A is for Acacia

My Yahoo group is starting a year-long adventure in Surfacing - going through the alphabet, every 2 weeks we will be working [individually] on a surface design technique or theme featuring the "letter" of the moment. As this is the beginning, the letter is "A".

I spent this afternoon exploring acacia resist. Originally, the idea come from the blog "amovablefeast", and I'd like to thank the blog author Neki Rivera for the inspiration and general instructions given in her tutorial at: http://amovablefeast.blogspot.com/search/label/tutorial

And now, my own minor foray:

First, stretch the fabric on a frame, and apply the desired design in acacia resist (equal parts acacia powder and tepid water, mix well)

I also painted some spots of color between some of the hoops of acacia.

Dry this stage.



Next, jag in some color over and around the "hoops" layer more acacia hoops over the first color spots:














Keep layering color and acacia, drying between layers, building color and texture on the surface of the cloth:














If desired, stamp in a secondary design. I used a foam "sprig" stamp with bright green paint which I added in a "tossed" design. Layered over more hoops and dried this layer. When I had all the layers of color I thought I wanted, I did a wash with a golden glaze; pictures of of this layer half done, then fully covering the cloth:


















Finally, after drying, then heat-setting, rinse out the layers of acacia. The design has a certain depth that really only appears fully when the washout is finished and the white and colored rings appear:


Notice that my sprigs deconstructed somewhat, as I had stamped them over many of the acacia hoops, so the paint flaked off when the acacia dissolved. I'll be trying this again, perhaps with smaller pieces (this one is 24" square), and also with pre-dyed fabric (this is white pfd). I am considering going back with another lighter wash (gold or tan), to un-whiten the white rings, but I'm going to wait and see how I like the current effect in a few days.

And that's my adventure for today..... "A" is for Acacia!!!