Cecilia Swatton: Faux Washi Tape

Sunday, January 14, 2024

Faux Washi Tape

The ultra-creative mastermind behind the monthly trades at StencilGirl StencilClub is Linda Wyatt, and she came up with a brand-new idea for a recent trade among StencilClub members: Faux Washi Tape.

She gave us the dimensions -- 12" x .5" -- and the monthly color challenge, which was verdigris, a color that I never would have thought of.

I loved the challenge of this trade, first of all, because to achieve the specified color, I discovered a need to mix one of my red acrylic paints with one of my copper metallic paints. My shelves carry a variety of copper metallic acrylic paints as well as every imaginable reddish hue in acrylic paint. Different manufacturers label their colors in individual ways so that acrylic copper by one maker differs from that of another. The same is true for the color red, which has variations nearly endless. I chose a deep red that carried a hint of pink and a copper that was relatively dark.

Second of all, this challenge gave me another opportunity to print wet-strength tissue paper with stencils and masks.

Since wet-strength tissue remains translucent after being applied to a surface with acrylic medium (gel or liquid) or Nori clear paste, an idea was born. I decided to place my faux washi tapes onto Artist-Tac permanent dry adhesive sheets -- my goal being to create something akin to actual washi tape -- so that, once peeled off the white backing paper, each tape would have dry adhesive on its back. It would then be ready to use; no need for any additional adhesive.

(Note: Other brands of double-sided adhesive papers are available at Amazon and other online art venues. It just happens that I use the brand named above. I have yet to try any other brands so as to compare them.)

In my mind's eye, I pictured faux washi tapes that would be translucent in areas where they were not printed with stencils and masks using acrylic paint: with the result that when the finished tapes were applied to any surface, such as the page of an art journal, part of the original surface would remain visible, while part of it would bear a strip of abstract designs. Any stencil- or mask-print would appear as abstract, once it was cut into strips 12" x .5" -- as illustrated below:

Above: Notice the translucency of the faux washi tape once it's glued to the background; parts of it seem nearly invisible while parts of it are printed with what appears to be abstract markings.

When I had printed a slew of wet-strength papers for this project, the results were this--

Some of the individual papers looked like this --

Above: This tissue was printed during an earlier printing session; its colors didn't qualify it for the trade but I wanted to use this paper for cutting into tapes anyway, for my own future use.

Below: A close-up of one section, cut down from its original size, but not yet cut into strips --