The Crafter's Way 19

I write a weekly Craft Column for a local paper, here is this week's edition.


Let’s talk about rust. Yes! It’s a strange topic for a craft column however I’ve recently become quite interested in rust as a craft medium. It all began when I saw a piece of art where the artist had created rusted fabric and made it into an amazing wall hanging. I’ve since made my own rusted fabric, not yet in the art category but effective nonetheless.


Here are the instructions if you’d like to have a go yourself.

You need: Cotton fabric,
Some rusty objects, not too big as you want to be able to wrap them in the fabric.
A large bowl
A metal tray. An old meat tray or cake tin works well.

Pre wash your fabric. Fill your large bowl with warm water. Add ½ cup of malt vinegar and ½ cup of salt.
Immerse your fabric into this mixture, leave to soak.
Wring out fabric.
Wrap your rusted items in the fabric and place into the metal tray. Don’t worry if there is water in the bottom of the tray.
Place the metal tray and wrapped fabric into a large plastic bag and seal well. Take this bag and put it into the sun for a couple of days.
If you want even rusting unwrap fabric a re-wrap every couple of days.
When happy with rusting, wash out fabric.


This next instruction is for rusting safety pins, paper clips, and bells for a rustic look. You will need some safety equipment for this one; gloves and a mask. It’s also not suitable for children to do. For this to work you need the cheapest safety pins etc, the more expensive brands have been treated to PREVENT rusting.


You need: ½ cup of Cider Vinegar, ½ cup of bleach,1 teaspoon of salt, Glass jar with lid, tray, paper towels. Combine the vinegar, bleach and salt in the jar. Add the pins etc and leave fro a couple of days. Cover the tray with layers of paper towel. Remove the pins from the jar and spread out onto the paper towel. Place them in the sun. Items will rust as they dry.



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