Sunday, October 16, 2011

Semi-successful day

Well, if I am a half-glass full person, I could say I had a semi- successful day.  Not sure if I feel that positive.
It started with me deciding to play with some tyvek that I had, so I tried to remember what we did at the workshop with Neroli Henderson a few weeks ago.  I am glad that I haven't left it too long, as I often do.  I could actually remember most of what she told us.  And I cheated a little and looked it up in Hot Textiles by Kim Thittichai.
I painted the tyvek on both sides with Lumiere paint.  Then I ironed them all to see what would happen.
One piece had some small slits.



Another had some Angelina Fibre. 
The Angelina Fibre stopped a lot of the distortion (as the book had said it would).

One was was only painted.
One was sewn by machine before heating.
After that, I decided that I would like to continue playing with some of the Hot Stuff ideas.  The next thing I tried was to paint bonding web with silk painting dye.  I have had this dye for YEARS and am not game to try it for actual dyeing.  The book said I could use water soluble inks or dyes, so I decided to give these old dyes a go.
I had an old roll of Vleisofix that had started coming off the backing paper.  I thought that I could use this and it wouldn't be too much of a waste if it didn't work.  Old dye, old bonding web.

I painted several pieces and allowed them to dry.  The book said it would take ages, so I took the dog for her daily walk.  I took some more pictures of bark - I may have the world's best collection of bark pictures.  Perhaps I will post some of them later.



When I got home I was all excited about trying this technique.  I have some small pieces of kunin felt and the web just had to be ironed on and then I could use the heat gun to distress it all.  I carefully laid the sandwich paper over it all and ironed away.
The paper was firmly stuck to the felt!!  Obviously, we use the paper as a last protection, not the first.  I might have to invest in some teflon sheeting to do this.  I soaked the felt in water and managed to scrape off the paper.  The dye works.  The felt is now multicoloured.
I will have to try this another time.
Then I will have to decide what I am going to use these new techniques for, how I will use the new fabrics that I make. If I make any that I like.

2 comments:

Michelle said...

Oh wow, that first picture is my favourite - they look like stones on a river bed! So beautiful :)

Mary said...

Thanks Michelle, it reminds me of rocks in a cliff near my place. Definitely stones of some sort. Now all I have to do is decide how to use it.