A little bit rusty

Something I've been playing with over the last few weeks is Langridge  rust and verdigris bases that we have got in our cupboard at the art studio. I wanted to see what sort of finishes I could get on paper and fabric.  I do love the look of rust and the blue patina you get on copper and have rusted fabric before, but I wondered if this might be an easier way to get it.

Above is the rust base applied to - from left, cardstock, fabric fused to cardstock and a piece of plain fabric.  Both bases are very dark, thick pastes which I dabbed on with a brush.

And the same for the verdigris base.  At this stage they look very similar except the verdigris base has a bit of a coppery sheen.

I also had a piece of fabric left over, so I added both to it.

When the paper and fabric had two coats and were dry, I added the patina solution (but I also found, while waiting for the solution to arrive in the mail, that a solution of vinegar and salt also works well).
The patina takes a few hours to develop......

Above are the card samples, which worked really well.  Verdigris on the left and rust on the right.  These samples were just what I was after and I will probably use them in my art journals - or on them, they would make a great cover.

I cut my fabric samples in half and washed one half.  As you can see above the rust base worked well, and washing removed a bit of the black unreacted iron in rust base sample on fused fabric, but left a great rusted fabric.

This is the rust sample on plain fabric (somehow, in transferring my photos to my hard drive, I ended up with a few missing ones), but the washed sample was similar to the fused sample above.

The verdigris samples did not stand up to washing, although I got a great blue effect before washing, the blue all washed out.  I should have known, being a biochemist that copper sulphate is soluble in water!  This is the fused fabric sample.  The plain fabric sample was the same (again, lost photo).

This was the rust and verdigris sample, which looked great, although the blue washed out, again.
The surface of the fabrics is a bit gritty.  This doesn't matter for the paper samples, as they can be sealed with PVA, however I am not sure if I would want to stiffen the fabric that much.

All in all, it was a very interesting experiment and now I am looking for ways to use these samples in my mixed media work.  I think the patinas would look nice layered with embossed metal embellishments and charms.  mmm.... new collage ideas.

On the sewing front, I have just started a workshop at joggles, called Tandletons,  which are little tatted, needlelaced and embroidered buttons.  Here are my first samples from week 1.

I have used milk carton caps as my base for these, which is not the way they are taught in the workshop, but I do love recycling stuff!  Below are some others I have also made, previously on my own.

I have showed these before, but it was easier to just pop them in rather than find the link, lol.  If you remember my red art quilt, which I made for the Tangled Textiles challenge - you will know that I love buttons!

And the return of the digi inspiration!
Have fun creating!

It's a bird, it's a plane...

It's an ATC.
I have has many prople asking me lately what an Artist Trading Card is and was it a new thing, so I thought it would help if I put up a link to the original ATC site in Switzerland, where the idea came from nearly twent years ago.
Now to Today's ATC, as i said.

It's a bird.....

It's a Plane.....

No, it's an ATC!

I do love origami and whenever I see a fold that I think I can alter a bit to make an ATC, I can't help myself, but must play with it untill it is done.

This one is made from cotton fabric with paper fused to the back, so it folds nicely.  If you look carefully in the first photograph you can see I have added so called 'clear' press studs under the folds to make it stay in ATC shape, but be able to be opened.

I found these tiny buttons at the stall at our show and had to have them, and they went well with this fabric, but I thought, or one of my friends thought that the red beads would just set it off, so I added them too.  The edge is blanket stitched in an orange thread.

A whole day in my studio tomorrow, so let's see if I actually get anything done!

Creativity is simply thinking outside the box!  Do it every day.

a meteor and some red stuff

today's atc began it's life as a sun.

... and became a meteor in the process - organza and cellofoil on black cotton, distressed with heat gun. echo quilting.

After my lazt day yesterday, I decided I needed to get some work done - ahh guilt is a great motivator!

I finished another three red button blocks.
For challenge 3 at Tangled textiles, I made a red quilt using buttons in Beryl taylor style you can see it here and here.
I actually designed too many blocks and so am putting together another one

I think I have already shown these two, but a refresher won't hurt.
The top one is on a bronze brocade, then a circle of gold sequin waste, squares of red and cream organza placed at 45 degrees to each other.  The cream organza is frayed.  next, four vintage mother of pearl buttons on the corners of the cream organza, and in the centre a circular metal filigree finding held down by a bead and sequin.
The bottom one is on red satin with two frayed cram/gold satin squares at 45 deg angle with a large pink vintage button and another mother of pearl button topped with a heart shaped brad.  The edge of each square was beaded with red metallic bugle beads.

