Even more Game of Thrones Fabric Painting

I spent about 4 hours outside today working on my Cersei fabric and have a few more thoughts on using this kind of stencil that I thought might be useful to someone else.

3 yards done!
  •  A good rule for large motifs like this is 1 bottle of paint per yard - assuming you're using the Jacquard Lumiere paints as I was. 
  • Given that you may go through a lot of paint if you're creating yardage like I am, as opposed to just a border design, it's worth finding the cheapest source of paint and ordering a significant amount so you don't run out mid-project.  The cheapest source I've found is Blick Art Materials at $3.03 per bottle.  I'm lucky enough to have a Blick close to me, if you have to mail order it will cost you more.
  • This is NOT a project for the OCD crowd.  It's inevitable that some designs will look better than others, that there will be small mistakes and motifs with slightly more or less space between them.  If any of that bothers you this is not the project for you.
  • That said, measuring is really important.  When looking at the fabric as a whole small imperfections don't catch the eye much but large spaces do.  Make sure your motifs are spaced the same in all directions to get the most pleasing result.
  • The foam pouncers seem to work better but some brands worked better than others.  The 1 inch diameter Michael's brand one has worked the best for me
  • But paint tends to stay in the pouncer, so every once an a while squeeze the pouncer against your pallet to squeeze out the excess paint -- and make that bottle last longer!
  • Protect your work surface!  I have a very old vinyl table cloth I use for all my art projects, I covered my table with that and found much metallic paint had stained it when I was done.
  • Smooth your fabric and protective table cloth well.  Bumps and wrinkles can interrupt the design or worse, mess up the alignment of the motif. 
  • Since I'm working with so much fabric (over 6 yards) pinning the sections I'm NOT working with together has been really helpful to keep things neat.  Just be sure not to pin any layers together that are not completely dry.
  • While the Martha Stewart Silkscreen stencil I used seems very flimsy it's held up pretty well so far.  I've lost a few minor details but the design is so busy I'm okay with that. 
  • It has, however, completely lost the self adhesive property it started with.  Not too surprising given you have to wash it after each application.  I just hold the stencil steady with one hand while pouncing with the other.
I'm out of paint once again and am not sure I will do all 6 yards, but it's tempting to do more just to have extra of my very own fabric!

Comments

  1. That looks awesome!

    Did you roughly mark out where the stencil needed to go?

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! The way I did it was like so - row 1: start 4 inches from selvage, row 2: start 7 inches from selvage. I put a yardstick across the bottom from selvage to selvage to line up the bottom of my stencil on and measured made a little template for how far apart to make each motifs. When i finish a row I line up the yardstick along the topmost part of the previous line of motifs and work my way across. I hope that makes sense. Next time I set up I can take a photo if that helps...

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  2. It's probably too late for your project (darn me getting behind in my blog reading!) but you can buy Lumiere paints in bulk sizes more economically: http://www.dharmatrading.com/paints/lumiere-and-neopaque.html
    I've seen the 8oz sizes available at larger JoAnn's.

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