Anne, Estelle and I got together again recently for another of our monthly TED (Technique Exploration Day) event. I can't talk enough about how important it is to schedule time to just play. We love these days and do our best not to miss them. Because Anne missed last month and because she gave me a bag of stamps for my birthday, we decided to do stamping again.
Most of what we did this time was wokring with stamps from Fred B Mullett. He specializes in nature stamps and Anne has ordered from him several times. She says the customer service is exceptional and we LOVE his stamps. They have beautiful detail. Here's part of what we did on the most recent TED. I only have my and Anne's work. Estelle escaped before I could pull the camera out.
We found that the most important step in stamping is practice. Estelle has several long sample panels where she tries different stamps and inks to see what works best. This is one of Anne's sample fabrics.
This is my favorite peice of fabric that I've ever stamped. I picked up this scrap. It's the middle section of a Sugar Maple gradient. I used almost all of the leaf stamps that Anne gave me for my birthday. It's longer than what's shown in the photo. My original plan was to cut this up for postcard backgrounds. Now I don't know if I can cut it! What would you do with it?
I've mentioned my friend Cindy several times. She is a master thrift shopper. She's the one that picks up linens for me from estate sales and Goodwill. She got me a big stack of these linen cocktail napkins once. Anne latched onto them and got a head start on some Christmas gifts. She used the mussel stamp is shades of gray and black.
The chicken napkins were done with the metal stamps that we bought in London. We all have decided that we prefer screen printing inks for stamping on fabric. The inks are not quite as thick as fabric paint and show the stamp detail very well.
Cute nautical prints.
Of course there were some failures! I wanted to print some vegetable prints on tea towels. This was my practice piece and I got a unanimous vote that this was a bad idea!
We also did note cards and I'll share those next week.
Any crab stamps in the mix?????
: )
Posted by: Kim | November 09, 2011 at 03:50 PM
Cut that up for postcard backgrounds? Say it isn't so!! Not that there's anything wrong with postcards, but that piece of fabric is just too nice for that. How about a fall table runner (for lack of any other original ideas)??
Posted by: Mary Anne | November 09, 2011 at 07:38 PM
How cool are they! I love the leaf printing. You should have it a table runner that hangs off both ends of the table. It would be awesome!
I love the stamping on the napkins! Tell me, though, how do you get them so crisp? Sometimes when I stamp on fabric there are parts of the stamp that don't "take" to the fabric.
Just curious?
Posted by: Cindy Is Crafty | November 09, 2011 at 08:31 PM
What fun stamping!
Posted by: Sandy Jandik | November 09, 2011 at 09:33 PM
I wouldn't use it for postcards. My approach would be something like a collage and have it as a border or special section.
Good hint on the ink vs. paint.
Posted by: Debra Spincic | November 09, 2011 at 09:44 PM
I really need to try stamping and dying this year.
Debbie
Posted by: Debbie St. Germain | November 09, 2011 at 10:09 PM
I vote for a table runner too - its lovely.
I need to take a day to play.
Posted by: Mary | November 10, 2011 at 05:14 AM
Loved seeing all the stamping experiments and love your piece - it really is a beautiful piece of fabric. I have been thinking for a few moments of how you could use it (I, too, would have a hard time cutting into it!). One idea (not sure how cost effective it would be) is to have your image printed out on yardage (e.g. a site like spoonflower)to sell, or do more with it in other projects. Another idea is to incorporate it into placemats (and you know I love your placemats!) Also, and this will probably be hard to visualize, but check out the High Tech Tucks pattern by Caryl Fallert (http://www.bryerpatch.com/cgi-bin/Store/store.cgi?cart_id=5746071.9784.s0&product=HowTo&productid=htt&sales=0&lastmenu=). I am working on making one of these quilts now. I bought the CD and the pattern. The CD had a wonderful gallery of her use of this technique she developed. Your fabric would be the focal fabric, which is cut in strips. Tucks are sewn between the strips, which have a solid contrast fabric(the pattern shows black) on one side and a solid or gradient color on the other. So even though the focal fabric is cut into strips, it is the 'background' for the quilt. I think this could look really cool with a subtle earth tone on one side of the tucks and the gradient colors of the background on the other side. Sorry to be so long-winded here, but you did ask for ideas!
Posted by: Kristin | November 10, 2011 at 10:16 AM