Working with Resists - Tip #2

#2 Try a variety of approaches
 

When I started working with resists I tended to stick to the mainstream.  Flour paste and potato dextrin were used to create the crackle effect, gel glue was used for screenprinting and food items such as grits, oatmeal and honey were used for breakfast. It is easy to limit ourselves to one or two common techniques, yet resists are so versatile, it's a shame not to take advantage of their full potential. In my experimentation, I discovered that potato and corn dextrin can be applied with a silk screen, flour paste works great when stamped on and soy wax can be applied with a stencil. Below are photos of a few variations on the traditional.

Potato dextrin dripped from a spoon

The dark spots in the center of the drips were a pleasant surprise.  The dextrin cracked and some of it fell off the cloth, resulting in that patterning.

Potato dextrin brushed through hardware cloth

Hardware cloth is a plastic grid, available at home improvement stores.  It is useful for a lot of surface design techniques.  Here, the plastic was placed on top of the fabric, and the dextrin was brushed over the top.

Flour paste monoprint

Flour paste was applied to a plexiglas surface, then the cloth was placed on top of it, transferring the flour to the cloth.

Oatmeal

Rather than applying oatmeal to the entire cloth, circles (where the labyrinths are screen printed) were blocked off with freezer paper.

Read Tip #1

Read Tip #3

Read about working with sugar syrup resist  

Read about working with acrylic medium resist

Read about working with flour paste resist

Read about working with oatmeal resist

Read about working with potato dextrin resist

Read about working with soy wax resist