Making Fabric Paper
copyright Barbara Strembicki  January 1, 2011
 

Fabric paper.  A combination of paper and fabric, assembled in a way to create a base for all kinds of mixed media art.  I've seen examples of Beryl Taylor's lovely work that utilizes her technique for blending paper and fabric and have even tried to create my own version.  With less than stellar results.  I've seen other examples of folks who  make wonderful art of all kinds that utilize fabric paper.  And wondered what I might have done differently to achieve more of the look I was aiming for.

Fast forward from my last attempt (so long ago that I can't remember when it was) to Monday December 27, 2010.  On an ordinary Monday I'd be at the warehouse by about 8 am to prep for us packing and shipping all of the orders from the day before.  On the 27th of December 2010 however, not so much.  A nor'easter took aim on the east coast and dumped a sleighful of snow from the the mid Atlantic to the northeast and New England.  When the weather is that bad I generally err on the side of caution and tell everyone to stay home.  Some of us have short commutes and others have longer ones, but in all cases I don't want anyone to get hurt coming into work.  Which is how I found myself at home that day, wandering around my studio, thinking about what project I might immerse myself in.

Fabric paper.  I was willing to give it another try and as I was perusing the contents of my paper drawer I realized that I didn't actually have anything on hand that I wanted to work with.  Well, how can you make fabric paper without paper I wondered?  As it happens, you really can't, but I was willing to punt and try something else.  Since it was a couple of days after Christmas I knew that there was leftover white tissue paper that I could avail myself of.  What else?  Some poking around revealed a length of muslin, white glue, and Liquitex paint in a bunch of my favorite colors.  Ok, close enough.  I was going to give it another try, but this time sans paper aside from the tissue paper.

Unlike the fabric paper I'd made the last time, this version is much lighter and less stiff.  Depending on your perspective and what your plans for the fabric paper are, that's either a good thing... or it's not.  Since I had no idea what I was going to make from my fabric paper I wasn't worried one way or the other.  Plus, it's easy enough to add some weight to make the fabric paper heavier, but if what I made was too thick there's really no changing that after the fact.

The process is really simple and something that you can do in an afternoon.  Drying takes the most time since the fabric ends up a soupy mess by the time you're done with the final step.

SUPPLIES needed are muslin or some other fabric to use as the base, white tissue paper, white glue (The Ultimate and Sobo are the ones I used) or something like Aleene's Fabric Stiffener and Draping Liquid,  paint (I used Liquitex soft bodied acrylic), and a couple of 2" sponge brushes.   If you want additional texture, you can add a layer of cheesecloth.

Ready?  Cool!  Let's get started with...

Step 1

Lay some plastic on your work surface, cut muslin to some size you're comfortable working on, and put the muslin in the sink to wet it.  Make sure the muslin is wet - the sizing that commercially dyed fabric has applied tends to make it want to shed water.  Once it's wet wring it out till it's still damp and lay it out on the plastic.

Step 2

Grab yourself a bowl and put some of the glue in it.  My first group of samples used The Ultimate glue and I mixed it roughly 1 to 1 with water.  Be sure that you mix well.  Paint the glue mixture on the damp fabric.  This doesn't have to be sopping wet, just paint the glue mixture on to cover the entire surface.  Later I'll show you some examples of what happens when you don't paint the muslin with glue...

Step 3

Choose your colors and portion them out on a palette. Make sure you have a bowl of clean water too.  I used it to thin the paint before I applied it to the fabric.  You'll apply the paint in whatever colors and patterning you prefer.  I stuck with no real pattern and just painted on colors and blends that I like.








Step 4



Cut a piece of tissue paper that's just a bit larger than the muslin and lay it over the top.  I chose not to crumple my tissue paper, but you can and can also make it much larger than the muslin, which allows for more crinkling and overlapping areas as you force the tissue paper to fit the size of the muslin.

One note about tissue paper... you don't need to use anything fancy, but may notice that your tissue paper has one glossy side.  I used two different types of white tissue paper and discovered that some had more gloss on one side than others.  Be sure to lay the glossy side down, against the painted surface of the muslin, otherwise it's much harder to get the glue mixture to penetrate the tissue paper.

Load the brush with the glue mixture and press it down on the tissue paper.  Press and lift only, otherwise you're liable to tear the tissue paper.  As soon as it gets wet it gets pretty fragile and will tear if you try to spread the glue mixture in the usual painting motion.  Even though my tissue paper was more or less the same size as the muslin you can see that wrinkles that form, which add nice texture to the piece.

Step 5

Press the glue mixture on the tissue paper until the entire piece is covered with glue.  It's important to cover it well and this is where the whole soupy thing happens.  The glue is what's going to bind the layers together and give you a piece of fabric paper that you can cut, stitch (by hand or machine), embellish, etc.

