Textile challenge piece

I have been busy lately doing a lot of textile work. Over the next few weeks I have a lot to share.

Today I am sharing my finished wall art for my textile groups 2nd life challenge. We started last year collecting 12 items to be recycled into a piece of art and putting them in a bag. We were also allowed to add one new thing. At our December meeting we put all the bags together and then got to choose one that was not our own to use in our work. We also had a lucky dip to select the theme for our piece. I was lucky and got Music as my theme. It was a very broad theme. 

This was the bag I chose. I thought it looked interesting with the cardboard roll sticking out the top. It was fun going through the bag to see what we had to use. Some bags had very unusual items to use in an art piece. One of the rules of the challenge was that we should use 1 part of each of the 13 items we received in our finished art work.

This was what was in my bag. At first I was perplexed to how I could use this lot in a textile art piece, especially the mint tin which was quite hard to cut up because the metal was so thick. In the end I used tin snips to cut that into rectangles.  

I used all 13 items in my finished art work. Most of them have been altered in some way to make them fit into my theme and colour scheme. Here is what I did:
1. Cardboard roll - I cut it down the middle to flatten it then ran it through an embossing machine. I painted it green. You can see it in a couple of places, one is under the harp.
2. Ribbon - I applied texture paste through a stencil and when dry painted some blue and other pieces gold.
3. Foam crown - I removed the circles and stars then cut the last piece into a rectangle. I used texture paste with a circle stencil on the shapes then gave them a coat of dimensional magic to make them look shiny. The rectangle was run through the embossing machine and painted. It is under the beads at the top,
4. Ring pulls - these were flattened then heat embossed with pinkish embossing powder and threaded onto a ribbon.
5. Popsicle stick - cut into 3 then I used a wood burning tool to write sing on one piece. The other two pieces were given a coat of puff paint then painted. I really love that effect.
6. Black cord - I used my sewing machine to zigzag variegated thread over the black changing it completely. I then cut it into pieces and used it in a few areas.
7. Oval earring - The lower half was used to make the mandolin and to top is used like a button just above the mandolin.
8. Mint tin - I ran the tin pieces through an embossing machine and then painted and distressed the metal. They are the pinky/gold pieces in a few different spots.
9. Pink flower beads - I used alcohol ink to color them brown.
10. Bread tag - I stitched a piece of fabric paper and stuck it to the tag.
11. Clothing tag - I applied copper foil over the tag and used it under some beads at the top of the piece.
12. Christmas paper - I used the paper to make fabric paper which is the background and also some of the smaller backgrounds throughout the piece.
13. Self covered buttons - I hammered them flat and painted them to make them into records.
I also painted all the fabrics I was given and used them as backgrounds. The fake leather piece became my guitar and the sheer fabric became my beads and ribbon.
I added machine stitching and embroidery to tie everything together and make the piece attractive. The whole thing is mounted onto a piece of embossed felt that I had in my stash. It was quite a challenge and I am happy with the way my art finished up. If I didn't tell you would you know it was made mainly from a pile of junk?

A textile experiment...

I wanted to take a small stitching project with me when I was traveling with my hubby so I came up with this small idea that fits in with the circle theme my textile group is doing.

First I did some sun painting with leaves and my Golden brand fluid acrylics. I did a yellow & pink layer first. When that had dried I did another layer with green and let it dry. The Golden paints are so bright that I only used a tiny amount and the fabric remained very soft when dry. I forgot to take a photo of the finished fabric before I cut the circles out but you can still see the results.

 I thought I had explained sun painting before but I can't see it anywhere on this blog so I will do a detailed tutorial in my next post. It is unpredictable but fun.

 After I cut out the shape I wanted I machine stitched it to stiffened felt so it would hang flat against the wall. I then scanned it and printed a copy with my computer. There is a little less detail in my printed image but it will still work as a design tool.

 I took the printed fabric and doodled stitching lines and patterns onto it. I tried to work out thread colors as well so I could use the diagram as a stitching pattern.

 While we were away I stitched the design. I didn't stick exactly to my original doodle but it helped a lot when I was trying to figure out where to stitch. I really enjoyed this freeform style of embroidery and will probably do it again.

This is another one of the circles for the textile group. I saw a tutorial in Quilting Arts Issue 48 (August 2012) by Diane Savona about embedding objects into your quilts that I wanted to try. I started with a stiffened felt layer then placed on top all the objects I wanted to embed. I chose buttons, doilies and scrapbook items like flowers, swirls and letters. Although the scrapbook items are supposed to be acid free I expect they will darken the fabric where it touches them after several years. I then laid a piece of hand dyed linen on top with the grain running diagonally so it will stretch more.

