The Crafter's Way 127 - Kaleidoscope Fabric

Here is this week's Messenger Column. This is a tutorial I've been promising. Hope it's worth the wait.

Kaleidoscope Fabric




You can design your own fabric and paper. With a little supervision this activity is suitable for children.

You will need: Permanent Markers or Felt Pens, Rubbing Alcohol, Fabric and/or Paper Towel, Rubber Bands, Small Dispensing Bottle or Straw, Glass Jar

Step 1: Secure the Fabric or Paper Towel over the top of Jar with the Rubber Band.

Step 2: Draw design onto Fabric with Felt Pens. Keep the design simple.

Step 3: Pour rubbing alcohol into Dispensing Bottle. Drop small amounts onto design. If using the straw decant alcohol into shallow dish, dip straw end then drip onto fabric.

Step 4: Now the magic starts. Slowly the designs will spread. You will have no control over this.

Step 5: Wait for the fabric to dry thoroughly before ironing. This is important as the alcohol is flammable until dry. If you have used paper, wait until dry before removing the rubber band as the paper is fragile while wet.

 What do you do with it: Use designs with your scrapbook and card making. I used some of the fabric scraps in the fridge magnets from a couple of weeks ago. Use as a base for some creative embroidery. Have fun with it, experiment.  

Click here for more free projects.

A Friday Garage Sale

Every couple of months a local charity holds a 2 day Garage sale starting on the Friday morning. It's on our way into the shop so we HAVE to pop in. It was actually quite wet but we still managed to wade our way through to some bargains.

I loved this fabric as soon as I saw it. At first I thought it was a fabric length but it is actually a half made skirt. I'll finish it off. I do wish that when people throw out things before they've finished making it that they would throw the pattern as well. Never mind I will work something out, maybe a wrap around.

Look at the detail.

This is so cute I think it would make up into a lovely bag. Any other ideas?

And now to the real bargain. 2.5 metre of denim and 3 metres of this lovely green sheer fabric. These will definately make Pandora's Box. Alan found some bargain as well but as they weren't for me they didn't get their picture taken. Still not a bad morning.

Upcycled T Scarves.

I spent a couple of hours in front of the motor racing last week and tied all those strips into scarves. I reckon I could do these with my eyes closed.

Here is one in Pewter and Silver. The Pewter T shirt is one of my niece's cast offs. She always drives past my place on her way to the op shop bin to see if there is anything that I want. Goodness knows what the neighbours think when I go through the garbage bags in her boot. The silver fabric came from a long skirt I'd made myself years ago to go to a ball. Over the years it has been shortened to every length. Now its a scarf.

This one is Reds, Pinks and Oranges. one of my current favourite combinations. I also made a multi -coloured one and a purple/green/blue combo but the photos turned out particularly badly. Yes, even according to my low standards. I'll go and take some better photos and then I' might even list in my etsy store.

Green Craft Inspiration

When I opened my copy of Green Craft Magazine I was thrilled to see an image of Linda Packia Raj boa. She made it from old t shirts. There was a brief information about how she made it. Visit Etsy for more of Linda's work

Now keeping in mind that my  2010 challenge was to use materials I already had. Now I have lots of bits. Some left overs, most donated from friends and families. I couldn't actually work out how to tie them they way the information read but that wasn't got to stop the inspiration.

I started chopping up t-shirts in lots of colours. I have piles like this allover the studio. If you don't like mess this probably isn't a project for you. I like to do all my preparation first then I can create in short bursts if necessary.

While watching the V8 Supercars yesterday I tied three my way. This one is red/orange/pink.

Then I made 2 like these. Might even keep one of these myself. I have pewter coloured ballet flats. I can see me making a few more of these. I've hardly made a dent in my pile.

The Crafter's Way 126 - Tour de Force AND The Fifth Kingdom

Here is this week's Messenger column.

In Case of Emergency



Artisan is kicking off its 2010 calendar of exhibitions with the opening of Tour de Force and The Fifth Kingdom on the 11th of February.


The Fifth Kingdom is inspired by Mycology or the study of fungi. The artist, Michelle Kelly, is drawn to the multiple intricacies and the way fungi grow. Michelle states “exploring size, form, colour and movement gives my practice many layers just like the growth of fungi.”Michelle’s aim is to be inspired in the creation of these works of art rather than to imitate the natural forms. Michelle’s work can be found in artisan’s Crucible space from 11th February – 3 April.

The exhibition, Tour De Force: in case of emergency break glass, arose out of desire to bring studio glass to attention. The exhibition features new works of eight highly skilled Australia artists renowned in their field. All the works challenge the traditional ideas, methods, and materials of glass making. All the works are infused with elements of performance art, multimedia, installation, drawing, painting and sculpting.



