Gel Glue Resist

Ok- have you guys seen this in the Quilting Arts Magazine Feb/Mar issue? Its got a whole deal on Gel Glue Resist Dying/Painting by Cynthia St. Charles. Its excellent. I HAD to try it. I love batik fabrics and this kinda gives batik-y feel without all the extra work & fabric dying knowledge.

I'll show you how I did mine & how it turned out. This is NOT my technique, its based on the magazine.



First you'll need some supplies-
100% cotton fabric
Elmers Gel Glue
Textile medium
Paint & paintbrushes

I didn't do any prep work to my white cotton off the bolt. I tore off about a 1/2 yard and started "drawing" with the tip of my Elmers glue.

Then you have to wait a bit to let the glue dry into the fabric. Or... you could be all excited about trying this out and NOT wait as long with the magic of the hairdryer:

Once its dry- its actually really hard to see the lines. I did aim for the lines and start painting in my motif. I mixed the textile medium with my paint. Remember the textile medium looks white, but it doesn't lighten the paint color. BUT you do need to have enough paint pigment in the medium to cover your design.


Cover the whole image- remember the glue lines will turn out white (In my case white, they'll turn out whatever color the fabric was originally.) I started out with this design... but then I wanted to try other colors and other shapes with the glue.

If you click on the picture above you can see the orange, specifically, is completely covered with bits of red mixed in. That blue/cream block in the upper center turned out looking like my Aunt & Uncle's fireplace bricks. One trick with painting on the fabric is to use a "wet on wet" technique, so the paint moves over the fabric easier. That movement will give the variations to look more like "dyed" fabric than just painted pieces.

Let it dry. (get the hairdryer) I did not do a "cure for 24 hours" deal. It probably sat for about 1-2 hours. When it looked dry, I to moved to the next step. I took the piece and threw it into the washer with a small amount of detergent. I washed mine on the Delicates Hot/Cold cycle. I had to press it a good bit after the washer & dryer, since its 100% cotton and all.

Ok, how fun is that? By adding the textile medium, the paints don't make the fabric stiff and awful. The fabric doesn't have the exact same drape as it did when I started- but it is still soft. AND its already been washed, so you can see the color-fastness of the paints. Check out those cool glue lines. Its no masterpiece, but I'm pretty happy with my first attempt.

The "what am I going to make with these pieces" wheels are already turning!

Thank you Quilting Arts!

Gel Glue Resist