Inktense

    This week's 100 Days of Quilted Greeting cards (on my social media) theme is flowers. Thursday's post was about my iris design, which I have done with both applique and Inktense. The applique version is available as a card kit or pattern. Then I have a youtube video for the Inktense version. (I will link all of them at the end.) We were also talking about Inktense a bit in my class on Thursday, so I thought it would be fun to look at some of my other Inktense projects too! Maybe I will try to do another one of those Saturday Zoom calls in a few weeks with an Inktense project, that sounds fun😀

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    If you are not familiar with Inktense, it is ink in the form of pencils and blocks, and is activated with water or other mediums. They can be used on fabric, paper, and probably other things, but those are the only two I have tried. They operate like watercolors or watercolor pencils, but are ink, so can be made much more intense, and are also permament. (depending on a few factors) They can be a great way to add details to an art quilting project, or be the primary medium as well. 
    In this crane quilt, I made the front crane out of fabric, and painted the second one with Inktense. 

    I painted this fireweed blossom on a pale yellow fabric that was backed with a fusible interfacing. I then cut it out and added it to my quilted background, and added lots of free motion stitching. (I may have added some of it before putting it on the quilt, I'm not sure. Either way works!  Inktense is a way to add shading that is harder to do with just fabric and thread. 

   For this raven quilt, I collaged the background, then added the rocks with free motion stitching, and then colored them with Inktense. Sometimes I do the stitching first, and sometimes after. (And sometimes both 😂)

    For this one I added a bit of Inktense to the trees, the moon, and the rocks. There are many ways to apply them, and the way you apply them often determines how dark/intense they are. But they can also be very subtle. I have a video for this quilt, (Inktense Values below) although it does have a barky dog in it that was much louder on the video than in my ears when I was making it. (He was on the other side of a 10 inch thick log wall🤪)

   Below are the links for everything I have mentioned, as well as my Favorite Resources page with links to several size sets of Inktense, and the blender sticks I like to use with them. They are also sometimes available at JoAnn's and Michael's. I hope you will give them a try! And definitely watch at least one of the videos, as the way you apply them makes a huge difference in how they look. Let me know if you would like to see a workshop! Happy sewing, Beret

Inktense and Thread Painted Iris video
Wild Iris card kit (NOT Inktense)
Five Ways to Apply Inktense video
​Inktense Values (how to get a wide range)
My Favorite Resources (links to Inktense and other fun stuff)