Tom Moore uses traditional and innovative glass techniques to breathe life into his eccentric hybrid specimens. Though Tom’s inventive creatures are mostly friendly, he addresses darker issues such as nature vs. industry in his dreamscape dioramas.

Timothy Horn’s work focuses on the meeting point between the natural and constructed
worlds. Much of his work has drawn extensively from the sphere of decorative arts. . Horn’s work has featured recently in exhibitions at the Andy Warhol Museum in

Pittsburgh, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, GoMA, Brisbane, and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.




See these artists’ work (and more) at artisan from the 11th February to 17th April. There is a free Curator and Artist talk on the 12th February 12noon – 1pm. RSVP to info@artisan.org.au

Risky Craft Business

You'd think I'd know better by now. Wear old/dark clothes when dyeing. But no, I wear a lovely purple top and then decide I can sneak some dyeing in.

Why? Because I just got this huge 25kg bag of Soda Ash. Finally somebody close to home is stocking it in bulk. This place is literally about 2k's from where I live. No more trips to Bunnings to buy it in 2.5 kg bags. Bunnings will probably go broke now without my huge buy ups of Soda Ash.

So I decide to dye some fabric in colours  to test that it is the same quality. So I did Green.

Blue

And Purple.

Had to include this pic. I had spelt out TrishAlan with the magnets. Today somebody came in and rearranged the board to spell out their names. how cute!

Down Under Textiles

Finally, Australia has its own inspirational and educational textile magazine. Down Under Textiles fills a gap in our market appealling to beginner and experienced textile and fibre artists alike.



The latest techniques, tools and products will be showcased; colour, design and composition theory will be discussed in easy-to-grasp articles; Galleries will showcase art pieces that demonstrate current techniques and materials.

With plenty of ideas to inspire, art pieces to see and learn from, and informative articles to help you acquire or reinforce simple and complex textile skills that are suitable for a wide range of fibre works, this magazine will be your new best friend when it comes to expanding upon skills and gaining greater confidence.

The first issue includes: • Wood block printing , How to use Lutradur, An interview with Australian fibre artist Felicity Clarke,  Colour advice from leading artisans and much more.


Down Under textiles is NOT available at Newsagents.  TrishAlan Designs has a limited supply for sale in store. If you want a copy email me at trishalandesigns(at)bigpond(dot)com(dot)

Craft Bargains

Before going to the shop on Saturday morning Alan and I went to a garage sale. This is my haul.

This fabric is in 'my colours'. and the cord is silk.

These pieces were a little scrappy but I was quite taken with the lacey effect on the blue fabric.

I also picked up an old tape measure. Alan innocently asked 'you won't cut that up will you". Well yes!

All this for $2.

Winding Day

Today is Date Day. It's our day where once a month we have a day free of anything to do to with work or business committments. This month we decided we  were going to have a day siting in front of the tele and watching all the Nascar races from the weekend. Now I know this doesn't sound like much fun to a lot of girls but I love it.

So while I was watching the interviews and pre-race hype I got out all the  Eco Dyed  threads from the last couple of weeks and started winding into nice neat presentable skeins.

This job is quite time consuming but doesn't take any concentration. Perfect Motor Racing activity. Got a few more to wind and another race to watch so I'm back to it.

The Crafter's Way 126 - Shibori Unbound

Here is this week's Messenger column. If you are in the area make sure you have a look at this exhibition.


Shibori Unbound



The Pine Rivers Art Gallery has two exciting exhibitions running concurrently. Both have a decidedly Japanese flavour to them. Shibori Unbound is a shibori textile exhibition by Margaret Barnett. Japonphile is an exhibition of ceramics by Kimio Takahashi combined with an exhibition of Ikebana by Kimio Takahashi and John Baxter. Both Exhibitions run from 7th February through to 27th March.



What exactly is shibori? Shibori is the Japanese word that encompasses all the techniques that Westerners refer to as ‘tie dye’. Margaret Barnett was first exposed to Shibori in the early 1980’s while studying textiles. Margaret had just finished the Surface Design Unit when ‘Shibori’ a book by Wada/Barton/Rice was published. This book researched the Japanese Shibori techniques, many of which have been lost. Margaret recalls “I'd just bought the 4 foot floor loom - 8 shaft of course - and BANG Shibori took over my life. Floor loom is still wrapped in cardboard.... I was fascinated with the fact that you could do a bit of stitching/tyeing/ clamping on fabric, toss it in to a dyepot and have magnificent patterns emerge when it was untied.”

In 1992 the first World Shibori Symposium was held in Nagoya, Japan.These Symposiums have continued around the world with Margaret having attended 6. Margaret began patterning fabric for clothing. Her interest in the 3D aspect of the Shibori began early 1990’s and she has worked with banana fibre and paper as well as special Japanese fabrics. Drawing on her love of the Space, the Shapes and the Silence of the Australian Landscape, Barnett fashions fabric into 2D hangings and 3D sculptures.






