I've been trying our some ideas for painted backgrounds this week as part of my plan to only use fabrics only my own fabrics ..... In each of the samples I painted Permaset Textile Ink applied with a sponge/palette knife, a stamp and a brayer .....
In the text sample I used a Pigma 05 micron pen in black and rust to write on the fabric before painting. The Pigma pen works well without leaving any build up of ink. Writing on hand dyed fabric works well ... in this sample I wanted to test the effect of painting over the written text.
For the gesso sample I painted white gesso with a paintbrush across areas of fabric and allowed it to dry before painting. The gesso adds a subtle texture.
The collograph plate was made with a hot glue gun - the plate didn't work as a stamp directly onto fabric, so this time I stamped onto a Gelliplate and then printed the sample as a monoprint which produced an interesting result.
The seed stitching used Perle 8 and Perle 12 threads prior to painting. This results in a nice texture .... I have contemplated removing the stitching to see the result.
I'm going to use the handwritten text for the background in the next Stepping Stones series piece .....