I found a new medium to use, acrylic inks. They do not stiffen the fabric, are water cleanup & can be used on about anything. Although I haven't tried them on silk, that's the next thing to do, they do not bleed unless you use too much water or apply them next to a wet area. I found Liquitex brand at Hobby Lobby. Judy Coates Perez has an article in the current Quilting Arts magazine about it, she uses Daler-Rowney brand. I guess what ever brand you find would work.
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Cathy S/Willowwind

Sounds realy interesting I'd love to see some pictures of your work... :D

Different inks can be used to distress (i,e., age) commercial fabrics, make spray patterns, marble fabrics, create a dyed effect, color in a stamped or printed image, all sorts of things. And if you want it a bit thicker, just add fabric medium. They do need to be heat set between colors to prevent bleeding or blending, and as a last step to make them permanent and washable (the distress inks are not permanent, nor are the metallic or pearlescent inks).

Another trick is to use fabric markers as a resist. Outline a shape or form with the marker and then heat set it. You can then paint inside the marker lines with the ink. Heat set when all done to make the ink permanent and washable. Both Liquitex and Tsukineko inks are highly rated in addition to the Daler-Rowney.

I haven't dared try them on my limited supply of silk yet, so I'm eager to hear how that goes for you!

They too bleed on silk. I guess everything does, its just the nature of the silk fabric, these inks don't leave the silk stiff like you'd think acrylic products would. I'll use a resist of some kind if I do anything out of silk with them.

Cathy S/Willowwind