I have decided Tuesday is Textile Tuesday! On Tuesdays, I will blog about creating new textiles and surfaces for stitch.
Today we are looking at Fibre Film, which is a technique inspired by
Cathy Franks and
Bonnie Mc Caffery, but it was also memtioned briefly in
Hot Textiles by
Kim Thittichai.
This is what we are going to make today
The one on the left is a film on fusible webbing, on the right is on fusible interfacing. The fusible interfacing works just as well but the background colours are limited (unless you paint or dye the interfacing first) and the finished product can't be manipulated into shapes and textures as easily. The webbing film can be ironed on to any fabric or surface as a background and can be easily tucked and folded to create texture, but BEWARE it is very fragile.
Fibre Film
You will need:
- Parchment paper folded in half with fusible film on one half
- A stash of fibre scraps (this is a 2L maxwell and williams vase I was given. DH never brings me flowers so I might as well get some eye candy out of it this way)
- A lint roller
- An iron or press
- A Silicone mat or extra parchment paper
How to make your film
Place your folded parchment and webbing on top of the silicone sheet on your ironing surface (my finger is touching the web)
Grab a wad of fibre from your stash. You can be picky about colours or not. Here are two balls, one mostly green and a mixed one with a lot of gold.
Roll the wad into a ball between your fingers
Cut small tufts of fibre off onto the webbing
Spread out any thick areas with your fingers Too much thread in any area, will not stick!
You are done whn you think you are done
Close the top layer of parchment down
Iron - it may help your iron if you add another piece of parchment, especially if your original rectangle is not square.
Allow the parchment sand wich to cool completely and then peel the top layer back
When the webbing has set, carefully peel off the film, taking care with the edges. You may find it is easier to wait a day or so - if you can
and you have a beautiful piece of film.
Take care not to fold the film side on to itself as it may stick together and not come apart! It is best to store the film in it's little booklet of parchment until you need it.
What to use it for
Basically anything. This film, bonded to another surface, could be entrapped in the same way as in the zippered journal cover. It could be used for texture in landscapes, as grass, leaves, rock, water, you are only limited by your imagination. Because it is fusible webbing you could paint it before fusing the fibres (I will cover painting fusible in a later blog). You could do any number of heat treatments (ditto). The bottom line is it is a quick, easy and cheap way to add texture to fibre art.
Below is a quick 5 minute card I made using some shot organza, and a piece of fibre film on cardstock. Now all it needs is some embellishment relevant to the person it is for and it will be a beautiful card!
Tomorrow, I will blog about some WIPs and until then, happy Fibrecating!