Wait.

Wait some more. 

Wait and wait, till the piece is completely dry.  Once it is you have completed fabric paper that is ready to be used as the base for...  well, for anything you can think of.  If you need it to be heavier you can layer some interfacing under it before you take the next step in your creative process.   Think of what you have as a fancy piece of fabric or a heavy duty piece of non-tear paper.

This is the sheet above once it had dried...

You can see the crinkles that formed in the tissue paper which add some interesting texture.  The wrinkles in the muslin (from wringing it out after wetting) persist and also create texture.  There are some small areas where the tissue paper isn't tightly adhered to the muslin, but rather than thinking of that as a defect, I like the idea that it's not a uniform surface.  Besides, it's not easy to absolutely penetrate the tissue paper with the glue mixture so there will be some (hopefully) small areas like this.

There are some other options for adding more texture to your paper fabric.  The day I made these samples I was housebound because of the snow, so I went with what I had on hand - in this case some cheesecloth.  I tried using the cheesecloth in two ways; on top of the tissue paper and underneath it.  Of course I forgot to photograph the process when I simply placed the cheesecloth over the top of the tissue paper, but it's pretty darn simple.  Once you've reach the stage in the photo above, where the tissue paper has been covered with the glue mixture, apply a layer of cheesecloth over the tissue paper.  Since the cheesecloth is white you'll want to add some more paint to color the white to something else.  When that's finished, apply more of the glue mixture until the cheesecloth has been thoroughly glued to the tissue paper.  Or, leave some sections without glue which will allow them to stand up a bit for added dimension.

These photos demonstrate making a sheet of fabric paper with cheesecloth under the tissue paper...

Wet the fabric, apply the glue mixture, paint with the desired colors.  This time I used Aleene's Fabric Stiffener and Draping  Liquid rather than white glue.  At first I was planning to use it straight out of the bottle but immediately discovered that it's too thick to spread easily on the muslin.  I mixed it a bit less than 1 to 1, using more of the Aleene's and a bit less of water.

Apply cheesecloth over the top of the prepared muslin.  You can either cut it to fit so there are no extra layers or wrinkles, or do what I did above and drape a larger piece to create overlapping areas of more texture.  Once you do this you'll need to apply more of the glue mixture.  If you skip that step you'll immediately notice that the tissue paper does not want to adhere to the cheesecloth.

Once the cheesecloth has been adhered with the glue mixture...

Cover with tissue paper and soak the entire piece with the glue mixture.  Give it some time to dry and there you go, textured fabric paper!  The photo above was taken immediately after I applied the glue over the tissue paper.  It's difficult to really see the texture, but this next one is a bit better...

This is the sheet fabric paper once it had dried.  Still not a perfect view the texture, but it's there.  The next two photos were shot as close ups and make it much simpler to see...

Ooops... there are small tears in the tissue paper, but I think that adds character.  As you can see the cheesecloth is there, lurking under the tissue paper.

Another section of that sheet.  In some places the cheesecloth is a bit more prominent while in others it's more subtle.

This is a piece I made where the cheesecloth was applied after the tissue paper.  It's much more dominant this way since the tissue paper doesn't obscure the texture.

A close up shot of one corner. Not only can you see that the cheesecloth is more dominant this way, you can also see the color, in this case a teal green, that was still in the brush when I was using the glue mixture to adhere the cheesecloth to the tissue paper.  You can add more color or just serendipitously let it happen with what the glue mixture brush picks up as you're adhering the tissue paper to the muslin.

BooBoos...

Earlier I promised to show you what happens if you don't apply the glue mixture to the muslin before adding color and the tissue paper...  this photo is one example.  See the single arrow pointing to the lighter area?  That's a section where the glue didn't penetrate the tissue paper and where it didn't adhere to the muslin.  With no glue mixture from underneath it just didn't all meld together and form one unified layer.  See the dual arrows pointing to the darker areas?  That's where I went back after the glue had dried and applied more in an attempt to get the tissue to adhere.  It didn't work well and in addition, the fabric is stiffer than the rest.  I'm not sure why, but it's not nice to look at or to feel.

Musings...

One thing I did discover is that both of the glues I used, The Ultimate and Sobo, both leave the fabric paper softer and more supple than when I used Aleene's Fabric Stiffener and Draping Liquid.  If you need fabric paper that's very stiff and fairly rigid, use the Aleene's.  It will probably soften a bit when the fabric paper is handled, but it's considerably more rigid to begin with.  I also discovered that the Aleene's left a more matte surface than either of the glues did.  While the pieces made with both The Ultimate and Sobo are not super glossy, there is definitely some shine on the surface.  I prefer the matte, but that's just my taste!

I hope to have some finished pieces made from these fabric paper experiments to display in the reasonable near future.  Stay tuned!