Potato Dextrin Resist

I've been working a lot with different resists over the past few years and wanted to revisit potato dextrin.  I first used it about six years ago and loved the crackle pattern it produced. I have also experimented with mashed potato flakes, because they are inexpensive and easy to obtain - no shipping charges!  I've been using flour paste to get a crackle pattern lately, so I wanted to play around with the dextrin again. 

Below are a few photos from my experiment last week.  For the mashed potato flakes I used about 1/2 cup potato flakes to 1 cup hot water.  For the dextrin, I used about 1 1/3 cup dextrin to 1 cup hot water.  I spread the paste on with a squeegee and used the sgraffito technique to scratch into the wet paste.  After the paste had dried, I applied thickened dye.

This shows the mashed potato flakes using the sgraffito technique.  I scratched into it with a bamboo skewer and placed a lace doily, bubble wrap and a rubber rug gripper on for texture.

Another example of mashed potato flakes applied with a squeegee.

This is potato dextrin, applied with a squeegee and then I embedded objects in the moist paste to create pattern and texture.  I didn't get the nice crackling I expected, nor much patterning, but I blame my impatience.  I applied the dextrin while it was still hot.  It needs to cool somewhat before using so it thickens properly. It went on as a very thin coating, which didn't crack much when dried.

This is also potato dextrin. I stamped it on and applied it with a brush.  I had forgotten how well it works as a resist when stamped onto the fabric.

I am currently doing some fat quarter studies, layering different resist techniques.  This is one of the studies using potato dextrin.  I brushed the dextrin through a large plastic grid. I left the grid on until the dextrin had partially dried.  Very interesting!  Today I'll work on the next layer of color.