Here is one of my textile pieces, done with a school gel glue resist starts.

 

I  marked the fabric with fold lines to position my drawing.  I enlarged a drawing to the size I needed, traced one bird, flipped the drawing over to trace the other bird facing the reverse direction. I traced these with black Sharpie pen.

 

The piece needs to be raised either on a piece of batting or in a frame before applying the resist.

 

This is the drawing with the outlines covered with the Elmer’s gel glue. If you put the resist on while the fabric is laying on a flat surface rather than raised, the outline will not be as clear.  The resist keeps the textile paint from running into the background so  I made the outline much heavier than the inside detail lines.

 

Let the resist dry.

Here it is after applying Jacquard textile paints.   Try to be careful around the outside edges even though there is a resist.

 

If you use some colors along with the black, you will get some interesting highlights. After I finished painting the other bird, I let the piece dry. Well, I get really impatient so I use a hair dryer. The heat also helps set the textile paints.

 

Iron the piece to complete the heat setting. Wash it in warm soapy water to remove the resist. I’ve found that a cheap netting bath scrubby does a great job removing any stubborn glue without damaging the textile painting. After the piece was ironed dry, I went back over the resist lines with a navy blue iridescent  that looks like that rich blue-black you see shining on raven’s feather’s . I heat set this again but because the resist was already washed out, there was no need to wash it again.

 

**** Someone wrote to me and asked about using the batting to raise this up so the glue doesn’t spread out into the other areas. I use a light weight poly batting for small pieces like this. It allows just enough air to circulate  under the piece. If a small amount sticks to the back, it either pulls right off or will come off  when you wash the resist out of the piece. Let me know by email if you have any other questions.*****

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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