Monday, January 12, 2015

PAINTING WITH EGG WHITES

Among my evergrowing list of techniques that intrigue me was a method of creating texture by painting with beaten egg whites.  I read about it on Ann Scott's blog.....a short description that sounded fairly straight forward.  We are fond of Hollandise Sauce.....which yields leftover egg whites.....what better reason to play with them.

Here are my results......which I'm grading as a big fat F.  
 Beginning with a piece of previously dyed fabric.....of course I have NO idea what method I employed!!  I really need to attach notes....but then again.....does it matter?  Next, using about 1 egg white....it was hand whipped until frothy.  Ann suggested using a small amount of water along with the paint color of your choosing.  Normally, when beating egg whites for food consumption....water is an enemy....but I added it anyway along with a small amount of white paint.
 Using the whisk.....the foam was spread onto the fabric.

......and left to dry.  Big smiles at this point.....
 Next another egg white was used, along with green paint.  This time I suspect I added either too much water or too much paint...or both.
.......The mixture foamed but fizzled out almost immediately when placed on fabric.
 Next in line to paint was this cotton print.
 .......being extra careful......this time I achieved a nice consistency of foamy paint to work with.
 ......and again.....I'm smiling.....
.....And then.......I heat set this one and washed it. (Rather than washing it first and heat setting as Ann mentioned.)  Yes, there was a faint odor of eggs, but only slightly. The first thing I noticed was that the texture was flaking off as I heat set it. Now I'm NOT smiling.......once it was hand washed......I have nothing left but smears of paint.

The other two fabrics weren't successful either, despite altering the washing/heat setting steps.  Chalk this up to a fun, hopeful day that will allow me to move along to another subject.  Normally, I'd dig in like a bulldog and figure out how to make this work.....( I suspect the portion of paint needs to be greater)......alas....I'm not sure how I'd use the fabric anyway.....so onward....smiling again.


5 comments:

Nancy said...

Well, check that one off the list. Sounds as if there is too much tweaking of paint, water, egg whites to get this to work as desired. Thanks for sharing the results for the "what not to do" file.

Robbie said...

Geezzz I've never heard of this one! So glad you attempted it instead of me! Don't you wonder how some of these techniques come about!

Kathy said...

Thanks for adding to my What Not To Do file! It's so nice when someone else does the hard work for us!

Linda M said...

I've never heard of this technique, but since you've tested it for us I think I'll pass.

quiltedfabricart said...

Thank you for sharing - they can't all be home runs. Good information