George Weil sells a range of fabric paints from Jacquard and Deka. These water-based acrylic paints are formulated for use on natural and synthetic fabrics. Most of these craft paints can also be used on paper and card, and some, such as Jacquard Lumiere, are effective on knitwear, leather, wood, and clay. In addition to Deka’s fabric paints, there are Deka Color Cristal and Deka Transparent for glass, ceramics, metal, wood and more.
Silk and fabric paints use pigments that sit on the surface of the fibres, held in place by a binder. The basic paint is made from the same insoluble dye particles as used in artists’ acrylic paints suspended in water but with a higher concentration of fixative. The fixative is set by ironing the back of the fabric for 3-4 minutes using a ‘cotton’ setting.
Fabric Paints for Silk
In addition to the thicker fabric paints, there are iron-fix silk paints which have been formulated to simulate dyes as closely as possible. These fluid paints, which include Deka Silk and Jacquard Dye-na-flow, can be used for silk painting, tie-dyeing, batik and airbrushing. They can also be used to good effect on paper for water colour effects. The paints are designed to soak into the fabric, and the flow can be controlled by using an outliner (or gutta resist), or the fabric can be prepared with a primer to reduce absorbency. They are suitable for use on silk, finely woven cotton fabrics and some synthetics (see our blog post Paint test on polyester fabric).
Thicker Fabric Paints
Deka Permanent, Jacquard Textile, Jacquard Neopaque, and Jacquard Lumiere fabric paints are thicker in their consistency than silk paints. They can be used as they are or diluted by up to 25% with water.
The creamy Deka Permanent paints are best used on white or light-coloured, natural fabrics and are washfast up to 60°C after heat-setting with an iron.
The Jacquard fabric paints are washfast up to 40°C once heat-set with an iron. These versatile paints adhere to both natural and synthetic fabrics, as well as surfaces like leather, wood, canvas, vinyl, and more – perfect for customising t-shirts, jackets, and trainers. When heat setting is not practical, Jacquard Airfix can be combined with these fabric paints to act as a catalyst to fix the colours.
Jacquard Neopaque is highly pigmented and has been formulated specifically for use on black or dark surfaces. Jacquard Lumiere paints provide metallic, dual-tone, and pearlescent colours. The finish is soft and flexible, making Lumiere an excellent choice for use on the stretchy fabric of leotards, costume and sports wear.
Metallic and Pearlescent Pigments
Jacquard Pearl Ex fine powder pigments are available in different particle sizes and add metallic or pearlescent effects to most viscous liquids (i.e., varnish, paints, gum Arabic). Pearl Ex can be combined with fabric paints or Jacquard Colourless Extender to create glistening fabric paints. The smaller particle size can be combined with Selectasine Binders to create inks for screen printing.
Download the Jacquard Paint Road Map which included the Jacquard paints and inks sold by George Weil. The Paint Road Map includes attributes and properties of the paints plus their performance on different substrates.
Fabric Paint Performance Tests
The following samples indicate how some of the paints behave on fabric and paper.
Samples of Fabric Paints on Cotton (from left, below)Â Deka Permanent, Jacquard Lumiere, Jacquard Textile, Jacquard Dye-na-flow and Deka Silk.
The Jacquard Dye-na-flow and Deka Silk paints are more fluid than the other paints, which have a higher content of acrylic. The acrylic binder makes these paints suitable for painting on other surfaces such as wood, knits and clay. It is the acrylic binder which makes all these paints permanent on fabric once it has been heat-set with an iron.
Samples of Jacquard Lumiere (from left, below) on Leather Lokta paper, cotton, Lokta paper and denim
Colours used (from top) are Silver, Bright Gold, Hi-lite Blue & Hi-lite Red. The acrylic binder in the Jacquard Lumiere paint stretches with the fabric. This makes it ideal for dance wear, leotards and knits.
Samples of Jacquard Pearl Ex in Colourless Extender on Leather Lokta paper and denim.