I stitched around each object to secure the top layer and then got out my colored threads to stitch the decorative bits. After I did all the fancy stitching I wanted I used a pink thread to stitch lines across the rest of the background. Lastly I used a fabric crayon in white to go very lightly over some of the raised items so they stand out more. The crayon is barely noticeable but you can see it most on the word. I enjoyed this experiment and will probably do another one with a different theme.

An experimental textile piece

This year my textile group ATASDA has asked us to make circles for the display at the craft fair in August. There are no restrictions and they can be any medium and any colour. I decided I was going to try out some of the techniques I have been reading about in my magazines. 

The first technique is from a textile artist called Margaret M Roberts. She was featured in Quilting Arts magazine Issue 4 (winter 01) and on the cover. Unfortunately there were no instructions, just images of her work and a brief description but I was intrigued so I gave it a go in my own way.

I dyed my own cotton fabrics and some synthetics but I only used the cottons in the end because they were the colors I liked. I frayed some of the fabrics or used the edge that was already frayed. Most of the work is machine stitched with a little hand embroidery.  I did include some of those novelty yarns that are around now. The grass in the foreground is actually a scrap of dyed mohair fabric that was left over from making a teddy. It didn't match as much as I wanted so I painted some acrylic paint over the fur and when dry embroidered the flowers to make it go with the rest of the fabrics. Initially I intended to make the colors darker but somehow I ended up with this bright piece. It should look good on the black display boards at the craft fair.

I want to try another one and make it more Australian in design. That will happen in the next couple of months. Meantime I have several other things on the go that I will share soon.

Experimenting again with fabric paper.

I forgot to share the fabric paper experiments I made when I was testing the technique so here they are...

This first one has the wrapping paper underneath but I turned some of it over to the plain white side to make a checkerboard pattern. I did more machine stitching on this sample. I used a different tissue here and you can see some of it tore when it was wet. If you are going to paint over it later on that probably wouldn't matter, or it could be just the look you are trying to achieve.  Experiment with small samples of what you have before you start a big project.

 In these samples I used different paints on top to see how they would cover the design underneath. The gold is Lumiere paint and the other two samples are Golden artist acrylic. I put them on thinly so there was still some transparency.

This sample is the same paper as above but I used Silks acrylic glaze by Dreaming Color on top. It is more opaque than I thought it would be but is metallic so very shiny. It is an interesting effect. I also tested some Viva Inka-gold paint along one edge. 

So what can you do with all this fabric paper?  I made a grid style collage.

I used the fabric paper as the background and for some of the individual rectangles. I was testing out some ideas for my textile group's current challenge using recycled materials. Can you spot the pull tabs that have been embossed near the bottom left? I also have a bread tag on there, an old ice cream stick and an old bluebird earring that has lost it's mate. I raided my stash for a few extra embellishments and charms. I added beads, sequins, machine and hand stitching.  I like the way it turned out so I am going to do something similar for my challenge piece.

I did it as two journal pages so I can make a fabric art journal because I have run out of wall space to put all my art now. I will be adding pages throughout the year.

Experimenting with Kunin felt

 I am sharing some textile work today. I took part in a challenge for my textile group ATASDA to use Kunin felt in a textile piece. It is an acrylic felt so that means it will burn and distort with heat, unlike wool felt that won't change. I used some felt that had a pattern embossed on it by the manufacturer. I think the altered felt here would look great as a journal cover. Either sew a loose cover or glue it straight onto a hardbound journal/book.

   

 I put it flat on a baking tray that was protected with alfoil and baking paper. I sprinkled on silver embossing powder all over the felt.

 I used a very soft, large, clean paint brush to gently sweep across the felt so the embossing powder would fall into the embossed areas and I could see the blue felt again in the raised areas.  

 I put the tray in the oven at a low temperature (about 150C) and left it for 10 minutes. It was still a little unmelted so I left it a further 5 minutes to melt completely. I took it out of the oven and let it cool before using it in my piece. I was really pleased that my experiment seemed to work and only the embossed areas were silver.  

 In a different experiment I tried to spread paint over the embossed areas with a palette knife but it didn't work too well. I wrapped paper towel around a wooden block and used that to spread the paint around.

 It is a far more patchy look than with the embossing powder which may suit some projects but not the one I had in mind.  

This piece of felt was cut out with a wood burning heat tool.  I used a stencil for the design and enlarged the pattern using my computer. 

 This is the final picture for the challenge. I layered the different felts over a piece of sari cloth. It is very sparkly in real life.