Soy Painting and Watercolor Pigment

Thank you so much Charlotte for presenting to us how she uses how soy and watercolor pigment to create some of her art.  If you missed the meeting ask Charlotte for her handout.  It will be more in depth on some topics than I will cover here.

Is anyone besides me fascinated by what people come up with when creating?  Never would I have thought to process soybeans to use as a binder or medium for pigment to be applied to paper or fabric.  But that is what happens when you wisely ignore convention.  Let loose the imagination ladies!

Let's start with an example of Charlotte's work to whet your creative appetite for soy watercolor painting.

Beautiful example of painting with watercolors using the soy milk as the medium. So impressive in person.  It is titled 'Sunset at Falls Park'  She is pointing to a place on the ridge she had to change the fabric in order to achieve the right shading for the sun.  The tree is done with tulle. It really made it pop.  The quilting done on the water really expressed the wild flow.

So how is it done?  I am going to include some references she made in her presentation at the bottom of this post.  They are primarily linking to Fiber Artist John Marshall who is a pioneer of this method and to Subversive Stitches which covers some things John Marshall does not. If ou can find the quilting arts magazine in which they cover him and this method it is worth trying to find and purchase.  Charlotte says it is quite comprehensive.  I also included a link to a woman - a gross woman - who also uses soy and pigment in her art.  Funny and disgusting.  She is the hit of NYC.

Charlotte basically discussed the two applications for soy milk and fabric.
1)  As A whole fabric pretreat:  Briefly, apply soy milk to the fabric before you paint it, let it cure anywhere from 2 to 30 days flat or hung taughtly  (so it stretches it) on a quasi hammock.  The result is a fabric that really allows pigment to embed into the fabric and keeps it from wicking.
2)  Use soy milk instead of water to thin watercolor pigment that will then be painted onto the fabric.

She really went into #2. which is the method she uses.  She does not pretreat. She does note that if you don't use PDF (which I think means pre-dyed fabric) that you should pre-wash the fabric to get the sizing out of it before you start painting with the soy and pigment.

What she does is she uses the soy milk instead of water and applies the (watercolor) pigment/soy to the fabric.  It really makes the pigment soak into the fabric and fixes it into it.  She keeps water available only to clean the brushes.  So she keeps it out of reach so she doesn't accidentally dip into water instead of milk.

She said she has a separate pallet for the paints she uses with soy.  Why?  It can get funky.
Cindy O. noted that soy milk can turn white fabric slightly yellow.

OK onto more eye candy. I think you can click on the pic to enlarge it for detailed examination.

Soy milk watercolor and thread painting of Oregon Coast

Early work.  Oregon Coast

Horseshoe Bend.   It is totally painted, then thread painted. The bush on the front was created separately and then appliquéd with a sewing machine and clear thread.  To make the bush she used strips of batik which she knotted, bunched up and sewed to a piece of netting she had stretched in an embroidery hoop.

 Be sure to click on this pic to see the quilting.  I didn't take notes on this because I was picture taking but I think she said this is inspired by her sister.  Her sister being the menacing bird getting ready to grab a big hunk of her hair.  Oh wait - I am projecting.  Her sister - I am sure - is a lovebird.

 Another scene from the diverse and beautiful Moab.  I went up to have a look at it during the break.  Very intricate placement of fabric in the trunk on the foreground.  Raw edge appliqued with bits of little pieces of fabric to make that look so good.   Same for the background shrubs and foreground grasses.  Excuse that overly technical description...😏.  A few of us enjoyed talking about how our mountains would look if we attempted those shadows.  Well done Char.  Your work is very appreciated by our group.

Charlotte said that she draws the scene a few times on paper before she puts it down on the cloth.  She uses all sorts of fabric including simple muslin.  In the pic right above there is a piece right under the landscape - it is tulips.  It was done on muslin.  The tulips were inspired from her neighbors tulips that bloomed underneath a tree.  I think I may have been envisioning it and forgot to snap a pic.

Finally here she has sunflowers and demure bird.  Thread painting and some terrific bead work in the flowers.  She had a companion piece to this, but I didn't snap it.

Gigantic thank you Char for sharing your work and methods plus you really kept us all enthralled and had us laughing over the mold (you had to be there) and were very sporting when you gave us a live example of how to apply it to a pre painted piece (which you decided to do on the fly).  It is no small thing to get up in front of us IMO.

If you live in Hurricane Nickie Heying is offering to share some newly purchased soybeans.  She bought them at Natural Grocer off of Green Springs.  2lbs bag for 2.98.
Bob's Red Mill also sells them so you might find them right there in the regular grocery.  You can also try Dixie Nutrition if you live in STG.




Links:

John Marshall's Making & Basics of Soy Milk
Vid Applying Soymilk Sizing to Whole Cloth
Subversive Stitchers' Post on Marshall and his methods
Slightly related but wholly disgusting video. Made me laugh