Water Soluble Pencils

I've been experimenting with water soluble pencils. It started with a box of Derwent Graphtint. The colours in the box look muted and soft. With the addition of water, a vibrant effect takes place. The problem is finding a way to maintain their colour if you wash it. I painted loose shapes on fabric and heat set in the dryer. But once I was done, I didn't want to risk losing it, so used a gel medium over top to preserve the picture. The medium is stiff when dry, so not conducive to quilts.


I decided to try pre-treating fabric with Bubble Jet Set to see if it would make a difference. On the QuiltArt list, a suggestion was given to use water soluble pastels, so the flowers are done with two different pencils--the Derwent Graphtint and Cretacolor pastels that are water soluble. I heat set in the dryer and then washed.

Before:


After:


It is interesting that the colour definition with the pastels disappears almost completely. I had used to different blues, but the one doesn't show at all. On the purplish flower, the center completely disappeared, almost like I'd used a resist. Now, I'll go back and add more colour to the blue flower and touch up the centre on the other flower.