Three Creative Studios

The topic for this month’s Technique of the Month is Sun Printing. The full document is on the Free Project page or our site. I know a lot of people already know how to sun print so I wanted to share a little experiment that I did as part of the TOM. I knew that if I didn’t have sun available that I could sin print with lights but I wanted to know exactly how much the light was required.

In this example I prepared 4 fabric boards with the same paint and masks. I used some large leaf foliage, a fine leaf foliage, elbow pasta and a tube pasta.  I placed one sample in direct sun, one in shade, one under the light and one in a room with no direct light.

This experiment proves that we aren’t really “sun” printing. Instead we are “mask drying” with heat.  In all 4 examples, the broad leaf shapes and the pastas show up clearly. They are sharper images in the sun and lamp samples and the indirect light samples is the palest of all with the pastas. The fine leaf shape is sharpest in the sun and lamp samples.

Without doubt, the sun sample is the clearest. The sun heats and dries the fabric evenly and draws the paint out from under the masks the fastest.

The Shade example is quite clear. It was a very hot and dry day when I did this. It’s clear that the shade did not perform as well for the fine leaf sprig but the pastas are very clear.

On the lamp dried version notice that the center of the fabric is much darker than the edges. That’s because the heat from the lamp was concentrated in the center. That area dried first so the wet paint was drawn from the edges to the center. If you are going to lamp dry your fabrics, try to set up multiple bulbs and have them about 10” above the surface of the fabric.

The indirect dried sample is the least clear. It obviously makes a difference how quickly the fabric dries.  With the indirect light there was nothing catalyst to dry the exposed fabric first except under the larger leaves where the mask would keep that area wet longer.

This experiment is presented to encourage you to experiment to figure out the best sun printing set up for your own applications. If you don’t have a good sunny day you can still sun print!

I’ve got two piles on my work table that I’m trying to choose from for the next May Technique of the Month project sheet.

pile #1:

Water soluble crayons & Shiva oil paint sticks

And pile #2:

Cheesecloth, pulp lace, some paint and some paper clay thrown in for fun

So help me out… which one should I use for the May Technique of the month?

When we made the announcement about the new Technique of the Month program we mentioned that there would be prizes so here’s a look at the prize package for the first Technique:

Some gorgeous hand dyed fabrics from Vicki, a hand made book from Sue and some other goodies too!  All of this could be yours but you can’t win unless you enter so visit the free project page here and print off the Painted Batting Technique of the Month project sheet and have some fun painting up some batting.  Then post your photo in the forums here to be entered into the draw to win this prize package.  Good luck!

Want to explore some new techniques but you’re not sure where to start? Well then you’re going to love this new monthly program for 2010 called Technique of the Month that we have for you!

On the 16th of each month we’ll be posting new free project detailing a new technique. First we’ll walk you step by step on the specifics of the technique and then show how to turn it into a postcard. Of course you can make anything you like but we encourage you to start small with a new technique to get the hang of it first and we think postcards are a perfect size for experimenting.

We can’t have a new program without some giveaways! Each month post a photo of your postcard (or other project) made using the technique of the month by the 15th of the next month in the 3 Creative Studios forum and we’ll enter your name into a draw for a prize package. We’ll be drawing 3 names – the first will win a prize package and the second and third name will win one of the postcards made by us. Winners will be announced in the 3Creative Studios on the 16th of each month.

You’ll find all the technique project sheets on the 3Creative Studios free project page here. The first technique will post on 1/16/10 so make sure you’re signed up for the newsletter so you don’t miss the announcement about it.

Here’s a peek at some of the postcards and projects that we made using the first technique…

painted quilt batting projects

If you’d like the code to insert the Technique of the Month badge on your blog here it is:

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