by Vivien Zepf
i
’m constantly sopping up project spills and excess
paint from bowls and brushes. My go-to clean up
tool? The humble paper towel. I also place paper towels
underneath projects to absorb paints, inks, and dyes
which might soak through. I let them dry and then reuse
the paper towels until they’re lovely in their own right,
fi lled with unexpected color combinations from all my
(ab)use.I imagine other artists have similarly beautiful bits in their
studios. These spent and colored paper towels now go full circle,
making their way into my artwork and adding unexpected visual
and physical texture. They can be used as is, or as a base for photo
transfers.DIRECTIONS
- Select a paper towel that has a color palette you like. It does not
have to be fully saturated with color for this process to work. If
you like it, it’s suitable. Be sure the paper towel has dried for at
least 24 hours. - Cover the ironing board with a cloth to protect the surface. Set
the iron to high and gently iron the paper towel to ease out any
wrinkles, covering it with another clean cloth to minimize any
damage or color transfer.
TIP:If wrinkles persist, lightly mist the paper towel and iron gently to smooth
the surface. Even hole-y paper towels that used to be in a tight wad can be
salvaged in your art.
MATERIALS
- Paper towels that have absorbed
color during paint and dye
project clean-up (See tip below.) - Iron
- Cloths to protect the iron, work,
and ironing board surfaces - Fluid acrylic medium (I prefer a
matte fi nish.) - Foam brush
- Your own drawn or
photographed images or other
copyright-free imagery for
printing - Iron-on transfer paper (I use
Lesley Riley’s TAP—Transfer
Artist Paper.) - Computer with image-editing
software - Ink jet printer
Optional- Paper-backed fusible (I use
Pellon® Wonder-Under®.) - Additional paints, stamps, inks,
and brushes
TIP: Use paper towels randomly
for clean-up so you’re less likely
to ‘curate’ a color palette. Th is
is the perfect place to allow for
unexpected color combinations.
I prefer white paper towels with
diff erent textures, but you may
prefer paper towels with pre-
printed patterns.
bybyVivien ZepfVivien Zepf
CLEAN-UP
Quilts
Repurpose
the humble
paper towel
in your art