Now that your fabric has been prepared, it is time to mix the flour paste and slather it onto your clean and dried fabric! Yaaay!  *If you have not prepared your fabric you can find the steps on how to do so, in Part One of this tutorial!

 

STEP ONE: PREPARING THE FLOUR PASTE RESIST

In this step you’ll need your flour, water, bucket, an electric drill w/mixing a bit and a pouring pitcher.

In a medium bucket, mix flour and cold water together using a whisk or spoon, or an electric drill with a mixing bit attached.  Mix this mixture to a pancake like consistency.  If you experience lumping, continue mixing to remove as many as you can.  Do not worry about exact measurements, but if it helps, I used about 3 – 4 cups of flour for my table runner. Once your mixture has reach a smooth pancake batter like concistancy, pour into a pitcher and set it aside to prep the fabric.

 

 

STEP TWO:  PREP WORK SURFACE AND SECURE FABRIC

In this step you will need 4 medium to large clamps to secure the fabric onto your work surface.

Cover your work surface with your plastic drop cloth, you can also secure this with clamps if you’d like.   Once your work surface is covered lay out your fabric on top of the plastic drop cloth.   Using 4 clamps, secure all corners of your fabric to the table.  Doing this makes applying the paste much easier as the fabric will want to slide around.  *Sorry I don’t have a picture for this step.

 

STEP THREE:  THE FUN PART!! APPLY FLOUR PASTE!

Yaaay! This is where the fun begins.  Here, you will need your pitcher of flour paste resist, a squeegee and gloves!

Grab your pitcher of flour paste, starting at one end of your fabric begin to pour a generous amount of the mixture onto your fabric.    Using your squegee, smooth out the paste on your fabric.  You don’t want to go too thin, so use a light hand when doing this step.  Continue this process down the entire length of the fabric (pour, then smooth, pour, then smooth)  until the material is fully covered with the flour paste resist. *you should not see the fabric through the paste – aim for an “opaque” coverage.

 

STEP FOUR : DRYING THE FLOUR PASTE

Once your fabric is covered with the flour paste, it will need to fully dry in order to crack it.  You can do one of three things for this step:

1. Set fans around your work surface aiming them at your work. (leave on all 4 clamps)
2. Dry the paste using a hair dryer on medium to high heat.
3. Let the paste air dry (this is what I did).  This step takes about 12 – 24 hours, depending on the size of your material and the amount of paste poured.

As the paste dries, the fabric will curl up on the ends.  To prevent this you can leave all 4 clamps in place.  I removed 2 of the 4 clamps on my piece to allow the fabric to move freely.

 

> > >  Part Three : Cracking the Resist and Adding Paint

> > > > Part Four : Flour Resist and Paint Removoal

> Part One: Fabric Preparation