Amazing Angelina film

Over the last couple of years I have been going through my stash of things I bought at craft fairs and trying to use a lot of it. I have moved my sewing studio twice so I keep seeing these experimental materials. Late last year I found my pile of Angelina film.

It is a coloured film that is sometimes cut up into shreds and sold as Angelina fibre. I prefer the effects of the film so I decided to experiment with ways to use it.

Angelina when heated will stick to itself. You can heat it with an iron or a heat gun for different effects. I like to set my iron to silk as any hotter makes the film melt too much and go a copper colour all over. If ironing use baking paper or a craft sheet to protect your iron or it will stick. If using a heat gun take it outside or make sure you use a mask to protect your lungs. I usually double it over so it is a little thicker and easier to stitch with a machine. This sample was first heated with a heat gun to make holes then ironed flat.

The heat gun makes the film bubble and shrink as in the sample on the right (single layer). It also concentrates the colour. The sample on the left is the same film but only folded in two and ironed.

You can also layer different colours and iron them together. It will all melt into one large piece of film. On the right you can see the bubbles formed when this sheet is then heated with a heat gun.

The colour of the background you place your altered film on changes the way the metallic colours show up. On dark backgrounds you see more of the coppery colour but on light backgrounds you can see the colour of the film.

 You can also trap the fibres between two sheets of film. Simply lay fibres on one piece of film then cover with another and iron or heat gun it.

 You can also trap other items like confetti sequins and glitter.

Here I have trapped a skeleton leaf between two different colours of film. The pink side was an extra layer of film that I crumpled before I ironed it onto the already trapped leaf. I also turned my iron up a little to melt the pink layer a bit more than usual.

 Another way to apply the film is to crumple it before you join it together. If you crumple it a lot you will get the rough texture you see here.

 It is possible to make impressions in the film using rubber stamps or wooden block stamps. In this sample I mage a multi-coloured sheet of film then inked up a rubber stamp. I placed the stamp ink side up on a hard surface and carefully put the film sheet on top. After I covered it all with baking paper I pressed hard with my iron. The ink makes the design stand out more but you don't always have to use ink.

 Here I have used a borrowed wooden block stamp to make the impression. It wasn't clean so some of the paint came off onto the back of the film. It looks very different on the light and dark backgrounds.

 One of my favourite ways to attach the film to fabric is using fusible web. You can get it with a paper backing (usually called Vliesofix, Bondaweb or Fuse-Under) or without. I prefer the paperless fusible as it is usually cheaper and I never use the paper anyway. Simply layer one piece of fabric, one piece of fusible and one piece of film, cover with baking paper then iron. You will end up with a very smooth metallic fabric.

You can stitch your Angelina to fabric before you alter it if you wish. It changes the way it reacts. When heated it shrinks a bit but if stitched down that doesn't always happen.  This sample was layered then stitched together before I ironed it.

In this sample I laid sari silks on my ironing board then placed a piece of fusible web on top. I covered it with one piece of flat film and one piece of crumpled film. When I ironed it all together it became one piece of fabric. The different colours of silk make the film look multi-coloured.

 Some of my more exciting (to me) experiments came later on. This sample was fused to fabric with the iron and fusible web. I then put it through an embossing machine to get quite a well defined embossed metallic fabric. It was bit shiny so I used watered down brown acrylic paint all over it and let it almost dry before wiping it off. This gave a distressed, less shiny look that I really like.

 This piece of fused film was given a coat of crackle medium. When it dried I painted it with white acrylic and again left it to dry. As a final finish I sprayed it with mica spray because it was too bright. Although hard to see in this photo you can see the shiny background through the cracks.

 On another piece of fused film I used a stencil and texture medium to make a pattern. The middle area has the texture medium applied with a palette knife. I also tried a light coat of gesso on the left side that I drew a design in with the end of my paint brush. When dry it was also given a spray to add more colour. All of these medium stuck to the film without any problems so I think you could use any acrylic mediums you fancy.

