Rebecca Wachtman

Jacquard's Water- based resist I was very excited to test out Jacquard's new Water-based Resist for silk painting.  I've used a variety of resists and each has their pluses and minuses... and this new resist is no different. On the plus side: It's premixed and already at a good consistency for applying with an applicator bottle.  It drys fairly rapidly It repels dye very well Dye painted on top of the line doesn't soak through Once dried it can't be scrubbed away It is relatively inexpensive and easy to get a hold of (Dharma Trading carries it - as does at least one local store) Dye can be added to it to tint the resist But there are some issues that I am having some challenges with!  So to be fair, on the negative side: It doesn't always flow out of the applicator nicely and I often get bigger globs (meaning I have a hard time getting nice, crisp edges on my lines!) Along with coming out of the applicator unevenly, it also tends to ...

Do you have challenges deciding what to paint?  I sure do! I have SOOOO many things I want to paint, it's hard for me to pick just one or two (because I certainly can't paint more than that at one time!).   This month I've been experimenting with technique while trying to get ready to show at the first Issaquah Artwalk on June 6th, 2014.  I'm hoping to get another 2-4 paintings done in the next 2 weeks, but I'm dithering about what to paint next...so I'll be lucky to get a couple done! My latest paintings include my Dandelion series and an Iris.  For the dandelions, I wanted to try doing some silhouettes so I could mainly play with background colors.. but ended up painting in the silhouettes rather than leaving them as a black or white image with color all around.  I like how they turned out - but the results are not what I was originally going for.  It will be interesting to see how they really look once they are steamed.   I've done 2...