Underwear art

Take one pair of laddered tights, a piece of paper and some inks and paints.........and look at the exciting effects you can produce!

These rainbow pictures were created with a pair of old tights (yes, seriously!).  I ripped the tights to create long ladders and holes of varying sizes (very satisfying process in itself!) and then fastened the fabric with sticky tape across a previously stretched, dampened sheet of heavy-weight watercolour paper.  Next, I  poured acrylic and watercolour inks and added brushloads of watercolours randomly across the paper as the fancy took me!  I then used a spray bottle to disperse the colours. The photos above were taken whilst  the pigments were still very wet.

When completely dry, I removed the tights and cut some of the paper strips and the remainder into smaller squares and rectangles.  Subtle patterns remained on the paper.

An interesting process!  One point to note: over-saturated areas created big pools of pigment that during the drying process contributed to the contracting of some the webs, so that they escaped their 'moorings' and as such were of no use at all in the experiment!   Of course, when dry, the colours were less intense, but nevertheless, the effects were intriguing -  I see nets, trees and beaches in there!   As with the oil pastels in my previous post I stuck the pieces into a sketch book.  Who knows, these squares and rectangles may find their way into my work one day.

So ,what better way to put those laddered tights and stockings to use?  I hope you might try it too - recyle and gain some colourful artwork!