Cut a 30cm square of calico, place
it in the embroidery frame and tighten the fabric until it is taut,
being careful to keep the grain straight, and tighten the screw.
Using
the card mount as a guide, lightly mark the area of sky and grass to be
dyed as shown in fig 1. Extend
the painted area slightly beyond where the edge of the mount will be.
(The area is approximately 13cm by 13cm)
Painting
the background
If you are using watercolour paints
the embroidery will not be washable.
Once the paint-on dyes are fixed by ironing, they are
permanent. Remember: you can always add more dye if the painting is too
pale, but you can’t take it off.
1.Using the Pebeo dyes put a small
amount of each dye on separate saucers, mix the colours as follows
a. pale blue for the sky from the Gitane blue and a little of the iris
(beware the Gitane blue is very strong, so only a tiny amount is
needed.)
b. primary yellow with just a very
small amount of the moss green for the bright grassy area
c. a dark green from the moss green
and a little Gitane blue for the dark foreground grasses and the trees
Dilute the colours with water before
use and test on a spare piece of calico before you begin
2. Before painting the background,
lightly wet the calico with water using the brush. Using large brush
strokes paint in the sky colour (colour a ) Keep the colour deeper at the
top of the picture and paler
in the ‘tree area’ With the calico still wet paint in the bright
yellow green area (colour b) letting it run into the blue a little. Add
a little of colour c for the darker area in the foreground.
Try to keep all edges of the painting soft. Dry off all
areas with the hairdryer. The painting should look roughly like photo A.