This one was on gold satin with a bit of texture.  I made a gold lutradur flower for the really vintage button on this one, then made danglies fron bugles,and seed beads, with a red natural seed at the end of each.

This piece of fabric had a great harlequin pattern, which I used to space my buttons.  each yellow/gold diamond had a mother of pearl and a red button stacked and in the centre three red diamonds, I did some feather stitch in gold thread.

Since I missed TAST 2012 last week, this close-up can serve as a sample.

This piece of fabric had a japanese feel to it.  To keep along simple japanese lines, I just added stacked buttons to the three different areas and  put some twining cretan stitch in red and gold along the edges.

Here is a close up of my messy cretan stitch, which is this week's TAST 2012.


The pot of gold is not at the end of the rainbow, it is in the sewing room.

A few updates

OK, so I don't have  much of any one project to show you today.
Instead I have updates on three  projects.
The first update is from yesterday.  The first block of the second red quilt is finished.

Obviously, this is not really finished, but it is as finished as I can go before I have all the blocks finished as the binding and quilting will need to happen when the size is finalised (as I mentioned yesterday).

The second update is from last week.  I started a new landscape which is of some snow gums.  Last week I began to add the sky and this week I have much of the background hills in place.

Both the sky and these hills have been sewn down quickly around the edges and now I am fiddling with leaf shapes, as these and the foreground hills will be next.  It might surprise you, that all of the hills are cut from the same fabric as the top two blue hills.
The lower hills were soaked in a strong tea solution and dried and this gave them a bit of rocky definition.
don't forget, There is a ton of thread painting to go on top, so I am not concerned with how harsh the value changes are at present.

The next update is from Monday's recycled collage.  One of the guesses about what theme I am  using is very close,  but you can still ad more comments to that post until  I draw the winner on Monday (or Sun in US)

Remember all the bits and pieces?

I took the decorating fabric samples, which were strips of textured weaves, about 3 by 6 inches, and cut a square (no rulers involved here) off one end.  Then I frayed all the edges.
I laid out all the 'squares' and put a little bit of the plasterer's mesh in the centre of each.  This mesh, which I found at a friend's  home building site, is for plastering over joins in walls.  It is flexible, like netting and sticky.  I just added it for a bit of texture.

Next, I started playing with my little found bits. 
In the two middle rows above, you can see I have put some of my bits down to create motif ideas.  None of these is set in stone, but I did like these two after playing for a while.
The top arrangement (or second row) has large circles with a small flat washer and a crinkled washer (the technical name of which escapes me right now), in the centre.
The arrangement below is composed of a circle of dyed batting, a funny little metal tube with a grey bit at the end, and a lttle gripper thingy, which could hold a piece of dowel or something circular.
I collect some of these interesting bits from my husband's  workshop debris and from machines that no longer work, like cd drives and computer parts.
Anyway, I still have a bit of doctoring of parts and arranging to do before I start to put this piece together.
I don't think my theme is quite noticeable yet, but remember, keep trying here. lol.  Someone has guessed very close, but the winner of the fat quarters will be a random commenter.  (PS this also applys to comments on the hive)


Remember to play, it's the best route to getting creativity in your day.

Still in the red

Today, I worked on the second  red hanging.  I told you that the mini quilts in this one would be different to those in the first  piece (here), but I chose a pretty simple one to begin showing you.

Here are all my bits and pieces for all the left over mini quilts.

This is the first one I will put together.  There's a lot in this photo to talk about.  First of all, in the bottom left, are the fabrics.  This one as you can see is going to be a long thin mini quilt.  I have a piece of gold satin/chiffon stripe, a piece of red satin and a piece of red felt.  None of the pieces are cut to size.  There is an important reason for this - putting all the mini quilts together into a cohesive whole will require alterations and adjustments to get a nice fit at the end, so edges and bindings are left until the end, when all the pieces are finished.
OK, at the bottom next to the fabrics are three pairs of buttons (actually one is a pair of brads) which will make up the main motifs.
Above all this and on the right of the buttons are lots of other bits and bobs, beads, sequins, threads, etc.

