#52weeksofsurfacedesignweeks 5 and 6: fabric painting with #dyenaflow

Dye-Na-Flow is a free flowing, super watery, concentrated liquid fabric paint that acts like fabric dye, or somewhat like a watercolor paint, manufactured by @jacquardproducts. i started buying Dye-Na-Flow at my local blick (when i lived in Chicago and had one conveniently located by my grocery store!), but now that i live in the middle of nowhere, i order it online via dharma trading company.

this year I’ve been working through the possibilities with this paint, seeing what it can do: splattering, flicking, making quick concentric circles and stripes with a big brush, and have even put it in spray bottles and sprayed it on to the fabric as well.

i usually start with dry cotton fabric (mostly Kona Snow), and work on top of a blue tarp from Home Depot, which I can easily clean with a wet sponge or baby wipe between pieces. i then quickly start applying paint, without letting colors dry, which leads to a bleeding and blending of colors that i really love.

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with the concentric circle pieces, i often splash a contrasting color over the top for interest, and then hang the pieces to dry, which adds to the blending of the colors and gives the circles a “splat” like appearance.

over the summer i completed two quilts with these circles, playing on the drunkard’s path block. various other quilts featuring stripes and splatters are still in the works.

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an unexpected and fun variation arose out of the discards and offcuts of the painted striped fabric: a raw edge appliqué motif that suggests the overall idea of a woven piece. when i was prepping pieces paint them with stripes, i simply tore the pieces and got to work. after i was done and the pieces had dried, i started cutting of the edges, thinking it would make piecing easier. but i couldn’t bear to throw the fun offcuts away, so i started playing around! i took a small piece of Kona Snow, sandwiched and quilted it, and then started applying little scraps to the surface, temporarily adhering them with a glue stick, and then a simple top stitch. i’d eventually like to make this quilt again, but on a larger scale.