Quilt Panels

I am working on 25x25cm squares, and adding a wool "quilt" backing. This will stabilise each piece...and I can decide later if they will become a wall hanging, or if each one will be made into a bag. I like the idea of not being locked in, at this stage. For the presentation....I could paint a cork board white, and pin the pieces on.

It would match the white house, and hopefully suggest a design board in a "home studio". I like to create art at home, with basic materials.
 I am really happy with the abstract quality of the ovals, I think they work much better with the fabrics than the "cane slice" shapes.

Tie-dye, muslin, polymer clay

Yes! I think I have got it, at last!  The tie-dyed fabric is bright, colourful, garish....the muslin is dull and a bit boring. The clay pieces disappear on the fabric. But.....what if I cut a window in the muslin, revealing a flash of colour; do some stitching on the fabric to create texture, and use the above as a frame for the polymer clay piece? I think it might work, and I will be using most of my materials, as planned.
I can play on the squiggly lines created by the elastics, in the tie-dye process.
The polymer clay blanks could either be made into brooches ( by adding a pin back), or a pendant (by adding a clay strip, and making a tunnel for a cord, on the back)  That way, I can remove them later if necessary, and also won't be detracting from the pattern, by making button holes.

Embroidery for texture

With all the focus on polymer clay, I have been missing out on textiles. Last night I tried some cross-stitch on a nuno felt piece, and was quite happy with the result.

Though I have been advised to let the clay pieces speak for themselves ("The fabric detracts from them") I still cant help wanting  to make fabric pieces, with  polymer clay embellishments. Maybe these pieces will work better, because they are more abstract or freeform than my other "cane slice" shapes. Maybe I could echo the dot, line and wavy patterns on the fabric?   The tie-dyed fabric is also a bit bright and garish....but maybe I could change the surface with embroidery too, or create texture with pin tucks or ruffles?

Mokume Gane experiment

Last night I found a Julie Picarello tutorial on You tube. I had seen the Mokume Gane technique in books, but hadn't attempted it yet. Julie uses a muted colour palette (adding ecru to her colours, instead of white, which brightens) She layers dark and light layers, rolls them flatter, and stacks them, at least four times. Then the stack is impressed or punched into, with various tools. Slices are cut with a tissue blade and can be used for decoration. She also uses what she calls the "Lazy river technique".....using a strip of aluminium, which she has bent into interesting wavy shapes, to cut outlines. This technique provides a dimensional effect. My experiments didn't end up looking anything like Julie's bold work, but I like the abstract quality of my ovals, and enjoyed trying something new.

Presentation of polymer clay pieces

At my end of term assessment, it was suggested that I could display my more brightly coloured Fimo pieces in a dollshouse. I knew I was keeping that dollshouse for a reason!  I bought it from a recycling depot, and painted it white, for an installation project, for my Cert 4 of visual arts. I will need to install backlighting in it.

Buttons and tie-dyed cotton

I spent a frustrating morning trying to photograph my Fimo buttons, on the dyed cotton.

It is really difficult to get a good close-up photo, in proper focus. The camera seems to want to do it's own thing, and focus on the cloth, instead of the buttons. I wonder what I am doing wrong?      Here are a few photos, anyway.

Colourful kaleidoscope cane

It is difficult to stay away from polymer clay.....I love the colours, and the magic involved in making canes, squishing them together, and then being surprised by the resulting kaleidoscope. There are three ways to arrange the segments - I chose to put the green and white stripes on the outside.

I made buttons with the scrap ends of the cane.

Needle felting

After trying to machine-sew some felt pieces to a background fabric, and being very unsatisfied with the result....I decided to have a go at needle felting. I bought a tool and mat from Lincraft on my way home.
Much better! The tool has needles which punch the felt fibres into the backing, no ugly stitching needed.

Rainbow tie-dye

My tie-dyed fabrics together.....a rainbow of colours, yum!
There is only a bit of red and orange left over from last year, but enough for now.
All I need to do is come up with my bag design, and match up the polymer clay beads and embellishments.

The rainbow cane should look good as a bag button.

Tie-dyeing

Tie-dyeing is so much fun, first folding up all the squares origami-style....boiling the fabric pieces in the dye, and then unfolding all the parcels, to see the patterns.
I fell in love with the kelly green straight away, the light/dark variations were obvious.

The "lilac" dye seemed really dark when I unwrapped the squares, I was worried that all the squares would be solid purple. Fortunately after rinsing, drying and ironing, the fabric revealed it's patterns. The lilac looks more like blue in the photo though, the pink shade isn't showing up.

Synergy Logo

I tried arranging the triangles without a gap. Maybe it's all too complicated?
The image will look good on a large scale, but a small version will look too busy.

Synergy Logo

The logo printed out, and touched up with a black pen. I took a photo - and the flash caused some more pale areas. It should work better as a scan.

The original polymer clay embellishments.....

Logo Attempt

After a couple of hours with Photoshop..... not sure if it really works.  I cleaned up the fuzzy bits, moved the triangles closer, and made the circle smaller. Maybe I just need to join up the edges with a black pen, so it looks more complete?

Synergy Logo

After doodling in class, and also spending focused time - trying to create a logo, I gave up in disgust.

Nothing looked any good. While moving some kaleidoscope cane photos onto my memory stick....I wondered what the images would look like in black and white. One of them might make an organic-style logo?  I quite like this triangular image. A hexagon, with a circle in the missing section?

Making a kaleidoscope cane

This kaleidoscope cane is intended to use up the excess "cat's eye" cane I made earlier.

Squish it all together, stretch and reduce.  Cut into 6 parts.  Then squish them together to form one cane.  Cut slices.  Roll them into the background.  Cut out the desired shape.

Photoshopped screenprint

I decided to see what my screenprint stencil experiment would look like with a photoshop filter.
These two photos have a charcoal filter, then the notepaper filter over that.
They might make nice postcards, with some calligraphy.

More polymer clay

I made lots more polymer clay embellishments this weekend.

Some could be brooches, others, buttons.

Polymer clay houses

Instead of making a house cane, I decided to just make smaller canes, as pictorial elements. This way I can change the background colour of the brooches/pendants/buttons - or add other elements.

I made a second house using two skinner blend backgounds...dark to light green, and white to blue.

Screenprinting

Printing with my new screen. I forgot just how messy the process is!

Well, this is just an experiment, it doesnt matter that the images aren't perfect.

Printing on muslin.....