Sunday, June 12, 2016

Technique Tutorial-Colouring Seam Binding With Distress Ink.


PLEASE NOTE: Distress Inks are not permanent on fabric and are only suitable for art projects that will not be laundered.

Part of the reason for starting this blog was to enable me to share with you some tips and techniques I have discovered along the way, to help you make awesome fabric art.
I would like to start today by discussing colouring seam binding using Distress Inks.
By design Distress is reactive to water and when applied to textiles they become unstable. What I mean by that is, the colour separates while drying. Now you have one of two choices; you can become very frustrated by it or learn to embrace it as I have, turning it to your advantage.
There is a trick however to having some control over this wonderful serendipitous product called Distress.

In my previous post, I showed my fishy SOCC Challenge submission. 


I coloured my seam binding reeds by simply swiping Peacock Feathers Distress Ink on my craft sheet, spritzing with water and running my ribbon through it.

In my first sample, I allowed it to dry naturally,


and as you can see the colour separated into all these wonderful tones, making it perfect for reeds.

In my second sample, 


I immediately dried it with a heat tool. Then I randomly dipped it  into Walnut Stain swiped on my craft sheet without water and dried it again.

In comparison,



the first sample left to do it's own thing, ended up with very cool variegated colours. The second sample dried immediately, ended up with more solid true colours.

In one of my fabric books,


I used the same techniques using one colour, Stormy Sky. The seam binding at the top is the book closure and was dried immediately. The lower beaded seam binding was allowed to dry naturally and so became variegated.
I hope you found this technique tutorial helpful. These techniques can be applied to all laces and trims. Bear in mind that differing fibre content will react and colour differently. The fun is in the experimentation. 
Next post I will discuss Distress Inks on fabric. 
Stay tuned!


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