Rainbow Dyes

I used up some spare procion dyes on these cotton and silk fabrics. The fabrics were soaked in soda ash solution for a while and were still damp when the dye was applied so it would spread and merge into different colours. I scrunched the fabric in a shallow tray and poured various colours onto different parts and left them to bleed into each other.

Dye Mixing

This weekend was fabric dying with procion dyes at the Embroiderers' Guild. We had only 4 dye colours, magenta, turquoise, yellow and black but we experimented and mixed to get all these different colours. I used a range of fabrics including cotton, silk, cheesecloth, silk fibres and cotton threads.

I have a few more fabrics soaking in the leftovers. Come back soon to see how those come out.

Collage Crazies

This week I have been having fun with collage and paint pens. Most of the collage pieces came from magazines except the girl in the page above which I drew myself. 

Valentine's Folded Book

Today I attended a workshop at my local library to make this heart shaped folded book for Valentine's Day. It's actually much easier to make than it looks.

Here's a tutorial I found on You-Tube that explains the technique we used.

Silk Paper

This week at the 84 Group we were learning how to make silk paper. The process produces more of a fabric than a paper; it's quite strong and can easily be sewn through. The basic process is to layer up silk fibres with diluted textile medium to act as a glue. Here are some pieces I made, I'll sew into them next.

More Melted Circles Part 2

I've been continuing to work on my melted circles piece in between downpours of rain. First the loose circles were attached to the remaining piece with free machine embroidery. I worked on water soluble stabiliser with a variegated rayon thread.

I reattached several other circles in a layer above by melting them on with a tap of the soldering iron.

Next I'll add some relief with another layer of circles and free machine embroidery. Come back soon to see how that goes.

More Melted Circles - Part 1

I've been working on this large melted piece in felt and organza. I used geometrically patterned and spotty organza fabric on top of black felt. First I layered them and then fused them together with the soldering iron and ruler.

Next I added a variety of patterns with the soldering iron. In places I melted right through so the piece has holes in it.

I then removed some of the layers with tweezers to show the darker layer underneath.

I then distressed the fabric further with the heat gun.

I cut out lots of different sized circles with the soldering iron and backed them with orange organza. For this piece I'm interested in using both the circles and the remaining piece they were cut from.

Next I'm going to free machine some of the circles back into the holes and then layer more circles on top. Pop back soon to see the next stage.

Bubbles Goes 3D

My bubbles creation from my previous post has now gone three dimensional. I rolled up rectangles of felt and secured the ends with a tap of the soldering iron. These were then fused between the layers of "bubbles" with the soldering iron again. There is no stitching actually holding the piece together. The stitching is only in the decorative embroidery sections.