully not an iron you plan to use on your clothing later...).  You'll probably notice that despite taking that step, the detail of the nails was lost in the process of applying the paints. 

2. Wet the cloth thoroughly and lay it out on a prepared surface.

3. Paint away, using any techniques that you like to mix and blend colors.  I used Phthalo turquoise, Cobalt turquoise, Lumiere citrine, and Lumiere bright gold on my piece.  The first three colors were sponged on and I let the cloth dry most of the way.  I added the bright gold accents using my fingers on just a few high points.  The cloth was still damp, so there was some blending.  When the cloth was completely dry, I applied Interference gold to the very tops of some of the wrinkles, using just my fingertips.   


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