Must be going out time.

I have also been to a couple of other exhibitions lately.
A) I went to the Craft and Quilt Fair last week. It was busy!!
I resisted most stalls but did buy some lovely cottons for machine sewing. Gorgeous colour range.

The quits were amazing, as usual. Some I had seen before, at the AQC but there were new things to see also.

Modern Quilt, Amateur, winner of two ribbons. By Karen McGregor.

This one by Neroli Henderson.

B) I visited a retrospective exhibition of Rosalind Byass' at the Box Hill Town Hall. I had done a design class with Ros, through the Embroiderers Guild, Victoria, a few years ago. It was lovely to see her work. Many of her pieces have won awards at various textile art exhibitions around the state.
It was interesting to be in a class with someone who works so very differently from me. That is one of the benefits of workshops and courses, there are people with varied takes on the same topics and it stretches you greatly.

C) I visited Bundoora Homestead to see the One Step Further exhibition, organised by Quilters Victoria. There was a very interesting floor talk. Some of the quilt were not quilts - that is the idea of One Step Further, I realise. But they were far from being quilt-like. All of the works were wonderful, even the quilty ones!

Unfortunately, I can't remember who did this one!

Elizabeth Dubbeld

Rebecca Wolske

Maybe all these exhibitions are what has inspired me to post again. I hope my enthusiasm remains. I like documenting things here, as I have said before. It really is a good record for me.

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.

Hot Stuff workshop with Neroli Henderson

ATASDA, the Victorian group, had it's first workshop this month.  Neroli Henderson was introducing us to using synthetic fabrics and using heat to distort them
We started of with Tyvek, painting it and then sewing, if we felt like it.  Then we ironed it and it distorted.  As this is a totally new technique for me, I was not sure what would happen and was not able to predict and try to control it.  Neroli told us that it is unpredictable even when you have some experience, so I will have to experiment a bit more to get some idea of what to expect even if I can't absolutely control it.

This is my sample.  As you can see, I did some sewing at one end but I am not sure if there is a difference because of that or not.  I used an iron that had been set quite high and the bottom edge of the image was the first bit.  It distorted quickly.  I then lowered the setting and don't know if that caused the difference or if the sewing did.  I used Lumiere fabric paints which have mica in them, causing some of the darker areas.

We then played with various layers of synthetic fabrics, free motion sewing and a heat gun.  Some ladies tried very intricate images, I just mucked around.
Here are some images of before and after the heat gun.

              

Here's mine.  The shiny bits are Textiva.  

We had a few very strict safety rules: to NEVER point the heat gun at a person; to wear a gas mask (even though we worked outdoors); to use the wooden tool to keep our fingers away from the heat.

I like some of the effects and the unpredictability of the process.  I am currently very interested in layering my work, so it suits that.  But I don't really like the actual feel of the fabric after is has been heat treated, it is usually very hard.  I'll have to think about where I might use it and how much handling it would get.