I often receive questions about some of my free tutorials. I write back to people when internet connection allows, since I am off on new adventures these days (see www.svmahi.com). Sometimes, my response back may be buried in the old post, or my email reply bounces back to me- both which happened in this case.
Helene wrote a question about using Inktense blocks on her vintage linen:
“Dear Carla, I have some white vintage linen placemats and napkins that are embroidered that I would like to to use the Inktense Fabric Paints on to bring them more to life. What I have are the blocks not pencils. Can I still paint using the block sticks and if so, would you recommend using a paintbrush and just wetting it and infusing it with the color from the sticks?”
Here was my reply:
“Hi Helene, I am not home at the moment, but I happen to have bought some of those Inktense block sticks myself. You can use them on fabric in a number of ways- including if you dip your fine brush in a fabric medium, then onto the pigment ink block, then paint onto the fabric. I suggest you perfect this technique first with scrap fabric until mastered. In other words, your instinct was spot on!
I always like to start with my lightest color and clean the brush for blending with other colors. Play around with diluting the fabric medium just a bit with water for a more sheer look. Again, all experimentation would be with scrap fabric. I would also heat set the colored fabric, but test it first before your main project.
You can also buy a grating jar- which is a jar with both a cover and a grating lid. I bet Derwent has a number of videos to assist you. When I wrote my tutorial many years ago, there were not that many “how to” work with this product on fabric. I get you can find many more now. Good luck!! Carla”
With any project such as this, my only concern is that the technique be perfected before attempting on the vintage linen. That is the best advice I can provide. If you use the grating jar, then again, experiment with the saturation of the pigment powder to water or fabric medium.
Regards, Carla
Carla Barrett 