I decided to do a few posts on fabric paints as they are an easy way to colour your colour without the fuss of dyeing. Above we have a few pieces that have the fabric paint Lumiere on them. Jacquard’s Lumiere paint is a metallic fabric paint which is water based, opaque and heat set. Taking each of those things separately water based means that you can wash up your equipment in water and also you can thin the paint with water. Opaque means that Lumiere has covering power. So if you paint over black or white fabric the paint doesn’t allow the colour of the cloth underneath to show through. Lastly heat set – this means the paint becomes permanent when you either iron the cloth or pop it in the drier. remember to allow the paint to dry first before ironing it for 2-3 minutes to set it. Once set, you can then wash the coloured cloth without fear of losing the colour.
How do I apply it? You can stamp it on as in the two pieces on the left side or you can apply with a paint brush, roller.. the list goes on – have fun and try experimenting with different things. Anything to watch out for? Only thin the paint to a maximum of 1/4 water to 3/4 paint otherwise the pigment starts to separate from the binder which means you get funny lines in your painting. Overall Lumiere is the best opaque metallic paint for fabric that I’ve used.
Secondly today we have Dye Na Flow – so named because it’s a paint that acts like a dye. Jacquard’s Dye-Na-Flow is a very watery paint which at first I didn’t like until I discovered how versatile it was. Dye-Na-Flow is water based, transparent and heat set. So as above, you can wash this paint out in water and use an iron to set the paint. Transparent means that you will see the colour of the cloth through the paint so its best used on light coloured fabrics. The watery aspect means that both sides of the cloth will be covered by the paint as it seeps through into the fibres. Both Lumiere and Dye-Na-Flow can be used on natural or synthetic fabrics with great results.
What makes Dye-Na-Flow so unique? You can do a lot of different effects with it – for example the image above is all sunprinting with Dye-Na-Flow. Simply place an object on top – stencil, shells, washers and then leave the paint in the sun to dry. You can also create salt effects with it by sprinkling rock salt over the paint and leaving it to dry. The paint can also be sprayed onto cloth using one of the many mister or spray bottles available. You can build up layers of colour by heat setting after each layer of paint. Shaving cream marbeling is also easy with Dye-Na-Flow – messy but lots of fun!! Anything to watch for? Dye-Na-flow will travel to the most absorbant thing it touches so always dry your cloth on plastic.
Fabric painting – lots of fun and asy to colour your cloth. Check out more information at Jacquard’s home page. Like to buy some? Check out my shop at Essential Textile Art.
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