I'm Jumping into Monoprinting Feet First!

I had such a good time this past Sunday. I was lucky enough to get to take a class from Valerie White called "Creating Complex Cloth--Monoprinting." What an eye-opening experience! I can't wait to "play" some more; I have already placed an order to buy paints and extender.

I'm posting pictures of the pieces I worked on during the class. I think they all will be receiving some more layers and finishing touches, but I got a nice batch of interesting fabric started. Remember, you can click on the picture to get a closer view; another click will get even closer!

For this piece, I started layering with yellow and orange. I used stamps, bubble wrap, and a plastic "ring" to make most of the designs on this piece. To make the circles, I put the plastic "ring" under the fabric and used a small sponge roller to lightly roll over the fabric.

For the next piece, I started with red and yellow. I made some marks in the paint with some combs I brought to class. I did some writing in shorthand (only those of you who are my age or older will even know what shorthand is) on the piece. I figured it didn't matter that the shorthand would be backwards on the cloth. I just liked the "squiggles." I used torn masking tape in the center as a resist.

My next piece is a little further along than the first two and it was done a bit differently. I had a bit of paint left on the table, so before I placed my fabric down again, I spritzed the paint with a bit of water. This piece has all the layers the other ones have, but it has one more layer. I used a credit card to "scrape" paint onto the fabric. I started around the edges with a red and continued working toward the center. I added extender to lighten the red as I came away from the edges toward the center. In the center, I used quite a lot of extender with a bit of orange and yellow.

This piece, again, began with the lightest colors. I started with the yellow, added an orange layer, added some blue, added texture by putting paint on a piece of shelf liner and transferring that to the fabric, and added the circles last. I also used a stamp. I put it into the paint to lift some color off before monoprinting. I also used it again to stamp a brown image on the right-hand side.

This piece has also been "scraped" using a yellow/orange color. I got the bits of red/orange by rolling paint onto a plastic placemat with a brayer. I then placed the fabric over that placemat and rolled the fabric with a brayer to transfer the paint. This has a beginning yellow layer, then a blue layer (with swirl stamps in the paint), then the speckles, then the scraping. If you enlarge this one, you can see that the swirls almost look three dimensional.

This piece has the fewest layers. (I'm sure I didn't need to tell you that!) I thought (if you are as unfamiliar with monoprinting as I was) you might enjoy seeing a piece a little earlier in the process.

Again, I can't tell you how much fun this was or how much I learned in this class. When these pieces are finished, they can be used as whole cloth pieces or pieces can be cut and used that way. I think I'll be adding some writing to some of the pieces and maybe some stamping. They are just a whole lot of fun to play with. Like one of the students said, "You can't go wrong." At the worst, you could dye the piece black and still use it!"

This is Valerie. You can check out her website at www.valeriecwhite.com. Her work is fabulous (as you'll see if you visit her website).

If you'd like to see more from this class, I'll be posting pictures of some of the students and their work. Check back. Let me know what you think.