Mystery Solved!

Last time, I posted these photos of some strange designs that showed up on one of my fabric pieces when I was painting skies.

This was quite a mystery, as it was the only piece out of the six painted that was left to dry in the bedroom, and it was the only piece that ended up with these diamond shapes on it. My theory was that maybe the quartz crystals hanging in my windows projected refracted light on the fabric, moving across it as the daylight shifted and changed. After all, the paint (Setacolor transparent) is light sensitive. The more light there is on the fabric as it dries, the more intensely the color develops.

And then, one of my blog readers, Vicki W., left a comment that really got my attention. She said the pattern reminded her of paper towels.

BINGO!! I had completely forgotten until then, but coincidentally this was the only piece that was too wet when I finished painting it. Thinking there wasn't much to lose, as it looked pretty bad anyway, I had blotted the excess moisture from it with paper towels.

So, after seeing Vicki's comment, I immediately checked my paper towel roll...and sure enough, there it was...the same dotted lines in the shape of diamonds! (The fact that they were dotted was, admittedly, a flaw in my crystal theory.)

So, mystery solved. Thank you, Vicki--not only for coming up with the solution, but because now I have some new (for me) ideas regarding deliberate manipulation with painted wet fabric. Also, I just might play around with sunlight projection through those crystals and see what happens!

Linda