Kitchen Resists with Julie B. Booth: Rubbings with Liquid Dishwashing Soap

Using liquid dishwashing soap as a resist.

Welcome to the first installment of The Printed Fabric Bee's reboot! Bee members are planning an exciting year of mini-workshops, projects and giveaways. It's going to be a lot of fun and I have to tell you that I also can't wait to learn some new techniques from my fellow Bee members!

 Just a quick introduction...I'm Julie B. Booth and I'm probably best known in the surface design world as the artist who gets inspired every time she walks into the kitchen! I got serious about my kitchen explorations about six years ago when I won a grant from my local fiber guild to research "kitchen resists". For an intense eighteen months I tested and fiddled and cooked and concocted. AND I learned a lot! After sharing my results with my guild, I realized that I wanted to go a step further and see what other surface design possibilities resided in the kitchen. The result was the publication of my book, Fabric Printing at Home: Quick and Easy Fabric Design Using Fresh Produce and Found Objects (Quarry Dec. 2014). My book is loaded with surface design projects that use items and materials you probably have at home right now! And my giveaway this month will be a copy of my book plus one yard of Prepared for Dyeing Cotton so you can get started right away making your own Custom Kitchen fabrics! To be eligible to win, you need to leave a comment on this post or one of the next two posts this month. I'll be choosing a winner on Sunday, January 31.

My posts, this month, focus on a few Kitchen Resists (you can find out about additional resists in Chapter 6: Irresistible: Fabric Resists Using Kitchen Ingredients) and some different techniques creating backgrounds and applying the resists. I even have one post that will get you ready for the next holiday on the calendar...Valentine's Day!

Just one more thing before we get to today's project...I'm still at it in the kitchen and I have a free online newsletter, Julie B Booth Surface Design News, where I continue to share new surface design discoveries. If you'd like to sign up, hop on over to my blog and you'll see the sign up in the right-hand column.

Kitchen Resists #1: Rubbings with Liquid Dishwashing Soap

In this project, you'll place texture plates under your fabric and then roll liquid dishwashing soap over the fabric to pick up the texture designs.

You need:

• A work area covered with plastic. I like to make Portable Work Surfaces with foam board covered with plastic film. Go here to learn how to make one.

• (2) pieces of Prepared for Dyeing Cotton fabric (or pre-washed white 100% cotton fabric) for each finished fabric you wish to make. One of these pieces will act as a blotter when applying the resist. To start, tape just one piece of fabric to the work surface. I cut 15" x 15" squares.

• Transparent Fabric Paints (I like to use Pebeo Setacolor paints). Choose 3 or 4 colors.

• Water to dilute the paints, to remove the resists and for clean up.

• Plastic containers and spoons for mixing paints.

•  Foam brushes.

•  Liquid dishwashing soap.

• Dense foam brayer (I like Testrite brand).

•  Glass or Plexiglas palette.

• Texture rubbing plates. I like to make my own with hot glue on recycled cardboard but you can also use commercial texture plates.

• Optional: Wipe up cloth or paper towels.

• Iron and ironing board.

• (2) Pressing cloths (or pieces of cotton or muslin).

• Optional: Plastic tub to put fabrics in to remove resists.

Some of the supplies needed for this project.

 Paint a Background
I like to paint a simple background design before applying the resist layer. This can be stripes or blocks of color.

1.  Dilute the fabric paints. For Setacolor, I usually dilute to 1 part paint to 2 parts water but if you want a pastel, add more water.
2. Apply the paint colors to the fabric with foam brushes.
3. Let the paints dry completely before moving to the next step.

Paint stripes or blocks of color on your fabric.

Apply the Resist

1. Tape the blotter fabric onto the work surface and then re-tape the painted fabric on top of it.
2. Slip a texture plate under the painted fabric (not under the blotter fabric).
3.  Squeeze a small amount of liquid dishwashing soap onto the glass palette and roll the foam brayer over the soap until it is evenly coated.
4. Roll the soap-coated brayer over the fabric covering the texture plate. You may need to roll over the area several times until you see the design emerge on the fabric. 
5. Shift the texture plate to another area and repeat.
6. When you are done applying the resist, let it dry before moving to the next step.

Slip a texture plate under the fabric and roll over the covered area with the resist.

Paint another Layer

1. In order to see the resist designs, you'll need to add another layer of paint. The resist will prevent the paint from reaching the fabric's surface. Mix up some paints that contrast with the first layer. This time, you'll need to mix a thicker dilution to prevent breaching (breaking through) the resist. The blotter fabric will also help. For Setacolor Transparent paints mix to the consistency of light cream (about 1 part paint to 1.5 parts water).
2. Brush the paint over the resist.  If the paint starts to pool on the fabric, use the wipe up cloth or paper towels.
3. Let the paint dry completely.

Paint another layer to reveal the resist designs.

Set the Paint and Remove the Resist

1. You need to permanently set the paint before removing the resist. Most fabric paints are heat set. Setacolor paints require five minutes of heat setting.
2.  Sandwich the resist-covered fabric between two pressing cloths. Set the iron to the cotton setting and iron for half the time on one side before flipping the entire sandwich over to iron from the other side.
3. Now that the paint is set, you can remove the resist. Soak the fabric in water and rub to remove the resist. You'll notice that the water will turn colors. Don't worry, this is just the paint that was sitting on top of the resist. Continue until the resist is completely removed.
4. I like to put the fabric through a delicate machine wash (cold water and in this case, no soap is needed) just to be sure that all the resist is removed.
5. Machine or air dry.

What Can I Do with My Fabric? 
Why not turn your fabric into a decorative mat or table runner. Go here to find out how.

I hope you enjoyed this first project. If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment. If you want to be eligible to win...also leave a comment! My next post is Sunday, January 10.