 After all of these experiments I had a pile of different pieces of film. I stitched them all onto this background and added a lot of detail with hand and machine stitching. It was very difficult to take a photo where you could see the details so I apologise for the bluriness.

 This photo shows how shiny it is.

Mixed media textile

This month I am teaching a mixed media textile to the textile group I belong to. This is an idea of what we are going to do.

 I started with a large piece of medium weight white cotton fabric. It doesn't have to be cotton, that is just what I had.

 Next I used fabric paints, stamps and stencils to add pattern all over the base fabric. I didn't worry about perfect prints from the stamps. I wanted some of it to be lighter in different areas.

 

 After placing the fabric on plastic sheeting, use watered down acrylic paints to paint all over the fabric. I added a lot of water to the paint.

It will stiffen the fabric as it dries. It also tones down the first layer of pattern. Allow to dry completely.

While the paint is drying I gathered the materials I was going to add to my project. I went through my stash and picked out anything that was in the colour range I wanted to use. It is a good idea to choose something to stand out as the focus of the piece. I used the black flowers for my main focus. You could use a printed fabric that you can cut some images from too. I have sheer fabrics, some printed fabric, rusted fabric, lace, felt, sari fabric, plastic bag, ribbon, used dry tea bags and painted tissue paper (an old dress pattern).  You can also use old doilies, antique fabrics and old linens. This is mixed media so anything goes.

 I used a fabric marking pencil to outline the finished size of my piece so I knew how big an area I had to cover.  I tore everything into smaller pieces and laid them out on my background. I left areas of the background visible. I tried to overlap all the pieces a little.

 I find it helpful to cut a hole in white cardboard the size of the finished piece so I can see my design more clearly. I walk away from the work for a few minutes (coffee break) so when I come back I can see the layout with fresh eyes. When I am happy with the design I use a toothpick to apply a tiny amount of fabric glue to the corners of everything to hold it all in place. You could pin or tack it instead.

Now it is time to stitch the piece together. This can be done by hand or machine or both. I start with machine stitching then add hand work later.  I didn't outline all the objects, nor did I only use straight stitch. Anything goes.

 The finished art piece with a few extra embellishments. I added some beads and metal rings.

I also did a second piece using the exact same materials but doing strips of fabric instead of squares. I also added random short, uneven pieces on top of the joins in places. This breaks up the striped effect a bit. The horizontal stripes are wire that I flattened at the ends.

I also did a third piece using those same materials. I had a long piece of the background material left so I added all the other fabrics to it and glued them down as before. I then turned the piece over and used a rotary cutter to cut it into squares. It is best to do this from the back so you don't choose where to cut and it is truly random.

 I took some time to arrange all the squares into a pattern that was pleasing to my eye. You can see in the finished piece below I still changed things around a bit as I started stitching.

I stitched each square separately. Some are machine stitched and some are hand stitched. I added a lot of beads and some metal pieces. I also used Lumiere paints on three of the squares, just painting right over the top of the fabrics and lace.

I have more ideas for this technique that I will share shortly when I have finished them.

Glue resist on fabric

I have been sorting out my textile magazines and have come across a few different techniques I want to try out. One of the techniques I have seen a few times is a glue resist on fabric so I decided to experiment with it.

Each article I read was a little different but the basic technique is to use washable glue to draw a design on fabric and then add color over it when it is dry. Later on the glue is washed away to reveal the design, looking a lot like batik without using hot wax. In almost all of the articles they mentioned using the blue Elmers washable gel glue. I was unable to get that here (unless I ordered online) so I decided to try a few different glues that were available to me in the local shops.

 Basically I chose any of the washable glues that I could find. The two Elmers products were on clearance so I doubt I will be able to get them again. Some of the bottles had large nozzles that were hard to control so I put those glues into small squeeze bottles that I had. That was the Crayola, the Mont Marte and the J Burrows glues. In fact the J Burrows glue bottle is so hard that I could barely squeeze it at all.

