Fabric imprinting

As I have been making the tiles for my second artwork for the ‘Our Future’ exhibition, I have been trying some new techniques. I am really pleased with the way the fabric imprint came out on this tile.

I rolled out a darkish red/pink colour, pressed a piece of interesting lace onto the surface and then rolled it through the pasta machine again. Carefully, I removed the lace, leaving a perfect imprint in the surface of the clay.  I selected the area I wanted for my tile using a square cutter and baked it for 20 minutes. I then painted white acrylic paint all over the tile and while it was still wet, I wiped as much of it off the surface as I could, leaving the white paint where it had collected in the impressions. I baked the tile for another 10 minutes, to help bond the paint to the clay, and when cool, sanded the surface to remove any remaining paint residue. The contrast between the white paint and the coloured clay and the amount of detail it has picked up is incredible. In fact, at first glance, it looks like the lace material is still embedded in the clay.