Monday 22 September 2008

Four days of fun and surface decoration






Last week I spent four days with one of my closest friends just being creative.... bliss. Had a chance to explore "lamination" from the Lesley Morgan, Claire Benn and Jane Dunwold book purchased at the NEC, (pic's 1 and 2). After completing the lamination(transfer) process, which is so easy to follow from the book using matt medium, sheer polyester fabric and a variety of papers I screen printed the tree using a paper stencil and printing inks (pic 1). With the second bit (pic 2) decided to use transfer paints to decorate the surface further and took a print from a piece of anaglypta using the transfer paints then when dry, heat transferred it onto the sheer cloth. Very pleasing results!
Photo number 3 is a printed peice of fine linen using fabric paints with stamps, string, sequin waste and my trusty anaglypta then painted over with procion dyes (salt and soda added). It retained the colour really well so was chuffed.
And finally the last photograph is of the two paper stencils i cut for screenprinting and used during the time to decorate every piece of fabric and paper i could get my hands!
What a great few days am already looking forward to the next time we can manage to sneak off...
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Sunday 7 September 2008

....on a roll now!


UFO's never kick start me into anything but after reading C.June Barnes (book mentioned in previous post) i decided to resurrect this piece which is at least three years old. It was loathed(as a whole) by the time it had put it together, although there were still small areas i liked. OriginallyI had wanted to create spaces behind to "use" as well as those on the front surface so had used dyed silk organza when piecing. Text was printed onto fabric which was then applied behind the sheer spaces as well as appliqued flowers. Although little bits of it were still liked it was too messy with colours that really weren't working. So....... I dyed it.
Do i like it now??? Not sure.
I lost the translucency to some extent as my cotton batting took the dye amazingly well making it very dark. In real life if you take a close look the text is still visible. The poly cotton fabric is, as you can see, very light. Stitching is now very clear as i used a synthetic thread in places and the cotton thread used took the dye differently to the surrounding fabric.
However, now feel i have a "more cohesive" surface to paint, print and work further onto. Watch this space.... may be a long time, ideas would be welcome.........
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...I haven't been completely idle!


Needed to kick start my creativity after what seemed like a long break! I had Number 3 in my Anemone postcard series to produce(better late than never, our monthly timescale seems to be elastic!)
I had discovered this "technique" in Quilting Arts and wanted to try it out. Fabric paint is mixed with the same amount of Gel Medium, coat a rubber stamp with the paint mix, place velvet onto the stamp surface right side down and iron over it with the iron set at a suitable temperature for the fabric, and voila, an embossed print onto the fabric. The velvet i used was silk (blouse i bought but no longer liked) but you can use synthetic velvet as well.
The magazine article suggests using "Polymer Stamps" (think they're the clear ones but not sure) but i didn't have any so just used my rubber ones. Caution, the hot iron can ruin the surface of the rubber so tried to be quick and not use too much pressure.
I used this for my appliqued flower onto some rather beautiful background I'd been sent as treasure(thank you Val). It's her foiled fabric paper and was the perfect colour and texture.
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