The first thing I do is to glue the foundation (red satin) to the felt underlay.  This is only a temporary hold, as remember, I may have a bit of adjusting to do later.  I also allow a lot of fold over fabric for later - if  I require it.  Binding or turning under is a decision I make much later.

Here is my basic idea for the mini quilt.  I have cut squares (approximately) out of the satin part of the shot chiffon and layered the buttons and brads.  The first button is a very old pink button, which was still on it's card (check back to the first photo).  The second one was a mother of pearl button and the third is a red heart shaped brad, which fits perfectly into the two opposite holes in the buttons.

First I frayed the edges of my pieces of satin and stuck them down in a diagonal orientation.

Next, I sewed the pink button on.

Then mother of pearl.

And then the brads.

I decided to put a border of bugle beads just inside the frayed edge.  I intended to finish this step tonight, however we went visiting!  So this is where I am at.
Sometimes, I find that leaving work for a day or a few days, helps me to decide on further work.  At the moment, I am thinking about some french knots in gold around the motif, but you never know.  When I work on this next time, I may have decided on a completely different thing.

Once upon a time I would have worked into the night, finished this and then blogged well into tomorrow, but one of the things I am learning is that fibre art, and all art, I suppose, does not need to be finished all at once and needs these little naps in order to metamorphose. I think that in my little breaks from a piece, my subconscious does a little bit of shuffling around of ideas and sometimes comes up with an improved version.
Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Let's see what I get up to tomorrow!

Those red buttons and a prize

I was getting some bits together for a recycled mixed media collage...

If we go clockwise from the bottom left, a plastic lid, some stained tea bags, foil lolly wrappers, plasterer's mesh, metal from an aluminium can, some decorating fabric samples, some vinyl scraps, felt and dyrd batting, painted tyvek and two plastic rings.  In the centre are a variety of  'embellishments', such as washers, resistors, metal and plastic tube bits,  old coloured LEDs, a reflector from a bike, a piece of mirror from a cd drive and other little bits and pieces I have collected.

Now if that list seemed like a long one, it is and putting the selection together took me almost all afternoon!  So, obviously, I haven't started on the piece yet.  It will be something for next week. 
While you are waiting  however, I have decided to have a give away.

I already have my piece mapped out and it has a theme, but I will put every comment on this post (only) with a suggestion of what I might be going to do or a theme I might follow into the draw with a number and next Monday I will draw a winner from random.org.

The prize will be six floral fat quarters.

 Red buttons
Now on to the real blog for today, which is showing you my last Tangled Textiles challenge, which happened whilst I was offline last month.
I did something really different this time and because it was a bit mixed media, I'm showing it to you today.

Here is the finished piece.  As you can see it is made up of lots of little mini quilts.  In fact, I assembled so many of these, I have enough to make another one, with different techniques to these, and I will show you these as I do them, rather than after the event, like I am now.
In no particular order, here are the little quilts and what I did with them.
All of the little quilts were backed with felt.

This one had a background fabric of textured brocade in brown and gold.  The background was overlaid with red sinnamay , which is a very stiff netting used in hats, woven from abaca.
I have then beaded randomly with gold seed beads around the two motifs.
The motifs are mad up of a square of red lutradur (or rainbow spun from pellon). Over this I have laid two flowers cut with a soldering iron from gold shot organza and the red lutradur, then I added the gold buttons, which came from a uniform of some sort.  The panel was bound with red satin ribbon and a running stitch in a thick gold thread.

This next one (I have rotated some of the photos so they show better on the blog) has a thick gold brocade as the base.  Over that I have taken a very thin red chiffon and done some large smocking.  On alternate smocking intersections I have sewn on either
stacked buttons, an antique mother of pearl and a pearly red with a large gold seed beed, or
a small gold seed bead and red sequin. 
I have also added groups of three gold bugle beads down the centre triangles.
This panel is not bound, but has a red chain stitch with gold french knots down each side.

This panel was made from a red brocade with a gold woven pattern.  The motifs were layered from a gold lutradur flower, a gold shot organza flower, a transparent red button and a gold heart brad, which was poked down through the hole of the button for a perfect fit!
This one was not bound, but has a fly stitch in red around the edge with gold seed beads.

