The easiest of the 3 is metallic paint. The only thing new to learn about metallic paint is that because it has mica in it, it can clog your screen quicker than non-metallic paints. That just means you might need to wash it sooner.
Elizabeth decided to overprint one of her color magnet masks with gold metallic paint from Artistic Artifacts.
Now she's ready with several masks for those necessary trips away from the house.
Another product that can add some shimmer is decorative foil. It comes in assorted and variegated colors and is applied with glue and heat.
The glue is screen printed onto your fabric just like paint and allowed to partially dry - it should still be tacky when you apply the foil. The foil is placed color side up over the glue, and then ironed with dry heat. Using the edge of the iron helps create a firmer bond. Carefully peel off the foil.
This piece is a hand-dyed handkerchief that came out pretty dark. The ginkgo leaves were printed with a discharge product but didn't have a lot of definition, so were a good candidate for over-printing. Several were done with foil and others were printed with metallic paint.
It's hard to get a good picture of the shine, but you can see it in this one.
Sue decided to do some foil that would be more easily seen on another handkerchief, this one with discharged butterflies. The thinness of the fabric seemed to allow the discharge product to spread more than usual. In this collage you see the original and 3 applications of foil - yellow-orange, purple, and red.
The remaining butterflies were over-printed with metallic paint.
A third way to add shine is to use gold leaf. This method is a little more costly, so you might want to save it for those really special pieces. These sheets are made by Speedball and came from Jerry's Artarama. You also need a product called high gloss medium to apply it to the fabric.
As with the foil and glue, the high gloss medium is the adhesive that holds the gold leaf to the fabric. It is applied though the screen just like the other products.
On this handkerchief several leaves were chosen to add the gold leaf to. After the medium dries, lay the gold leaf over top and place parchment paper on top of that. Then iron to adhere the gold leaf to the fabric. The bottom right picture above shows the gold after it's applied. The final step is to brush off the extra gold.
Since the leaves (and most designs) are not solid shapes, use a soft brush to brush away the gold that is not adhered to the fabric. In this final photo you can see the gold leaves as well others that were over-printed with metallic paint.
Here are a few of the metallic paints that Sue used in completing these samples. Note pearlescent = metallic. The Speedball is not labeled as metallic, but you can see the shimmer in the paint through the container. The Artistic Artifacts paint is bronze metallic. What are your favorite ways to add shine to your projects?
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