Painting on Fusible Web



Had another successful 'play day' with friends yesterday, where I tried painting on fusible web (vliesofix). Here's how...
  1. mark design on the paper side of vliesofix with a permanent marker pen, making sure your design can be cut out from the background as a whole piece
  2. use mainly metallic acrylic paint (student quality is fine) with a drop of acrylic colour and thinned with water
  3. on the glue side of vliesofix paint with a soft sponge (very carefully as the glue can come away from the paper backing)
  4. leave to dry really well before cutting out the design with sharp scissors
  5. cut carefully so that you can use both the positive and negative part of the painted fusible
  6. iron onto fabric and leave to cool before peeling paper off

I learnt all this the hard way because this is what I did wrong...
  1. picked a design for the red section that didn't work (see notes above)
  2. I made the red paint too thick. When I tried to remove the paper I found that the design didn't want to stick to the fabric. I realised that the paint to glue ratio wasn't right and needs more glue, less paint for the design to stick.
  3. because it didn't stick, and after I removed all the paper, I ironed it again (using a teflon sheet). This didn't make much difference to the sticking but made the design flat and shiny rather than having a nice textured matt effect.
  4. The gold design worked better because I used thinner paint and could have gone even thinner I think...
When done properly it makes a great surface effect similar to foiling



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