Friday, April 20, 2012

Fun with Foam and Fabric!

Last week I felt like I needed to beef up my stash of stamped fabrics. (Mostly, I was avoiding working on two pressing deadlines for which I had no inspiration. Sigh.)

I started by sketching some ideas for hand made stamps. You know I like the circles.

I used sticky-back fun foam, cut out shapes and stuck them to bits of Styrofoam cut from recycled meat trays. So easy!

"Circle Ring"
"Attic Window"
I stamped with acrylic paint tone-on-tone on very light tan fabric. I mixed in a bit of blue, brown and green.
I like to create fabrics that will act as dynamic backgrounds and won't distract from whatever I collage on top of them.

"Gala"
"Blossom"
Hmmmm. There are things I like about these two and things I don't like. I wish "Gala" didn't look so much like an apple core. (Maybe I should not have named it after my favorite apple.) But I love the white design on this light blue fabric. "Blossom" looked much better in my sketch (third one on the top row). I think more negative space would make that stamp better. The petals are too solid.
"Galaxy"
"Pickle"
I love "Galaxy" and I think I'll use it often. "Pickle" is pretty cute too, but I wish it didn't look so much like the cross-section of a piece of fruit.

So, I made six stamps total. I put one of each side of these squares of Styrofoam.

I stamped three fat quarters... and you can see I did some painting and mono-printing also. I can share those pictures with you later.
Remember how I said I was procrastinating... well, at least it was productive!

10 comments:

Kristin L said...

Definitely. My procrastinating is rarely that productive. :-) I like pickle and galaxy too. And definitely the circle dots. :-)

Sarah Ann Smith said...

Brilliant! Simply wonderful! Maybe I'll find some time to play, too!!!!

Vivien Zepf said...

I absolutely love these. I'm going to have to try to do this. And BTW, your procrastination is much more productive than mine. I usually sit and read a book.

Joanne S said...

And now you don't have so much solid fabric. this is a very do able little treat that I must try. right after I finish reading my book. It's overdue.

I've been enjoying these process posts and writing the ideas for each down on my desktop calendar. Keep them coming!!!

Diane Perin said...

I agree with Kristin -- I wish my procrastination were that productive! These are terrific, and it looks like you had a great time making them. I will look foward to spotting them in future work!

Fibra Artysta said...

Love these, I think pickle is really cool. :)

Linda Strowbridge said...

I think these are nifty. And I love that you create interesting patterns on cloth with just paint and very simple tools.

Stella said...

That pale-on-pale and pale-on-beige printing is so soothing! Makes me want to break out the linoleum cutting tools and rip up an old shirt for printing...

Judy said...

What a great way to have fun! I like the tone on tone that you are working with.

The Lavendar Tree said...

These are super awesome!! Nice work~!