Batik Watercolor Art Quilt

I have been organizing my sewing area in our newly finished basement for the past week.  I have found all kinds of treasures...especially UFO's (UnFinished Objects).  Here is one that I started several years ago in a class with Kathie George at Art of the Carolinas in Raleigh, NC.

Golden Flowers, by Jeanne Turner McBrayer

It is actually a watercolor painting on Ginwashi Oriental paper, sort of like rice paper.  Starting from the lightest shades, areas are painted, then waxed to preserve the light color.  There are at least four or five layers.  When all the color is added, you iron the piece to remove the wax, and discover your glowing painting.

I discovered that the Ginwashi paper holds up just fine to being machine quilted, so the painting became a quilt.  I added some beads and Swarovski crystals.  It shines in the sun!

I am just about finished with the unpacking in the sewing room, and am actually piecing a baby quilt.   The Gammill longer machine is now accessible, but I have not even turned it on for about a year while it was all covered with boxes, bags, and bundles from our move.  

It is good to be able to sew again!  

More Watercolor Batik Quilting

I have been having fun with my new discovery that you can quilt a watercolor painting on Ginwashi Oriental paper.  I finished quilting one of the sunflower paintings.

Sunny Bouquet, Jeanne McBrayer, Watercolor on Ginwashi paper, design by Kathie George

I also finished quilting and binding the other Sunflowers painting. I am experimenting with adding beads to this one.  In these photos, the beads are just scattered on the quilt top to audition how they look.

 I changed threads many times on both quilts, using a lot of rayon and variegated colors.

I think I like the gold beads, to add even more of the sun-drenched effect to this quilt.

Watercolor + Stitching = Art Quilt!

Here is my quilted watercolor batik painting!

School's In, Jeanne Turner McBrayer, drawing by Kathie George

I used variegated rayon threads, more or less outlining the shapes in the fish, and adding swirls in the water.

I am excited about combining two of my favorite hobbies!

Stitching Rice Paper Batik Watercolors!

Back in November I took a class with artist Kathie George at Art of the Carolinas in Raleigh, NC.  I came home with this very cool painting of a school of fish done in watercolor on Ginwashi rice paper.      The process involves layering wax and watercolor, working from lightest to darkest values.  At the end you iron off the wax.  The resulting product is a very fragile, almost translucent painting.

I immediately began to ponder the implications for quilting using this process.  I knew that the rice paper would shred if you stitched it without some sort of stabilizer.  

I wondered if you could replicate the process on various fabrics.

Time to experiment!

I chose one of the fish from Kathie's illustration, and made some small samples. 

Upper Left:  Cotton and Setacolor paint

Upper Right:  Cotton and watercolor paint

Lower Left: Silk and watercolor paint

Lower Right:  Ginwashi rice paper and watercolor paint

I was surprised that all of them worked out just fine for creating the batik painting.  I did not think you could use watercolor paints on dry untreated cotton, but you can!  I think the Setacolor had more intense colors than the watercolors.

I also took one flower from Kathie's Sunflowers kit that I purchased, and used the regular process of wax and watercolor on Ginwashi.

 I backed the flower with Pellon Ek 130 Easy-Knit Fusible Interfacing and Underlining.  I ironed it on per the Pellon instructions to the back of the painting.

Then I did some outline stitching with black thread on just the Ginwashi with interfacing.  Great results- no tearing!

Then I made a quilt sandwich and heavily quilted the whole piece.  Again, great results!

Next, I stabilized the Ginwashi fish with the same interfacing, and quilted it.  No problem!

I tried applying matte medium to another Ginwashi fish to see if you could stitch through it without any other stabilizer.  

I found that the matte medium dulled the intensity of the colors and made the surface feel less soft.  It was difficult to use shiny, sparkly threads through it, but I had good luck with this variegated rayon.  That piece is now quilted without using any additional interfacing.

I think the matte medium would be a good choice for using these Ginwashi paintings in collage, mixed media, or perhaps as journal covers when you would want to add a layer of protection.

So...yes, you can stitch through rice paper if you stabilize it with interfacing or apply an acrylic medium to make it stronger.

I have already interfaced the large school of fish painting, and started machine-quilting it on my Janome!

Watercolor Batiks on Rice Paper

Last week, I took a class with Kathie George at Art of the Carolinas in Raleigh.

I had never tried any kind of batik before.  Of course, as quilters, we are all familiar with the lush batik fabrics available to us commercially.  This class combined the art of using wax in making a batik with the art of watercolor painting.  Instead of using fabric, we painted on rice paper.

Kathie is a delightful teacher who had everything prepared for us, including the Ginwashi rice paper, melted wax in small electric pots, watercolor paints on a palette made from a clear CD cover, and drawings and a reference photo.

The way it works is that you trace the original full-size drawing on rice paper with a Pigma marker, then use a different copy of the drawing to add each layer of wax.  The numbered drawings have darkened areas where you apply wax each time.  The wax acts as a resist so that when you paint, the waxed area remains the same color that it was.  The unwaxed areas keep gaining depth of color.  I think we had four or five layers of waxing and watercolor for this fish painting.

                                

Isn't it cool!  I had to add additional paint and even some colored pencil marks when I was finished because my fish kind of ran together.  I love the cool blue and green washes and the little pops of complementary oranges/yellows.

I enjoyed my batik class with Kathie  so much that I tried her technique again at home, using one of her kits.

Sunflowers, by Jeanne Turner McBrayer, 2014

When I did my original batik in her class, I had difficulty seeing the lines of the drawing, which I traced with a Pigma micron .05 pen.  

But what you don't see in the fish painting are the black outlines of the original drawing.  When I traced the sunflowers, I used a Pigma brush marker that was noticeable darker.  You can see the lines clearly, and it was easy to see where to apply wax.  Here is one of the early layers. It almost looks like stained glass.

However, that dark black line remains even at the end of all the waxing and painting.  That is not the look I was going for.

However, I like this piece.  It is painted on Ginwashi rice paper, a very thin, textured paper which is almost like a delicate fabric.  I need to do some experimenting to see if it can be made into an art quilt without the paper tearing when I stitch it.  It might need to be coated with an acrylic varnish first.

Kathie mats and frames her pieces, with the batik mounted on a piece of white mat board.

I will have to figure out what to do with these.  The underwater ocean scene does not exactly fit in with my mountain cabin decor!  It is a really interesting and fun technique, and I recommend taking a class with Kathie George.  I am pretty sure I will be trying this on silk or muslin at some point in the future!  Not sure if watercolor paints will be the way to go on fabric, but stay tuned!