I also decided to experiment with the colors I was going to use to see the different effects I would get. Some instructions said to use paint and others mentioned dyes.

      I used some scraps of synthetic material to do my experiments on but you can use natural fibres too. This first sample was on unwashed fabric.  I wrote the name of the glue so I could find them later on. I also tried to draw small flowers with some of them but the glue spread too much. I painted over the right side of the fabric and used dye on the left.When it was dry I soaked the fabric for about an hour to soften the glue then hand washed it. The paints are very bright on the synthetic, the dye is quite muted.
     The two glues that worked the best were the Elmers white glue and the Kids glue by Portacraft (from a $2 shop). The other glues worked on the painted areas but not very well with the dye because they didn't penetrate the fibres as much. The metallic gold Dala fabric paint didn't really work at all (it is the green looking paint in the middle). It seemed to stick to the glue and not come off. At the very bottom I used a white Uniball Signo pen just to see what would happen. To my surprise it did work a little.

 This is after I threw the fabric in the washing machine to see what would happen. The crayola glue that didn't wash out properly by hand did wash away this time. Some of the white areas have become brighter too. 

This sample was done the same way but it is on washed fabric. I don't think there is much difference to the unwashed fabric. I also used the smaller bottles on this one to see if I had better control of the glues. I was able to take more care to get thinner lines.

After machine washing some of the fabric paint washed away but it is barely noticeable.

     These samples are a different variation of this technique. You place a stencil on the plain fabric first then use a silk screen ( I used a home made screen http://www.quiltingdaily.com/blog/how-to-use-an-embroidery-hoop-to-screen-print) to spread the glue across the fabric. Immediately wash your screen and stencil so they don't get ruined. Then when the glue is dry paint or dye on top and leave to dry before washing out the glue.
       I used the J Burrows glue at the bottom and the Mont Marte glue gel (cheap store) at the top. Again I dyed the left side and painted the right. The left fabric is unwashed and the right washed.  I did heat set these fabrics in the microwave by placing in a microwavable bag and zapping for about 30 secs. The dye is a bit darker than the previous samples. I pressed too hard when screen printing the glue so the pattern is a bit blurred but the basic idea works. With a bit more practice I should get a clear image. The glue doesn't resist as well with this technique so the white is not as bright. 

After machine washing the fabric is as soft as it was originally, even the painted side. I think this would be a great way to make some pretty fabric of your own to use in your textile projects. You could probably do more stencils and colors on top of these for a multi-layered look. The possibilities are endless.

Colour me positive week 2

I have fallen behind with my colour me positive challenge already. I think I have been distracted by textile experiments and am unsure whether I will continue or not. In the meantime here is a step by step of my week 2 page.

The quote for this one was "She took the leap and built her wings on the way down"

I decided to sketch a leaping person. It took a while to get it to look right but finally I was happy with the sketch. I used a journal page that was already painted pink with watercolor. 

I used some stencils and acrylic paint to add patterns to the page. I sprayed on some dye ink while the page was still wet to make the paint bleed a bit. 

I wanted to make it a bit more orange so I added a few more stencils and paint.

I couldn't stop myself from having fun and added even more paint because I thought the red stood out too much. I was not unhappy with the finished look but I could have stopped after the first step. 

Next I painted the hessian (or burlap in some countries) white and stamped that onto the page for a different texture. I liked it and added a bit more here and there. I also did the same stamping with green paint and bubblewrap.

 I painted on the leaping figure and used a white pen to add some lines. I added some white dots with a flick of the paint brush. I wrote the quote with a pitt pen and thought that the page was finished.

A couple of days later I decided I wanted to add a little pattern to the green paint of the silhouette so used a stencil and some copper paint to go over the girls dress. Now it is definitely finished.

