Sun Painting Experiments

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I've done a lot of sun printing with Setacolor Paints but I recently heard that you can do sun painting with ANY textile or craft paint.

"What?!?! NO WAY," you say, "that's IMPOSSIBLE!!  
You have to have specialized paints that contain special, 
fancy chemical stuff in them to sun paint!!"

I didn't believe it either so I pulled out the Setacolor, Jacquard Textile paints and cheap-o acrylic craft paints and tried them side by side.  
Guess what?  
They ALL worked!
Here are my experiments so you can see for yourself:
1. Pfd painted with watered down Setacolor, Jacquard Textile and Acrylic Craft paints.
 2. Add various resist items and set in the sun to dry.
3. Remove items and see the amazing results!
You can't see it in the photo but there are some pale images in the Jacquard section.  I thought the textile paint had already been watered down when I used it but perhaps it hadn't so I decided to do another experiment.
This time I used leaves, cardboard cut outs and mesh as my resists.

Beautiful images in all three paints!
And the third time I used all three paints through out the fabric 
instead of in stripes.
And every single paint created an image!
No special paints needed!
I love that the spirals I cut . . .
. . .created a spiral underneath.
I thought it might just turn out in a circle. 
 Glad I was wrong!
The Setacolor and Jacquard Textile paints do have a softer hand than the cheap-o acrylic paints but if I am using these in a quilt that isn't being put on a bed, I really don't care if the hand of the fabric is preserved.
I am so excited about this discovery!
Is this a technique you have every tried?




Comments

Lynda said…
Lisa, Great! I also love Dye-Na-Flow. Here is my post about that paint and the sun: http://www.bloombakecreate.com/2012/09/more-sun-printing-fabric-with-dye-na-flow/
June 2, 2013 at 5:37 AM
Daryl @ Patchouli Moon Studio said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
June 2, 2013 at 8:03 AM
Daryl @ Patchouli Moon Studio said…
Oops,Lisa I deleted my first comment because I thought you hadn't mentioned about the softness of the paints, but then I saw you did. I have used acrylic paint on fabric before but only used Seta Color for the sun printing. I do like the hand of the fabric with the Seta Color as a craft acrylic does stiffen the fabric a bit too much, but it depends on what you would be using it for. Regular acrylic would make for a nice fabric postcard as those need to be rigid anyhow.
June 2, 2013 at 8:07 AM
Fibra Artysta said…
This is great Lisa - it's really nice to see everything side by side like that. Thanks for putting it together!

- Lynn
June 2, 2013 at 8:53 AM
Deb said…
Fascinating!
June 2, 2013 at 6:21 PM
Cathy Perlmutter said…
That's fantastic! I wouldn't have thought that regular acrylic paint would have done that! It certainly makes this a less expensive technology, good for working with kids! Thanks for sharing!
June 8, 2013 at 7:14 PM
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