Crayons on Fabric

I am thinking of trying some new techniques with fabric. Trying out some different painting and mark making on fabric and papers for some art quilts. Before I run headlong into it though, I wanted to test some of the products.

 I can only test what I have at home and I am not buying anymore unless I find I really love them or use them a lot.

The picture above shows the crayons that I have. Caran D'Ache Neocolor 2, which are water soluble crayons, Crayola Fabric crayons, Faber-Castell crayons and Shiva Paintstiks.

I have used the Shiva Paintstiks very successfully on quilts before and 10 years later they still look just as good as when I first used them. But I put them into the test anyway. The only drawback to Shiva Paintstiks is that they are oil paint in a stick form and if you get any on the floor or clothes it is there forever. They form a skin on the top and you have to cut the skin away to use them again and that's where little bits of paint can end up in the most unexpected places.

Here is my fabric with the crayons drawn on.

Crayons before washing

1. The top two red marks are the Shiva Paintstiks.

2. Underneath that I brushed the Neocolor 2 with water.

3. Then I brushed Neocolor 2 with textile medium.

4. Then Neocolor 2 ironed.

5. The Crayola Fabric crayons are recommended for synthetic fabrics but I thought they would be ok on cotton too.

6. The Faber-Castell crayons are ordinary craft crayons.

The last two (5 and 6) I painted textile medium on the bottom half to see if it made a difference.

I dunked them in cold water and gave a little rub as well. Then I dried and ironed them.

Crayons after washing.

1. The Paintstiks were hardly changed which was pretty good because you are supposed to heat set them with an iron first and I forgot to do that.

2. The Neocolor 2 with water was fine but a little duller and lost a bit of colour.

3. The Neocolor 2 with textile medium didn't lose any colour and was quite vibrant.

4. The Neocolor 2 that was just ironed, washed out a lot. They are water soluble crayons so I guess they are not supposed to be used without water or textile medium.

5. The Crayola Fabric Crayons were much more vibrant with the textile medium applied.

6. The Faber-Castell crayons that are not even fabric crayons were still ok when I used textile medium with them.

I thought that was the end of my testing, but I happened to see a post on Facebook where someone was recommending crayons on Fabric and said that they are fine on fabric if you heat set them with an iron.
I hadn't tried heat setting with an iron so I quickly did another little test.

Heat set Crayons

Heat set Crayons after washing.

The Crayola Fabric Crayons fared the best. But once again the Neocolor 2 are water-soluble and so are not supposed to be used without water or textile medium.

I am not sure how much I will use crayons on fabric but at least I know how to use them the most effectively now.

A few years ago, I did a test using Inktense pencils on Fabric and I found that they worked the best with textile medium. By the way, that Inktense post from 2012 is my most read post ever.

Bye for now,
Linda