Markal Paintstiks

[Janet Rice]

For some time I've wanted to try doing surface embroidery on a painted
ground fabric (don't ask why, it just seems like fun) and I saw an
article on the UK Embroiders Guild site on using Markal Paintstiks.
Has anyone tried these? Do they work? Are they hard to use? I don't
want to do anything advanced for drawing, just put in color blocks to
stitch over, would these work? And more to the point, what do they
cost and is there a place to on-line order in the US (or a good craft
site in the UK that will take me US credit card)? Thanks

Janet Rice
Yes, I should be stitching on my hardanger project but I've got a cold
and my eyes don't work.

[JDTHMLLR]

best place to order is Dick Blick...www.dickblick.com. I've used them on
fabric. What kind of fabric and how large an area do you want to cover? Have
you considered using textile paint?

Judith

[Janet Rice]

Judith,
Now don't laugh, but I had a dream about doing a piece of needlework -
something small, maybe 6x6, on silk, where the the background (in this
case buildings) had been painted or dyed onto the silk and then
details stiched in, with a flower garden stitched on the foreground.
Ok, so I have weird dreams.

I started looking up stuff on silk painting and realized that the
resist methods were going to be more than I wanted to tackle and then
I saw the information on paintstiks. So I'm looking at doing a small
piece, with the basic blueish sky, grayish blocks for buildings,
greenish foreground. The fact that I'm not an artist and my drawing
skills are pretty poor should deter me, but hey, you don't learn
anything from not trying. Seriously, any hints on how to use these
materials would be most welcome.

Janet Rice

[Ericka Kammerer]

Janet Rice wrote:

You might want to have a look at Dharma Trading Company
(http://www.dharmatrading.com/). They have *tons* of stuff
for fabric painting and dying and great instructions and very
helpful staff. I've been very pleased with everything I've
done with them.

Best wishes,
Ericka

[JDTHMLLR]

One of the ways to use them to get a sheer, soft edge look is as follows:

- cut a piece of stencil plastic in about the shape of the space you want to
color
- put the markal on the plastic
- then use a clean, soft toothbrush to move the color from the plastic onto the
fabric

This will give a very thin layer of color on the material...it's also easy to
mix colors as you go.

Then let the fabric sit for a day or so and then start your stitching.

Get one or two paint sticks...they are kind of pricey...and try it first. Then
get more colors if you like the effect.

Judith