This panel was my favourite.  It had almost no sewing in it!  The base is a red fabric paper made from foils.  This was attached with large square brads.
Then a square of head distressed red chiffon and a square of gold shot cotton which had been frayed were attached with smaller square brads.
The red flower applique was an iron on one I had had in my sewing box for many years, then I added a gold filligree button I got from my Mother.

This panel had a panel of a japanese patterned red and gold brocade.  The button motifs were stacked from an antique dark red button, an antque mother of pearl button, a red star sequin and a large red seed bead.
Again, this one had a turned edge and was edged with red bugle beads interspersed with cross stitch in a very thick gold thread.

This one had a see through base, so the felt showed through.  The first layer was an angelina fibre film with gold organza and cream velvet pieces in it.  This was overlaid by a piece of red plastic netting from a fruit bag.  The motifs were composed of an antique mother of pearl button, a gold button and a red facetted bead, surrounded by spokes of  red bugle beads and a further circle of cold seed beads.
This panel was bound with a red organza ribbon attached with fly stitch in red thread.

This was my other favourite panel.  It was based on a piece of textured gold brocade bound with gold satin ribbon.  The motifs were made from a flower stencilled with modelling paste, allowed to dry, then painted with gold acrylic.  Each flower centre is a triangular red button topped with a large gold seed bead.  These were sewn on with gold thread in a type of wrap, so the gold thread forms 3d spokes.  It is hard to see in the picture, but is gorgeous in real life if I do say so myself.
I beaded in a diagonal grid with red seed beads in the spaces between the motifs.

This little one is a bit blurry.  The base os a bronze brocade quilted in diagonal running stitch with red thread.  It was bound with red nylon knitting tape, to which I added red seed beads.
The motif is layered from a large red, then gold lutradur flower, then a small red lutradur flower and a very old red button I had as a child.  I added some gold seed beads in the apexes of the petals of the button.

 This very simple panel was formed on a base of a pale gold brocade with red painted fusible ironed on top.  I used another red daisy applique and  a flat gold metal button that had a shank, but was set flat by punching a hole threough the centre of the layers.  This was surronded by a scattering of gold seed beads and two little embroideries, the bound with blanket stitch in red.

This little one was made on a base of shot furnishing fabric in gold and brown.  A piece of shot metallic and red organza was frayed and placed over the top, held down by a row of gold seed beads top and bottom.
The motifs were stacked of a large antique button, not plastic, but probably bakelite, which makes it quite old, a red transparent button and a square bronze pearly button.  Again I attached these using the wrapping technique, which created two wings of spokes in red metallic thread because of the two button holes.

Another small one, had a red satin base with chain stitch top and bottom in a red perle thread.
Over this I put a piece of distressed ciffon in a red and gold textured colour.  The gold lines are metallic perl wire coils which were couched on.  The buttons were simply some gold thimble shapes that I couldn't resist.

Getting near the end now.  This one has red taffeta that I have tacked onto the felt underlay.  There is a glod lutradur square attached with small gold brads, a red lutradur flower and a red felt flower I bought in a packet at a discount store and then a tortoise shell button with a gold filigree centre.

This panel I had a lot of fun putting together.  The base is a bronzy/gold brocade.  Each gold button is set on a tiny label/tag which has been painted red with nail polish (the mixed media artist's best friend).  the buttons are attached with a large red seed bead and the tags each have a bow made from thick gold thread and are sewn down through the hole.
I couched on some red satin cord on a wavy pattern and emphasised it with long red stitches.

 This tiny one was made from an origami hexagon folded from gold lurex.  The hexagon was actually made for a christmas table runner, but I decided to use white instead and this fit in perfectly for this piece.  The centre is a mother of pearl button and a small red button attached with  a large red seed bead.

This final panel, although ver small had a lot of work in it due to the seed bead border.  It is simply a god button with a red centre and red organza flowers on a piece of gold satin.

Wow, it almost took me as long to explain this quilt as it did to make it!
 The whole quilt, with some painted lutradur as the top under the panels, was quilted with running stitch before the panels were added and bound with textured red organza ribbon decorated with red bugle beads and see beads.

Oh, and I forgot.  It was all done by hand.

Anyway, I hope you liked the piece and don't forget to comment about what I might do with my trash.

Spend more time being creative, turn off the computer
(after you've read this of course)