Experimenting with Shibori Indigo Dyeing.....

5th February 2019

Had a great weekend experimenting and producing some interesting results.......

....baked bean tin bottom clamped on folded fabric...

.....table floor protectors clamped.....

....scrunch and wrap with elastic bands....

.....cord placed in the centre, folded and wrapped then cord is pulled tight....

...fabulous effect....

....folded and clamped with lolly sticks...

....buttons secured with elastic bands.....

....folded and secured with bands....

....this is a bag....

.....all the designs except the last two are on cotton tea towels which I hope to sell, a couple of the designs would make a good wall hanging.

The indigo dye kit was bought from Art Van Go and is very easy to use.

Bowls and Bags

31st January 2019

I cannot believe it is the last day of January!

I have made another papier mache bowl......

.....this is a product I bought on a course last year....

.....the fibrous strands are soaked in water then they can be pulled apart and shaped, enjoyed playing and making these tree shapes.....

....painted my bowl with black acrylic and coated the 'trees' with PVA glue and placed around thee bowl, secured with these fabric sewing clamps until dry...

....love the result!

Do you??

>>>>>>>

Also been using oddments from my stash to put pockets on canvas shoppers....

.....using small pieces of indigo dyed samples, joined with satin stitch and decorated with kanthan....

.....this was a hand dyed sample decorated with free machining...

....rust dyed fabrics woven and hand stitched....

...hope to sell these unique bags!

Lastly this was taken on the station at Turnham Green last night, thought we were in for a snow fall but it didn't happen although extremely cold!

Trying out some new card designs this week so watch this space!

Winter Lights at Canary Wharf

26th January 2019

Last week I visited the Winter Lights free show at Canary Wharf with a small group of people from our 'Out and About' group. We caught the train to Waterloo then Jubilee Tube to Canary Wharf.

On arrival a steward gave us all a map with 21 sites showing the exhibition which was only on for two weeks.

We followed the trail and it was really quite magical, here is a flavour....

Many people were having their photo taken here, especially the children...

....this installation was amazing, the lights kept changing colour...

....these neon benches next to the ice rink also changed colours....

....water fountains in various colours played in time to music, could have sat and watched this for ages but much too cold!!

It was a great evening and am looking forward to my next trip out with the group.

Decorating Papier Mache Bowls...

January 22nd 2019

My creative friend wanted to try 'papier mache' bowls so last Thursday morning, our creative time in my craft room, we played with strips of newspaper and produced a bowl each, I have since finished one more and have another drying out!

I placed sticky tabs on the jar as the bowl kept falling off, this bowl was a charity shop find costing 20p! Strips have been layered and it took a couple of days to dry....

....used PVA to attach cotton string, also silk scrim fabric which I frayed at the top...

...painted white using acrylic paint, pleased I can still see the texture of the fabric.....

....the finished bowl, inside is white and soft brush marks using black acrylic, must admit I rather like this!

>>>>>>>>>>

While my bowls were drying I dyed some white tissue paper, recycled from packaging, with tea....

....and coffee for a darker shade....

...an A4 sheet of Khadi paper with pencil marks for the holes, I actually cut out the holes and 'roughed up' the edges with the scissor blade as it took far too long to burn out with my soldering iron!

Notice the 'mistake' in the bottom left, I wanted a burnt effect so tried a candle, big mistake as the paper caught and burnt out more than I wanted rather than just singeing the edges!!

The tissue was easy to cut with the soldering iron and left a lovely textured edge...

....I covered an A4 piece of mount card and used the coffee dyed paper as a base with torn edges, next came the Khadi paper then the tea stained tissue and finally added the cut out pieces of papers to add more texture.

It is now in my hallway and compliments the white walls and wooden floors.

I have also applied for a craft stall to sell my cards, indigo items and mixed media pictures so fingers crossed I will be successful!