Spray/Spatter Texture Replication

[abernathysj]

Hi all, I have a costumer friend who needs to paint 22 spandex dresses. Here is her description of the project:

Quote:

I have 22 spandex dresses that need to be “dotted” in 3+ colors in a fade pattern from the bottom to the top. The designer likes the look of individual dots, but I need to come up with a way to do this that doesn’t take three years.

So far, I’ve tried spraying (to spray well, the paint has to be watered down to the point it doesn’t show up on the fabric anymore) I’ve tried stamping with a broom, I’ve tried stamping with a scrubby brush, and I’ve tried loading the broom/the brush with paint and hitting it, which so far is the best result, but is really tiring and REALLY messy

Anyone got Brilliant Ideas? I was working on trying to stamp with a bundle of spaghetti, or with Very Small Dowels, but if a beast exists already to do this, I’d love to hear of it.

I suggested a controlled spatter and gave some advice on paint consistency/technique, to which she replied:

Quote:

The biggest issue with thinning the paint at all is that it just sucks into the fabric and gives it sort of an ashy look, which I’ve been told to avoid At All Costs. I’ll try varying distances, I didn’t get there. I was struggling with a throwing spatter to get round-ish dots instead of long skinny ones, so if you have technique advice there I’d be glad for it- I tried a downwards flick as well as hitting the brush on a length of PVC pipe we had lying around

So, it sounds like she needs a tool that will apply full-strength paint to the surface in the same pattern/texture as a spray or spatter to create an ombre effect. My thought would be some kind of roller, or maybe a different textured surface wrapped around a roller? Any thoughts? Thanks!

[Lili Lennox]

How about spraying at super low pressure without thinning the paint? HVLPs take various needle sizes that allow for a range of viscosity of products. You may be able to increase your needle size to like a 1.8 or 2mm and then use your paint at full thickness…. then fiddle with the pressure until you can produce the right spatter effect. Might be worth a shot?

[Jillie Eves]

I’ve actually used a HVLP sprayer on low pressure as suggested and it worked really well and no water in the paint.

[abernathysj]

Great ideas! I’ll pass them along. I’m not sure what kind of sprayer she was using in her tests, so hopefully she’s familiar with HVLPs. (I don’t live near this person and don’t know what her experience is with paint tools, so I was hoping to stay low-tech, but maybe she does know HVLPs!)

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