Art journal pages for DLP

 My intention to blog weekly went a little astray last week. Our main computer died suddenly even though it is a SSD drive that is supposed to be extremely reliable. The computer guy who built it said it was the first time he had seen a broken one in 20 years of working. We were just unlucky I guess. Fortunately I have the backup set up to run weekly so we only lost a few documents and none of our photos. It did take a long time to download all our programs again and set them up the way I like. If you haven't done a back up recently I urge you to do one soon.

 Now that I am back I will share some more journal pages. These are more of the Documented Life Project pages.

The challenge for this page was silhouettes and the prompt was "no shadow without the light". I used a credit card to scrape paint across the page for the background then used a stencil to do the flowers silhouette. I used a marker to fill in the lines of the stencil so it was a solid shape.

The art challenge here was to use deli paper. It is a very thin tissue paper with a waxy feel on one side. The waxy side is actually a thin coat of plastic. You can paint on either side but sometimes the paint comes off the waxy side. I used some monoprints I had done previously and just added the quote. It was a very quick page.

The challenge for this one was to use vellum and the prompt was "Sheer genius". I drew the big butterfly on vellum with a permanent marker then all the little ones too. I colored it in on the back using water-based markers so the colors are a little muted. I stitched the vellum butterfly onto white paper, I cut it out and glued it to the page. The page looked a little bare so I added the border as  finishing touch.

Sometimes I surprise myself with the ideas that pop into my head when I find a quote like this one. I would never have dreamed I could do this sort of page a few years ago.

I will probably share a some of the textiles I have been playing with next week so I hope to connect with you then. 

Index Cards galore.

I have been a little slack updating my blog lately. I think I am trying to do too much and it is making me freeze and not do anything. I take on lots of new projects and then get lost not knowing what I should do. I am deciding what is important to me and letting other things go but it is hard for me because once I start a project or challenge I like to finish.

week 9

  I did the Index Card a day challenge again this year. It will probably be the last year for me. Why? I just didn't find it interesting this year and so it will be one of the challenges I will stop doing.  Well...maybe stop doing because I may change my mind next June, lol. I would normally follow peoples links to their pages from the facebook group but as links were banned this year I couldn't connect with other artists like I did previously. It took a lot of the inspiration and discovery away for me and made it seem less fun because I didn't feel the need to check the facebook group as often.

week 1 periodic table

 I did enjoy making my cards and have prepped a few extras so that when the mood takes me I have a quick little card to do to get me in the mood for larger art pieces. I was going to do my own thing this year but when the first week of prompts were listed I was inspired to give them a go. As the challenge went on the prompts did not always appeal so I did my own art then. 

I have only shown a few of the cards here. I have loaded all 61 cards onto my flickr page so if you want to see the other cards they can be found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/artygirl/

 Week 1 was drawing and this is a plan of our garden.

Week 2 was paint and all the prompts were colors so I did abstract doodles most of the week.

Week 3 was collage. This was route 66 in my town. 

 Week 4 was patterns. This prompt was exotic.

Another week 4 prompt - dramatic

 

Week 5 was mark making using stamps, tape and stickers. I didn't follow prompts this week. I used washi tape on all the backgrounds and stamped on them. I then colored and added details with acrylic paint markers. These cards were a lot of fun and something I will do again. 

Week 6 was to use a different color each day. I did a collage of similar colored pictures each day and doodled to fill in blank spots on each card. I really enjoyed this technique as well and got to use some of those random images I have been saving. 

 Week 7 was typography. I did follow the prompts again this week.

Week 8 - maps. I followed prompts this week so I could use the maps in various ways. 

 The last week was meant to be sketching but I found these picture cards in my stash and wanted to use them so I doodled backgrounds to match the photo colours. 

I enjoyed my time making cards this year but the fun of the facebook group seemed to be different this year...maybe because it has become so large. Or more likely because I didn't have time to keep up with the posts this year. I am thankful that Tammie hosts the challenge each year but it may be time for me to do something different next year.