Playing with Glitter...

I've been wanting to play with my Art Institute glitter and my Jo Sonja's textile medium for a while. Needing to add some glitz to my tea party girls, I thought I would run a test experiment to see how applying glitter to fabric would work.


The textile medium has a milky consistency and I wondered whether it would leave a "glue" trail on my fabric in addition to the glitter.


I tried painting the glue on the fabric first and then "sprinkling" the glitter over top. Next, I tried mixing the glitter into the medium. I was surprised at how much glitter I needed to add to a small amount of medium in order to get decent coverage. A little bit of medium goes a long way so work in small amounts.


I used fabric brushes and found the glitter/medium clumped on my brush requiring that I wash the brush out frequently. The mixture washed away easily with soap and water.


The results are above. The third blue stripe is where I dumped the glitter over the glue strip which is the method shown on the Art Glitter Institute web site. This was too messy and not going to work for my girls who are already stitched in their finery inside the garden. I think mixing the glitter with the medium is best for me.

Notice I played with a piece of silk organza scrap and painted that with the glitter medium as well. I thought that the glue would gum up the holes in the organza but I was pleasantly surprised with the result.


I followed the instructions on the bottle and let my sample dry for 24 hours overnight. I then heat set the glitter for two minutes before washing and drying it. Again, I was surprised when very little of the glitter washed off in my sample. I washed it with a load of towels on medium temperature with regular laundry detergent and dried it on high. I think the use of glitter would really work well on my jean skirt project...


I used my left over glitter glue to paint a whole piece of organza. Because the glitter glue sealed the organza fibers, I could cut my glitter organza into strips without having to worry that the edges would fray. I wrapped them around a few pencils and let them dry for 24 hours.


Now I have my own glittered organza ribbon to use in my piece as well! I was really delighted with this finding so stay tuned for what happens next at the Tea Party. The girls are still getting "dressed"...