Friday, March 05, 2010

Rock Salt

I don't remember where I read about using rock salt rather than table salt to create texture on paper or fabric, but I'm thrilled that I had the good sense to purchase some. I'm working on backgrounds for a swap and they were looking very boring until I sprinkled some rock salt onto the wet fabric. I never got an effect this great with table salt and yes, the salt has been brushed off so the pattern is permanent. The only problem is that some of the texture will be covered up once I start adding elements; right now I'm enjoying the rawness of painted canvas fabric. I used Golden Fluid Acrylic paint, three shades of green, that were randomly brushed onto very wet fabric. The purplish gray is just some cheap deep purple acrylic paint. When the pieces were dry I  heat set them with an iron.

Looking for some inspiration? Check out this blog.

Quote: In order to grow as artists, we must be willing to risk. We must try to do something more and larger than what we have done before. Julia Cameron

5 comments:

Caterina Giglio said...

this is a gorgeous effect! did you use ranger inks Gail? I really love it and want to try it... oh and loving your quotes! thanks so much!

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous!! I love the color and texture!!

Seth said...

Fantastic texture! And a great color for the background too.

queenopearls said...

The Golden fluid acrylics look fab. I'm loving the rock salt effects. Sweet! You go girl!

Kim Palmer said...

Love these backgrounds Gail. Thanks for posting the collage experiments blog link. I really enjoyed spending time to look at that blog.