Up to My Elbows in...Tapioca

Ahhh, the lure of the resist in surface design.  I've tried all the commercial products and many of the standard kitchen-based products (flour, oatmeal, sugar).  Why do I keep trying new things?  Don't I have enough options already?  One would think so, but apparently not.  My latest favorite resist is tapioca.  Yes, you read that right. I don't think I've ever actually eaten it, so it never occurred to me to use it as a resist.  Thanks to Linda Dawson for giving me the idea!

Tapioca produces an intriguing pattern. It doesn't really crack like the paste resists (flour, oats, potato dextrin). The photo above shows a cloth with two layers of tapioca resist. You can see the wonderful marbled pattern it produces.   Peeling the dried tapioca off the cloth is a bit like unwrapping a fruit roll with texture beads.  I would be tempted to use the leavings in my art, if only there wasn't the problem of  decomposition. All the details are in the next installment in my series, Resists From the Kitchen in Quilting Arts Magazine.(August/September issue)  You can also see more photos of cloth made using tapioca by downloading the pdf file from my website.  Try it out and let me know what you think!