Lutradur book

I made a little book out of Lutradur, gesso, woven brass 'fabric', and beads.

I used 2 pieces of Lutradur about 6 inches by 4 for the cover. I coloured them with fluid acrylic paints. Once dry, I used foam stamps and gesso to add images. If you look carefully, you can see gold shiny areas, I gently stroked on some treasure gold for texture and to break up the larger areas of colour a little.

I cut strips of woven brass 'fabric', punched small holes in them, and sewed them onto the front cover with french knots. I decided that I didn't want a closure to spoil the front cover so added a button to the back cover, and made a beaded loop to close over the button.  I also added beads to the pamphlet binding.

The inside of the book is also made of Lutradur, coloured and decorated in the same way but using slightly brighter colours.  I folded it to a pattern, the pockets are just the right size to tuck ATCs  into.

Shrink plastic necklace

Shrink plastic. Amazing stuff. 

I decided to make a shrink plastic charm necklace, using clear and translucent shrink plastic. 

I drew a heart template shape, then laid it onto the shrink plastic and drew around it to create the hearts.  I punched holes in all the hearts, ready for the jump rings.

I coloured the clear hearts with Stazon ink, and heated them. While they were still hot, I stamped into them using a 'crackle' stamp inked up with gold Brilliance ink.

I coloured the backs of the translucent hearts with Stazon, then stamped the fronts with a selection of  finely patterned stamps. After heating, I stamped the backs with the gold Brilliance ink and the crackle stamp

I used jump rings to attach all the hearts to the chain, 

and added some beads and a little metal heart to finish it off.

The colour in the image above is close to true, but the detail shows better in the image below.

I hope my swap partner likes it!

Heart felt

Shh, don't want to frighten her off by saying it too loudly, but I think my mojo has returned from her holidays...

Here is a wall hanging, made for a swap on the theme of 'heart-felt' - it had to include a heart made from felt. This is all needlefelted, some by hand, most by embellisher machine, with a little hand beading to finish it off.

Firstly, I embellished two layers of organza together, all over but just enough to hold them together.  One layer was a light shimmery blue, the other was a bluey green shot with a yellowy greeny gold.

I'm not sure you can see the difference in colour, but this picture has the blue side uppermost:

 This picture has the bluey green side uppermost. I like this side better, so this is the top.

I used two colours of merino wool rovings, this colour matches the background colour. I spread it out on my base, and embellished it in.

The colour of the other roving is a much brighter turquoisey blue. I am blending more of the blue into the green with each layer.

Added some more blended rovings.

I decided I had enough general texture, and needed something to take my eye around the piece.  I twisted some of the blue rovings together and embellished them onto the piece in a curvy line.

I added some silk tops to bring in some more colour and a shiny texture.  These are hand dyed by Oliver Twists. I love their stuff. It's probably a good thing they don't have a website, because I *only* spend about £50 a year on their goodies at shows.  If they had a website, I'm sure it would run into hundreds....

You might have noticed that the theme of this piece is 'heartfelt' and there's no heart?  I have not yet mastered the embellishing machine to a high enough level to create shapes, so I got the hand needle felting equipment out. I laid a thin layer of red rovings vertically, another horizontally, and the top layer was vertical again. I put a heart shaped cutter on top, and needled the layers together. It's quite therapeutic, you can relieve tension by imagining you're stabbing voodoo dolls while you're being creative!

I wasn't intending to finish the heart by hand, just to needle it enough so that I could lift it off the brush in one piece. I used a dull red, a brighter red, and then added some more silk rovings down the centre  for a bit of shine and a different texture.

Next, I embellished it onto the background, layering some gold 'angelina' I bought about 10 years ago, when I didn't realise you could buy angelina that didn't fuse together. I knew it would come in handy one day! It just adds  little subtle glitz.

 Just a bit more glitz needed, so I put the piece in an embroidery frame and beaded around the heart, and also onto the curvy line. 

All it needed to finish was to be mounted on gold mirror card, with a mountboard backing for stability. I added a little fine brass wire hanging loop, and put it into the jiffy bag to mail before I could change my mind and keep it....

Hope my partner likes it.

ATCs

I belong to a small international ATC swapping group.  

Each player takes it in turn to be hostess, and to set the theme for that month.  Some of the themes are challenging, and it's always interesting to see how everybody interprets the theme.

These are a few of the ATCs I've made for that group this year.

The first ATC is a textile ATC, made by sewing all sorts of snippets of fabric and fibre to a pelmet vilene base, zigzagging around the edge, and hand embroidering and beading.

The ATC below was my first attempt at the theme of 'A Clear Layer'. I created a fleur-de-lys stamp by drawing on fun foam, and stamped it with a kaleidoscope inkpad. I had masked the fleur-de-lys itself, and then I sponged that shape in purple. I stamped over the fleur-de-lys with a texture stamp and gold ink.  So far so good, and lots of subtle texture and colour, all pastel and way out of my normal colour palette.

