An artistic way to Go Green..

Over the summer I read an article in an artistic quilting magazine that talked about water soluble crayons, I was intrigued by the thought and have wanted to try out this medium since.   While at a local craft store this weekend with my girls, in search of something artistic for them to do on an upcoming holiday weekend, I found the lone remaining package of water soluble wax pastels and instantly placed them in my shopping cart.  That done we went in search of a small fabric project we could each use to try them on and purchased three canvas tote bags.  I am one who typically likes to lay out my design before beginning, especially when doing a harlequin pattern in the background; I penciled my design directly onto the canvas bag.  Usually I chalk out my designs and then whatever medium I’m using the chalk simply washes away when finished, this would have been a good idea this time as well because my pencil marks can be seen through my final design.  However, having been told and having said for years that there are “no mistakes in art” I have accepted the pencil marks (this time) as part of my design plan.  Once the design was lightly sketched I began coloring, just as you would on paper with normal crayons, light in some places, heavy in others and multiple colors of shading and layering.  Finally it was time to paint water onto my design and watch it magically transform from a canvas coloring page into a painting.  If you try this at home the only thing I might change would be to paint in layers of color to minimize the colors becoming murky (unless of course that’s the look you’re going for).  I had a wonderful time experimenting with a new to me technique and am looking forward to using this again on many other pieces of fabric art to come.  Once I was happy with the overall look I added a bit more detail with the crayons on top of the wet fabric. I let it dry completely, set the color by ironing it and then washed it (in cold) to make sure the artwork would stay on the fabric.  Here are two pictures from this fun (kid friendly) weekend project.  The first one shows the design almost completely colored in and the second one is the image after it was completed.  I can see myself having an entire set of colorful, artistic and unique earth friendly shopping bags in no time!