Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Hot Stuff Workshop

As I said a few days ago, before I went MIA over the weekend, on Saturday, I went to Neroli Henderson's Hot Stuff Workshop at ATASDA Vic.  It was a great day and we played with lots of bling. Neroli was a great tutor, giving everyone their own creative space, but at the same time explaining things very well.

First we played with tyvek.  we used a wide range of colouring materials to colour it and lots of angelina and other shiny stuff, then shrank it all.
These are my two pieces of tyvek after shrinking.  I used everything in my box, to experiment with how it colours and shrinks: water colour pencils, crayons, oil pastels, shiva sticks, rub ons, but you know what? the best thing to get a lot of colour on was textas!  Also, on looking at other people's work, the lumiere paint worked really well (must get some!).  I think I could get the same effect with texta and a metallic rub on.
After lunch, we got onto making a layered piece with sheers and synthetics which could be burnt with the heat gun.
This was my workspace, a bit of a mess compared to the tidy space opposite me.
Here we all are watching as one of the pieces is transformed with the heat gun.
And another piece.  Every person's work was different and all were interesting to watch as the layers appeared.
Here is the stitching on the back of my piece.
And after we heat gunned it.
I did a little work on it at home, adding a bit of paint.
And this is what it currently looks like.  I felt the leaf with the puff paint - yes, I finally got to use some puff paint - needed some definition.  I also think this piece would do well with a bit of hand embroidery and beading, so you might see it again in a week or two when that is done.

Since I often burn and distress my fabrics, someone asked me why I went to the workshop.  My answer was simply, that you can always learn something new.  And I did learn lots of new things and met lots of new people.
One of the things I have been thinking on since this workshop, is a way I can tweak this technique to use in some of my work.  I have come up with an extension of this that also uses some of my soldered applique method. I am playing with these and will show you soon.

If you don't live and learn, then how do you learn to live?