I decided the clear layer should be clear sticky backed plastic.  I snipped some angelina fibres, and scattered them over the ATC before sticking down the plastic.  And then I realised the plastic stopped all the subtle texturing I'd done being visible. Harumph. It just looked really ordinary.

I decided to try and improve things. I drew round the fleur-de-lys shape with a bronze Viva perle pen, and used a white one for the rest of the design.  

I left it a few hours.  

I drew dots around the edge.  

I left it a few hours.  

I drew dots in the middle. 

It was better, but I still wasn't happy.  I ditched it.

Clear layer 2nd attempt.  I took some cardstock, and made a background by smearing some Distress ink onto a craft sheet, spritzing with water, and 'smooching' the card through the ink.  This makes a lovely unpredictable background which is very useful for ATCs. Once I had my background, I created a digital collage in Photoshop, in similar colours to my background. I had some clear digital letters (Tangie Designs)so added the word at the bottom. Once printed onto my background, I stamped the flower, and smeared a trace of Stickles around. I then printed the text and butterfly design (Tangie Designs) onto inkjet acetate, and added it to the ATC using brads. I am much happier with this.

Zettiology ATC.  I'm not a huge fan of zetti, although I see things which other people have done and which I quite like. I did once take part in a huge journal pages swap, which was kind of zetti and which I enjoyed, but mostly it doesn't come naturally to me.

I was very fortunate, because my friend Chrissy took the time and trouble to send me a birthday card, and the card she sent was a zetti design.  I liked her design, so created a small adapted version in this ATC. The black background has been embossed in an embossing folder, and the 'body parts' are all shrink plastic.  The rest of the design elements are hand drawn with a white pen.

Beaded brooch

I have a very classy and elegant friend whose wardrobe only contains clothes in black and white.

Very clever idea, which simplifies her life, because everything in her wardrobe goes with everything else, she never even needs to think about that, she can just pick anything out and it goes together...

I decided to make my friend a Christmas gift as she has been very kind to me this year, and I wanted it to be something she'd find useful - she's not a crafter and I'm always hesitant about making things for non-crafters as I'm not sure what they will appreciate!

I finally decided to follow a pattern I'd found for a beaded flower brooch. I had no idea quite how long it was going to take me to make ( 3 evenings!!!!) and instead of going for a carefully chosen mixture of beads of one colour but different textures as the pattern specified, I thought I'd try black and white so it would go with my friend's clothes.

I often dislike projects when I've finished them, especially if they've taken some time to make. That's usually when I know they are finished! Mostly, when I look again a few days later, i like them again. This time I'm really not so sure....

Maybe it's because I'm not a black and white kind of person. Maybe because there are starker contrasts than I usually include in my pieces. Maybe it will grow on me. Maybe.

Hope my friend is happier with it than I am - but I gave it on the understanding that if she didn't like it, she isn't obliged to wear it from politeness, but can donate to the charity shop!

Altered Element surface design pack - more twisting Tyvek

I thought I'd try another way of working with Tyvek, so I gave one side of this piece a thin layer of watered down fluid acrylics in Nickel Azo Gold, and Jenkins Green.


Once the paint was dry, I cut the piece in half, and turned one piece over so that the painted side faced down. I covered the Tyvek with silicone baking paper, and used my iron to distort it. This is a process where you don't have much control, Kim Thittachai says the secret is to 'kiss and caress' the paper with the iron (definitely don't apply any weight or pressure, the iron should hardly touch the paper). The tyvek always distorts so that the 'creases' are nearest the iron, and the rounded 'valleys' are furthest away.

If you click on the picture below to enlarge it, you can see that the piece on the left is the side where the unpainted side was nearest the heat of the iron, and the rounded areas are more prominent, whereas the piece on the right had the painted side nearest the heat and the creases are more prominent.


My tyvek now had interesting texture and shape, but I wasn't sure what to do next. So, I cut one piece up, using the lines which had formed when the Tyvek was distorting. That gave me some interesting shapes. And then I had a moment of madness and decided to attempt an abstract embroidery piece!


I used my embellishing machine to create a piece of wool and silk felted fabric to use as a background. I then laid one of the Tyvek pieces on top, and used some hand painted silky thread to attach the Tyvek using some irregular cross stitches. The Tyvek was surprisingly easy to stitch through.

I finished the piece by adding some french knots to the background, and some beads tothe Tyvek, to give the piece more texture. You can see some of the detail in the pictures below.


I think I'll use this as a book cover.

Fusing Fabric

I have been fascinated by the concept of fusing fabrics and cutting them with a soldering iron. I bought Margaret Beal's 'Fusing Fabric' book a couple of years ago, and had a little play using a Walnut Hollow hot tool but it was so hot I had no control over where and how fast the organza I was trying to fuse went up in smoke!

I visited Margaret's stand at the NEC in March, and bought her own brand of soldering iron, which has a much longer and finer tip than the hot tool I'd been trying.

So, I took the plunge and had a little play. I laid some acrylic felt on a ceramic tile, laid 3 layers of organza (or two of organza and one of net) on top, then used a metal flower shape to 'cut' around with the soldering tool. It worked beautifully, but I need more practice to work with the layered fabrics to fuse them together without cutting right through!

