I Tried That - WOW!
The other day my friend Sharka, at Art By Sharka Leigh, re-posted a neat Facebook video that you may have seen.
The technique uses paint and a string, and folded paper to create some pretty stunning designs.As she noted, the design looks a lot like Calla Lillies.
I often see techniques like these and think to myself, "Ya, right, I bet THAT won't work for me!" But, today I was pleasantly surprised to see how easy it was to make it work! Here's one of my images.
For this technique, I used cotton embroidery thread, about 16" long, and acrylic paints that I watered down a bit, to make them more fluid. I started with just the purple colour, and then decided to "be daring" and use the blue and the purple together.
I didn't want to commit to adding this to a journal book quite yet (though I am sure I will soon!), so I used a piece of regular copy paper folded in half.
I dipped part of the string in the purple, and then into the blue and back-and-forth between the two colours until I had almost the full string covered in ink. I left a part at the end of the string clean so I could use that to pull the string out.
I then "wriggled" the string onto the paper (see the image below), folded the paper in half, and placed a book on top of the folded paper. I pulled the string out and opened the paper, and voila! Great results! (Just like in the video.)
The only challenge now is which side to do I like better? Fantastic fun! And, oh-so-many possibilities!
Here is a photo of what I mean by "wriggled" the string on the page.
I wanted to be able to adapt this technique to a card front image, so I then tried it with some different colours on a piece of cardstock. Here are the results of that experiment.
You may be able to see here that I used a little too much paint this time so there are "ripples" on the edges of the "petals" (but maybe that will look neat when it dries!). But, the lesson is that cardstock works just fine!
So, now I'm off to try this with Distress Inks, Oxide Inks, some thicker (more textured) string and who knows what else - stay tuned as I'm sure this technique will show up in a card workshop soon!
Which brings me to some tips. Here are just a few things I learned, with my limited experience of just a few tries!
you don't need a lot of paint on the string - the wetter the string is, the clumpier the image will be, as you see above! (I actually used a paint brush to add the paint)
having said that, you do need enough paint to make the string "wobbly" enough to wriggle onto the paper (wet enough to manipulate)
you don't need a lot of pressure on the page when you are pulling out the string - the string will get stuck if you push down too hard on the book (though that creates a whole different kind of image, with jagged pulls)
consider how long you need the string for the size of paper you are using - don't make it too long that you end up with a lot hanging off the edge of the page, full of paint
you don't have to "fold" the paper to make this work - for another attempt, I cut two pieces of cardstock at 4" x 5 1/4" and just put one on top of the other after I had lay the string down. I thought it would "wobble" or move when I pulled the string out, but it didn't - the pressure of the book on top (and the wet paint, I'm sure) kept the pieces together
consider where you are going to put the string when you pull it out - you may have a moment of panic when you finish pulling and want to see your fabulous results, but don't have a place to put the string down - plan ahead! (Ha ha - lesson learned!)
as noted above, leave a part of the string "clean" at the end so you have something to pull on without getting too, too messy
you can re-use the string many, many times - the acrylic paint dries pretty quickly once you've pulled it out, and any residual paint, just adds to the design on the next image!
I found it helpful to place the "bottom edge" of the book (with the folded paper underneath, or inside if you're doing this in your journal) right at the edge of my table, so that I wasn't then "dragging" the painty string across my desktop
I've done this on a plain white background, but just think of the possibilities with a coloured and / or painted background!
So, all in all, this was a fun experiment and great learning experience. As I said - so many possibilities! Can't wait to play more with this.
Enjoy!
