Printing on Muslin

The really good thing about this project is that I have no preconceived ideas about what I am going to produce each day, other than it will be in, on or connected to this book. I can experiment, make a mess, ruin a page and it doesn’t matter. I’m not trying to create a thing of beauty but to simply change a page one way or another.

Today’s experiment is printing on muslin using a freezer paper backing. haven’t tried it before and was utterly surprised and gratified that it worked on the very first attempt. Get a sheet of freezer paper, iron onto a piece of muslin so that it sticks. Trim any raggedy edges – you do not want them getting caught up in the printer. Remove cat hairs. Place in sheet feeder tray of printer. Select your image on your computer, press print and you’re away.

Remove from printer. Pick off cat hairs. Carefully peel freezer paper off muslin. You might have an interesting shadow image left on the freezer paper. Examine muslin, feel pleased with self and remove any remaining cat hair.

I’ve used acrylic matt medium to stick the muslin into the book. Trim edges to fit page.

The photo is of my mother when she was 17.  She was (and is) gorgeous though I think I have pulled her face a little out of shape. Sorry, ma! I love the way the underlying text shows through. There was a heart on the page so I positioned the print so that the heart looks like wings.

Cheats Backgrounds

Two kinds of fast and easy backgrounds. These pages are ready for some further work so are incomplete. Well, it doesn’t say anywhere that the job has to be finished every day! The turquoise page has been transformed by glueing in a piece of my pre-made fabric paper.

Take a piece of muslin, brush on a coat of very runny PVA. Layer on some interesting paper and/or images. More runny PVA, a layer of tissue paper and a splash of dilute acrylic paint in one or more colours. Allow to dry. You can rub on some gold wax or acrylic paint to add some shabby chic glamour. Sometimes I cut them up into sections and then machine them back together with zig-zag stitch and gold thread. You can use them for anything. I kept the left side raggedy edge because I like raggedy edges.

The magenta page is simply a piece of scrapbook paper glued into place. Makes pages nice and sturdy. You can doodle or paint on it or add a transparent acetate ‘pocket’ to display a piece of ephemera or a treasured photograph.