Buttermilk Painting Project

Main ingredient for this project is BUTTERMILK, yes, buttermilk from the dairy isle in the grocery store. Other things needed include pieces of muslin material , and chalk pastels for coloring. That's it!
Having all materials gathered, pour the buttermilk in a bowl, yes it's cold and smelly, you can even taste it. You may or may not like it but when used in making pancakes and other baking things, it is very good. But for now we are going to scrunch up the piece of muslin cloth and submerge it into the bowl of buttermilk. Swish it around to get it thoroughly wet, take it out of the bowl, squeeze out the excess milk. It should be just not drippy but very gooey wet. Spread the cloth out onto the table and smooth out the wrinkles, make sure there is still a good layer of milk over the surface of the cloth.

Next comes the fun painting part. Use the chalk pastels to draw and color your art into the milk. The chalky pastel should melt when it gets wet and makes a gooey color to play with. Most of the time you will want to not mess with the color you are painting but sometimes it looks good to smooth and blend with your fingers. Remember messy is fun! I find that drawing a border design around the art is a very colorful way to finish the art.

When satisfied with you art, peel the cloth off the table by holding onto the corners and lift. Carefully lay it on a card board or layers of paper and lay it out in sun to dry. Once dry, you can iron out the wrinkles with an iron and a pressing cloth. And in order to seal it, painting or spraying a coat of clear acrylic varnish is recommended.