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Hand cut stamp made from one
inch rubber insulation foam |
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Reverse side of circle stamp |
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Knit fabric using stencil (pictured
below--Squares) and stamp with
squares; and stamp with circles |
I've been taking the last few days of good weather (sunshine, still in the 60's but barely) to paint and print fabric in my summer studio (aka my garage). I try to paint outside so the mess is easily cleaned up and use the autumn, winter, and early spring for creating inside. A lot of the fabric I'm using is knit, my choice for my one-of-a-kind dolls as well as the dolls that are poseable. (Created because my hand problems needed a softer fabric that I didn't have to stuff hard: that's knit fabric and it opened up a new world of dollmaking to me. (Visit my website or Etsy.com to see my 8 patterns available.)
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Printed knit fabric using circle stamps |
I've also made many new stamps and stencils. Stamps I make out of 1" thick insulation foam which I buy from the scratch pile at Grand Rapids Rubber here in GR on Chaffee Blvd. It's somewhat expensive but the stamps last forever it seems and with a very sharp bladed Xacto knife any shape is easily cut. For stencils, I've been using the pile of excess manilla file folders I have. Again, the Xacto knife works the best with the folder laid on top of a pile of newspapers or a thick magazine. To keep the stencil impervious to water after using it, coat it with a clear acrylic medium.
Note the dark knit fabric on which I stenciled the tiny triangles: a lighter color on dark fabric, especially textured (herringbone on right), gives an interesting effect.
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Printed knit using XXX stamp |
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Stencils, all my own design and hand
cut, except for upper left; purchased
stencils should be surrounded with
a wide plastic/heavy paper and taped
on both sides. |
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Woven fabric on left and knit on right with tiny triangle
stencil; note below how the light color stenciled onto a
dark fabric creates an interesting subtle effect. |