Claritystamp Challenge - Stencils

Silk Scarf

This month's Claritystamp Challenge is to create something using Clarity stencils.  I promised something a bit different from my usual cards so I thought I would share my first attempt at a Gelli-printed silk scarf with you.

Stencils: I used Chinese Lanterns, Pods, Honesty and Seed Heads from the Flower head stencils set.  You can buy them separately as well but the set is better value.

Other:     Ready made silk scarf 30 x 112 cm, 6x6  Gelli plate,  7x7 Mega Mount, Brayer, System 3 Acrylic Paint Purple and Zinc Mixing White, System 3 Textile Medium.

This silk scarf was given to me as a present many years ago along with some silk paints.  I did dabble with the paints on some scrap bits of silk but never felt confident enough to actually attempt to paint the scarf. Last year I experimented doing some Gelli-prints onto fabric which didn't turn out too bad so my idea this month was to combine the two and use the Gelli plate to print the scarf.  I only have the one scarf so it was a bit of a risk.  

Silk paints are too runny to use on the Gelli-plate so I mixed some Acrylic paint with Textile Medium in a 1:1 ratio. This turns the acrylic paint into fabric paint which is supposed to be able to take about 20 washes.  Throughout I only used the two colours, mixing in different proportions to get different shades.

Apologies for not taking many photos but my hands were pretty sticky at times and I was trying to work quickly.

1. Mount Gelli Plate on Mount.
2. Mix paint with medium and brayer onto Gelli-plate. You only need a thin layer.
3. Place stencil on top of Gelli-plate
4. Lay the silk scarf onto the plate. Lay a piece of copier paper on top and press down.  Later on I didn't bother with the paper, hence my colourful hands. The paint goes through the silk.
5. Lift scarf and let it dry. Doesn't take long, in fact by the time you are ready for the next print it is dry.
6. Lift stencil and use some copier paper to take a print and clean the Gelli-plate at the same time. Don't worry if it is not completely clean, unless you want to completely change the colour. These prints will come in useful another time. You can also press the stencil onto some paper to make another print.

I used the method above to first print along the centre of the scarf and then went back and did the edges.  For some of the edge prints instead of blotting with copier paper in step 6, I blotted with the scarf getting a reverse print. Examples on top right and top left of photo above.  

I tried to vary the shades and didn't worry too much about getting an exact fit as you can see.  It doesn't show when wearing and gives the scarf that hand-crafted look anyway.

Not sure if you have to, but I ironed the finished scarf to fix the paint. I know I used to do this with silk paints.  The scarf is still silky and the prints look just as good on both sides, in fact I can't tell which side is which. 

I am pretty pleased with my first attempt at silk Gelli-printing and will start thinking how else I can use this technique. Maybe cushions covers? If you have some ideas please let me know.  Oh, and just to check I did wash the scarf and not a bit of colour came out. 

Looking forward to all your stencil projects.

Lesley x