Know How To Fold ‘Em…

For some strange reason, Kenny Roger’s song, The Gambler was running through my  mind as I was preparing for today’s post.

Yes, I am aware that I changed my title a little different than the song’s lyrics. 🙂

I wanted to show you how I created the tie-dye affect with tissue paper in Tuesday’s post that you can find here, if you missed it: Swedish Tracing Paper

Below is a photo of the supplies I used:

 

I used Dr. Ph. Martin’s colored india inks, rubber bands, a water spritzer, a plastic palette and plastic gloves.

*The papers I used for today’s experiment were white tissue paper, Swedish Tracing Paper (sewn on my sewing machine) and deli paper.

First, I sprayed the tissue paper with water and folded it.  I used an accordion fold, then folded the paper in half and quarters.

 

Lastly, I wrapped a rubber band tightly around the tissue paper and added colored ink.  The plastic palette gives a place for the ink bundle to dry.

Below are my 3 bundles of the different *papers I used for this experiment:

The rubberband acts as a resist to the ink but also how the paper is folded.  I let them dry but sped up the process with a hair dryer so I could show you the results.

The tissue paper reveals a pattern of a Bleeding Heart flower to me:

The Swedish Tracing paper held more ink so I got an extra print on tissue paper:

 

Lastly, the deli paper experiment:

What I learned:

• The deli paper dries the fastest so don’t let it dry too long or I won’t be able to unfold it.
• Tissue paper is difficult to unfold wearing plastic gloves. 😉
• I like the results best when I add more than one color of ink.
• Make sure my rubber bands aren’t too old.  If they break, ink can splatter everywhere…
• Protect my surface with a piece of paper and my hands with gloves since India ink is permanent.
• Be open to the unexpected!

I hope you enjoyed seeing the results of my experiments today!  I look forward to hearing what you think.

Cheers! 🙂

P.S. Next week I will show you examples of how I used these experiments in my art.