Thursday, April 02, 2015

The Printed Fabric Bee: Mola!

It's time to reveal another fabric for The Printed Fabric Bee! This month Julie Booth chose "mola" as our theme with the colors of red, black and other brights. Are you familiar with molas? You can check out our Pinterest board here.

Ug... I struggled. The color palette, motifs and images are really outside my usual work. Red?!

Eventually I decided to simple create small repeating patterns in rows. I started with these bars. 
I just cut skinny rectangles out of sticky-backed fun foam and placed them on a used up lint roller. I dabbed the foam with paint, then rolled it on the fabric. There is variation in the print because of inconsistent pressure, but it works.

Next I added tiny white lines in groups of three using this narrow tip on a container of Martha Stewart acrylic paint. These tips are sold separately and fit only the Martha paint, but I really like the effect. It streams out nicely.

Hmmm. How about triangles? More foam stuck to the end of a dowel and dipped in paint.

My favorite circle stamp: a nerf dart!

I actually had this leaf stamp in my stash from a previous project. It really filled in the remaining space nicely and added more of a focal element.

I finished with more white stripes, this time using the wider tip. (I think the package comes with three tips. Aha! Here's a link to the tips.)

Here is the finished 6x6 (ish) square that Julie will include in our monthly give-away. Check The Printed Fabric Bee blog and Julie's blog for a chance to win.


And here is the completed piece I made for Julie's collection.

As I've been doing with all my The Printed Fabric Bee pieces, I'm reviewing what worked and what didn't.

Successful:

  • Using the empty lint roller as a rolling stamp. I usually buy super cheap lint rollers, so this is almost better than refilling them for their original purpose. 
  • Using the Martha Stewart Paint Tips
  • Returning to my favorite nerf dart!
  • Being willing to only loosely reference "molas"


Less than Successful:

  • The colors are not cohesive. Those wider white lines around the leaves stand out too much.
  • It doesn't feel very mola to me... 
  • It lacks depth. Though there are many different kinds of stamps here, there is really only one layer.


12 comments:

Didi Salvatierra said...

Very cool solution to your challenge!

Lisa Chin said...

I love how you created your Mola! So creative! The nerf circle is perfect!!! I wonder if I have some of those inside a couch or something somewhere. Hmm

Thread Born said...

Hi Deborah...I think it really does "read" mola. Colors and shapes very suggestive of them. Thanks for trying something outside your usual color-comfort zone! Can't wait to receive it (in Savannah visiting Mom for Passover)!

liniecat said...

Clever roller idea!!
Great finished result too

Lynda said...

Love your mola fabric! And that little nerf stamp is sooo cute!

Dee Spillane said...

Love your design Deb. AND, I am going to use these tool ideas for print and gelli's. Such a great idea to use an old lint roller, have tons cause of cat and dog hair!

Saskia said...

like!

Carol R. Eaton Designs said...

I think you nailed this Mola design! I love the creative ways you created your stamps and will have to give them a try!

Treasures by Louise said...

Hi, I love the effect. The colors are Mola, and the designs read as a mola, even though they are all one layer. I'll be curious to see how others interpret the challenge.

Laceflower said...

I'm getting some depth with the white lines around the leave shapes. Very creative stamping.

Lisa Flowers Ross said...

I love the lint roller idea.

Cris Winters said...

Great ideas for printing on fabric! More experiments coming up!