A quick collage

I have been working on getting my collages on video.
This week, I put together a very quick one, called Magenta leaves.

I still have a little hand work to go, but the main part is done.

The fabric I used at the top and bottom is from the monoprints I did the other day.  I layered it with some magenta cotton with frayed edges, some skeleton leaves and some black tulle, then some messy gold free motion embroidery.

And here is the video;

Hope you enjoy it!

Is foam fabric?!!

On the weekend I did some embossing on foam.  I knew that you could heat foam up and then impress something for a stamp, but I hadn't thought of using that texture in a mixed media piece, until I happened to read it in several places.  I also knew that certain foams could be used as padding in embroideries and I thought, what if?
I had lots of foam scraps I got from a recycling depot and hadn't worked out what to do whith them other than make stamps, but for this experiment, I actually used stamps to make textures.

 Stamps like this with solid backs worked best.

Unmounted stamps and flexible texture plates like these did not work well unless I put a piece of plexiglass over them to even the pressure when I was pressing the texture in.
I forgot to take pictures of the process, but basically, I ironed the foam very briefly between baking paper sheets.  When you peel the paper off after ironing, the foam tended to roll up, but I quickly flattened it out with the stamp and pressed HARD.

Here are a selection of the foams I impressed.

And a close up of the texture.

After I had made quite a few of these with lots of different textures and impressions, I had a bit of fun with some paint.

These two were painted with bronze acrylic.  You can see the one on the left did not impress well in certain areas.  If this happens, you can reheat the foam and try again, but only once or twice.

These two were done using texture plates and a piece of plexiglass.  In the one on the left, I painted with gold paint.  If I did it again, I would use a colour that had more contrast with the white.  Theone on the right was rubbed with oil pastel.  I think oilsticks or a softer pastel would have worked better, however, the effect is quite dramatc.

The two blue pieces were done with diluted acrylic in a spray bottle and the more fluid paint pooled in the crevices, creatng great contrast.  The white sample was rubbed with a distess ink pad, but the colour was not very deep.  Worth a bit more work.

These two were painted with straight acrylic, the left, gold piece was impressed with a doily hardened with white glue and attached to wood as a stamp, which I love using.  The right piece used an unmounted rubber text stamp and plexiglass.
Because the foam was so thin (less than 1/4 in or 2-3mm), I wanted to sew on it.  It sewed extremely well.

The background for this journal quilt was made from scraps left over from a textile collage, which you will be able to see in a week or two as a video.  The strips are simply laid down, not glued pr pieced.  The landscape is a piece of foam impressed with a landscape stamp.  I painted the landscape in appropriate colours, then painted over with iridescent medium (a medium with mica in it).  I stitched it down free motion using a gold thread in all the stamp grooves and around the edge.  I did some scribbly circles around the landscape as a frame and stitched the background with vertical lines.
I made another one or two journal quilts, but put then in my sewing box for me to add some embellishment to - so no pictures :-(

Have fun creating!

Once you start, you can't stop

Today I went a little overboard with monoprinting on fabric.  It took me over an hour to upload all the photos, so this might be a little longer than usual.

I started with a transparency, which, being transparent is a little hard to see above.

A pile of muslin pieces, roughly cut to size, Some hand wipes that didn't have much colour already and Some scraps of batting.  I also used a few scraps of chiffon.

A few tools and aids, many of which I didn't use,  but I'm showing you for posterity, lol.  Brayers, scrapers, brushes, a credit card, lots of pieces of foam and caps for printing, bubble wrap and string and sequin waste, and just a few stencils and masks.

Most importantly, paint and a water spray bottle (both upside down, but you get the idea).  I was using fabric paints today, but as you will see later, a bit of acrylic comes in handy.

This is the brayer I use for spreading the paint.  A half size paint roller, which I slide a toilet roll over.  The toilet rolls become quite lovely, and I use them too, but more on that another day.

My first plate was a bit thick, but I got two prints for the price of one.

Steps 1 to four - First I sprayed my fabric briefly, then laid the monoprint on top (I find this way is easier than laying the flimsy fabric on top of the print).  I brayered with a clean brayer over the plate, then peeled the plate away.  Voila'

The one at the top is the first one, and the bottom is the ghost print.  They both had gorgeous wavy texture, though.

 Next I thought I'd try a layered print.  I started with the same blue background, then used a bottle top to print circles in magenta.  Next I used a little piece of textured rubber to stamp in yellow.

 The final print is on the left above.  I sprayed a little too much water on the fabric, and it bled a bit, but still made a nice print.  On the right, I printed the ghost print into one of my journals.

Next I tried a stencil print.  Row 1 my stencil and some diluted acrylic paint sprays, Row2.  Sprayed over the stencil then removed it.  Row 3 brayered the plate down onto the fabric and peeled the plate off.

And the final print (above).

 Above I mixed a few colours and printed on fabric (above), then tried a piece of batting (below).

The one on the above left is the one from this print, with a few other pieces of batting.  I am looking forward to stitching into these.

 For this print above, I sprayed acrylic on, then textured it with a corrugated foam brush, then laid on some bubble wrap rollered with white paint.  I did a few of these (Picture 4).

Here I used the textured roller again, then added some white with a silicone basting brush, then dragged a grouting tool over.  I printed on chiffon for this one.

I really loved this print on the chiffon.  I also wiped up some mess with a piece and it looked great, too.

 I got a ghost print on some cotton, too.

 The one above was my favourite technique. 1.  put some paint on. 2. Lay another transparency on top and rub to spread the paint.  3.  Peel off and get a beautiful texture on two plates (click to enlarge).  4.  the two prints from the mirror image plates.  The one on the left is without dampening the fabric.  The one on the right was with fabric sprayed with water.  They were both beautiful.

At this stage I got into the flow and forgot to take photos

This was a ghost print from one of the other prints I did.

On this print, I drew into the plate before printing.

At one stage while I was printing, hubby came in with the mail, which was my product of the month from the thread studio. This month was lutradur (Thanks Dale), so I took a few pieces and printed them.  The one on the right was just some paint on the plate, but the ones on the left were printed from a cedar canyon ginko texture plate (Not quite monoprinting, but you will see why in a minute)  These samples were transparent and yummy and I can't wait to get working on them.

Thse were my other (lol) favourites.  I pressed the above mentioned texture plate into the paint before printing. Below them are two close ups.  The texture plates still had paint on, so that is why I got the lutradur prints.

This one used a stencil of lace I cut with my silhouette.

This one used the corrugated foam roller again.

The one on the left used a piece of foam to overprint the green before printing.  The one on the right was just some paint and some drops of gold, but the transparency I used actually had an image on it and it transferred too!

And of course I ended up with some very colourful wipes!

And that was as far as I got, it was tea time when I finished and so I haven't had time to put together a journal quilt for this experiment.  It will have to wait for next time.


Until then, happy creating!