Sunpainting: Mulberry Shirt

Earlier today I was experimenting with a new sunpaint design using mulberry leaves.

I posted this picture earlier. It is a close up of one of the leaves on the shirt. The glass beads are just there to help hold the leaf in place.

Here is a picture of the same section of the shirt after everything has dried. You can see that the paint has moved around and that there is a light impression of the leaf left behind.

Here is another leaf sitting next to where it was positioned. You can clearly see this leaf has left a much better impression than the one above. It is all part of the random nature of sunpainting.

I'm repeating this picture so you can see how the paint moves. It has already started in the lower part of the picture.

Here is a picture of the shirt once everything has dried and the leaves have been taken off. I did not put any leaves over the berries on purpose. Once the fabric was dry, I over-painted the 'mulberries' with a dry brush. I really wanted them to look more like berries than they did. That is why the purple spots have more structure than the green. I have been doing this a bit more lately as I have been trying to understand how to control the process and how to back fill when it doesn't come out exactly the way I like.

I was trying to get a few last pictures in in the poor light this evening. This one doesn't show the colors very well but it gives you an idea of what the back of the shirt looks like. I let the backs get through painted as part of the process. It is easier than trying to keep it unpainted and people seem to prefer them this way. It is a softer impression of the imagery on the front. Sometimes the impressions will transfer all the way through. They didn't on this particular shirt.

I am going to try this again. The next time, I am not going to do an allover pattern. I am going to try and 'drape' the paint over the shoulder so it looks more like a branch loaded with mulberries. I'll let you know how that works.