Five Minute Art

I tried to create five minute art, but it's not possible. I need more time! I had a one day weekend, but in my free time, I used my given 25 hours (!) very creatively. I did do a couple of five minute things in the days before that, things I wanted to follow up on when I had more time. In particular, I wanted to make a lettered fabric piece, like Lisa's. I enjoyed the two days in her workshop, I was happy with my work, I felt a new confidence about writing on fabric... it looked very promising...

Make a grid on fabric with Scribbles fabric paint... check. (under five minutes)

Let that dry, then paint colors in the grids... check. (way more than five minutes. I mean, there were SO many decisions... do I want to paint all the way to the edges of each grid or leave white space? I was using new Liquitex inks, but only had primary colors, so had to experiment with mixing. Note to self: Self prefers premixed inks.)

Let that dry then write letters in the grids. hmmmm. screeeccchhhhhh to a stop. (way, way over five minutes)

I tried both the FW white and the Liquitex white acrylic inks. They both pulled a disappearing act into the fabric. Was it me? Was it the pen? Did I not shake the ink enough? Did I shake it too much? Did I dip my pen in water too much to keep the acrylic from hardening on the nib? And what about the fabric itself? Then I remembered all the stuff about primed/unprimed, sized/unsized, and about the Jacquard's No Flow.

Paint a thin layer of No Flow onto the remaining grids....check.

(And while I was at it, I painted No Flow on other pieces of fabric backgrounds from the workshop, either the whole piece or a portion for comparison.) (It was a couple of days before I was able to get back to the fabric experiments.)

The No Flow did seem to make a difference, but it was still a struggle to write on that particular piece. My cool fabric projects were becoming sample/experimental pieces. (If you ever want to get into my head, just watch what I write when I'm just practicing and writing whatever pops into my head. I really did try to write "Practice makes perfect", but by the time I got to the end of the sentence, that's not what came out!)

And I started another grid, on a different type of fabric. We'll see what happens when I can get some more play time. I decided I liked the grids filled in all the way to the edges. What's the point of having grids if they don't look, um, grid-like? A little heart popped up in one of the brown grids. I started to paint it in, then left it. Who am I to argue with random hearts.



I've also started another "no-where-near-five-minutes" project. I can't reveal it yet. I got this at Gaye's yard sale and she might want it back if she sees what I'm doing with it....