I sewed my fused flowers onto a bookmark made from pelmet vilene and gauze fabric - both coloured with Adirondack colourwash sprays in Espresso and Butterscotch. I beaded the flower centres with coppery blue 15 delica beads.



I used a slightly different flower shape for the reverse of the bookmark.


This was fun. I am attending a 2 day course with Margaret Beal in Chepstow Castle on 20th & 21st November and look forward to learning more about fusing fabrics and having more control!

Beryl Taylor style wall hanging

I've been making a Beryl Taylor style wall hanging this week. I made some fabric paper using paper napkins/serviettes, I think it's the nicest I've ever made, probably because there is less contrast in the images and colours than using random papers.

I took an old cotton pillowcase, and cut it into 4 pieces. I mixed equal amounts of PVA (white) glue and water together in a pot, and used an old paintbrush to paint the glue mix onto the fabric. I laid cut up napkins on top, leaving gaps between the pieces., and painted with more glue mix. A top layer of white tissue with more glue mix finished the structure, and before the glue dried I added a wash of 3 colours of watered down acrylic paint. I left it to dry overnight, and this is the finished product.


I cut a piece about 7 inches by 11 to use for the wall hanging, and started to use some of the rest of the sheet to make embellishments. Here are a couple of small pieces sewn onto felt, trimmed, and with buttons and beads added.


This heart is made the same way - sewn onto felt, trimmed, then embroidered and beaded.


I sewed the background onto a piece of felt, then added some painted diamonds, ribbons and hand dyed lace. I stamped onto the diamonds with gold paint, and sewed around the edges to make them stand out from the background.


I added another ribbon, and sewed square sequins and beads onto it to break the colour up. I sewed some of my little beaded and buttoned embellishment pieces on, and thought about what to put in the big space!


When I'd made some more embellishments, including one made from Paper Perfect, and sewn them on along with some silk flowers, the quilt was almost finished, but the vertical stripe of turquoise ribbon was too strong, so I broke it up by applying moulding paste through a heart stencil at regular intervals down the ribbon. Once dry, I finished them with Treasure Gold rub on wax. To finish the hanging off, I sewed deep pink organza ribbon around the edges, and backed the fabric with some mount board. The finished hanging looks like this:


This quilt took about 20 hours to make, but I enjoyed making it, and hope the long standing swapping friend who receives it like it too.

Fabric paper jewellery

One of my friends has a birthday this week, so I thought I'd make her a little something!

I used an antique copper heart pendant finding from Nunn Designs - I love their findings, they are well made and gorgeous. And several of the pendant bases have punches in exactly the same size and shape, which takes all the hassle out of cutting your artwork to fit!


I used a scrap of fabric paper, punched it to shape, laid it onto a piece of felt and sewed around the edges, and trimmed the felt. I beaded the surface, then stuck it into the heart bezel with heavy gel medium. I hope the recipient likes it!

More beading

If you are in a Christmas present swap with me, and like surprises, you may not want to read this blog post..... don't panic, the pictures are a long way down...

I have been cutting & beating metal, which I find particularly satisfying for some reason....

Here's a photo of me (very rare!) bashing some metal:


And once the metal is cut, filed, beaten, punched and riveted, it needs embellishing...

In this post there are some pictures of the Beads on Metal pieces I have made recently. Each uses a different Beverly Gilbert bead soup mix . Beverly taught me how to make these Beads on Metal pieces, and I love the technique, but also know that Beverly's bead soups are really so luscious that the they make these pieces extra special. Beverly also has a new book out, 'Beaded Colorways', published by North Light Books, and I am tapping my fingers and toes waiting for my copy to arrive, as she tells me she has shared all her secrets inside!!!

Anyway, back to the artwork - and I have been testing my new camera taking these pictures, which are nowhere near perfect - I'm getting about a 50% success rate on the close up shots (old camera was about 30% success) but really need to keep a photo notebook so that I can remember which settings I took particular shots in, and in what order! It's hard photographing all those shiny bead and metal surfaces, particularly if the camera wants to focus on a different part of the image than I do....

In this pic, the camera really liked the bottom right hand corner - I knew it wanted to focus there but didn't know how to change it's mind LOL. I wanted it to focus on that big bead, which is where I was aiming at through the viewfinder...


In this pic, it focused where I wanted it to, but not quite as well as I wanted it to, and there really aren't and pink beads in the piece - they are a lovely purply wine colour...


This is better, but could be sharper...


I didn't light this one well enough - think daylight works better!



This is probably the nicest piece, I should have taken the picture from a different angle to show off the big beads!


I tried a minimalist style here, as far as the beads are concerned, and a wriggly hammered wire piece rather than a hole and jump ring, and I quite like it!


Still quite minimalist, but with a few more beads.


This one looks stunning in real life, I haven't caught the colours at all well.


I am making 15 pendants in total, so will post pics of the others when I have finished.