Liquid Dishwashing Soap as a Resist?

More on our experiments with resists.......  You would think that if you put liquid dishwashing soap on a piece of fabric it would soak in or create a puddle, right?  After reading Fabric Printing at Home by Julie Booth we decided to try her technique of using liquid soap as a resist.  She stamps, brayers or draws with the soap to make marks on fabric and then uses a paint to add color to the piece of plain fabric.

After drawing her images with the liquid soap, Elizabeth used Pebeo Setacolor paint to color the fabric.  In order to get it to spread she first spritzed the fabric with a light mist of water.  That turned out to be a mistake as even the light spritzing rehydrated the liquid soap enough for it to spread and lose the integrity of the design. The shapes were supposed to be blueberries but soon after adding the mist of water the crowns of the berries became solid blocks making them resemble diamond engagement rings instead! 

For the next experiment she brushed on the paint mixed 50/50 with water using a foam brush to cover the dried liquid soap.  That worked much better.  As a test she added each color leaving some of the previous color showing so as to evaluate how the process progressed. 

For the next pieces, Elizabeth used the core end of a cauliflower as the stamp.  It needs to be cut straight across so that the entire end comes in contact with the fabric.  She thought it looked like a modern improvisational flower.

You need patience if you plan to use multiple colors for this technique as you need to wait for the paint to dry as well as the following application of soap to dry before the next layer of paint can be added.  Washout is fairly simple though because of the use of the soap.  Much easier than any other resist product we have used.