Margaret’s artist talk on the 27th February will concentrate on the fabrics and what inspired her to make this body of work. In the 2.5 hour Masterclass on 6th March Margaret will be giving each participants a piece of silk and metal fabric and will be show 2 of the stitching techniques to shape that fabric - this shape could be a brooch or a mobile or attached to a hair comb.






I will leave the last word to Margaret when asked what advice would you give somebody who wanted to try shibori? “Buy a book. There are many books now on 'quick' contemporary shibori techniques. Then begin to experiment - do not be afraid of what you may consider 'failures'. So many of my 'failures' are now art pieces. Go for it!

Monoprinting, Sort of.

I finished off the space dyeing of the threads this week. I had little bits of thickened dye left over. Not enough to keep but too much to throw away.

I decided to do some monoprinting. Not the arty sort, more the kindergarten sort.

I dripped dye onto the plate and swirled around with my fingers. Then I placed the fabric strips down onto the plate. I didn't use a brayer, just gently applied a little pressure with my hand.

I don't mind that the fabric doesn't sit flat on the plate, it give it a little more variation to the finished print. They need to dry. I let then dry flat.

These are some of the finished strips. They'll just go in the stash.

Now the word monoprint means 1 print, but I have never beed that literal. These pieces were actually laid onto the plate immediately after the first print. I didn't add any extra dye. It has resulted in a lighter shade.  This is always fun to do, let go of any expectations and start fingerpainting.

Stockist of Hand Dyed Fabric

We've added another wonderful fabric shop to our ever expanding list of stockists.

Sewco, Sewing and Patchwork centre at Mt Gravatt now stock our Eco Dyed Fat Quarters and our 1 metre Matched Colour Blends.


If you live over that we pop in a say hello.

GreenCraft Magazine

I have spent the last 2 days diligently working on the book. Suddenly it all seemed to come together and made sense. I shouldn't describe it as working because I really enjoyed the process. As a reward my artist copy of Green Craft magazine arrive from the US.

It was a lovely surprise that it arrived so quickly. My bags that I submitted are on page 138. this is my first inclusion in an international magazine, pretty special.

I've had a quick flick through and it is full of really inspiring ideas. Can't wait until I have some time to read the articles.

Kumihimo Designer

I received this link from a  forum friend and thought I'd share it with the you. It's a web site where you can experiment with color placement to make designs with the kongoh braid.







It's called "Frienship Bracelet Designer" It's easy to use - just pick a color and click where it goes. The "braid" shows the results. You can set it up for 8 to 32 elements (in increments of 4) by clicking the "+" or "-" in the middle of the setup diagram.  You can then click on the image further down and it shows you the movements of the elements. This is for a round braid structure only.



You'll need Java installed on your computer to use it (free download from java.com if you don't already have it).


Thanks Anita for sharing.

Learn Kumihimo in Australia

Makiko Tadawill be teaching a workshop at Fibres Ballarat in Australia April 4-10, 2010 at Ballarat Grammer, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.

And Makiko will also be teaching at The Annual Forum, April 11-17, 2010 at the TAFTA Forum  in Orange NSW at Kinross-Wolaroi School.

This is an unprecedented opportunity to learn Kumihimo from the VERY best.  These are images of Makiko's incredibly inspiring  work, for more click here.

The Crafter's Way 125- Recycled Fridge Magnets Craft Tutorial

Here is this week's Messenger column.


Fridge Magnets

Here is the first Green Tutorial. You can certainly go and buy new bottle caps and magnets but many of us throw these items out regularly. Instead of putting in the bin try putting them on your fridge.


You will need: Metal bottle caps, magnets, images (fabric or paper) resin and super glue. I reused the magnets from last year’s fridge calendars. The images were scraps of my hand dyed fabric and paper.

Step 1: Cut out the images to fit inside the bottle cap. Hint: Cut them slightly larger so that it fills the sides of the cap.


Step 2: Glue the images inside the bottle cap. It is important that they sit flat, they will cause air bubbles if they don’t. Brush a little glue on the front surface of the image. Leave to thoroughly dry.

Step 3: Working in a well ventilated area mix the resin according to the manufacturer’s instruction. Do not guess amount, measure carefully. Mix gently so as not cause air bubbles in the mixture. Pour resin into bottle caps. Leave to set. Setting time will vary according to manufacturer.

Step 4: Cut magnet to fit the back of the bottle cap. Attach to bottle cap with superglue. Leave to dry.

You can also attach a necklace finding instead of the magnet. Just follow all but Step 4.
 
 
 
Click here to return to more Free Craft Projects.

Next Step Hand Dyed Threads

The market was a bit quiet this morning  so I took the opportunity to heat set the threads.

I always use a pressing cloth, means I can have the temp up without risking the threads.

Then I rinsed first in cold water. Then into some hot soapy water they go. I repeat this step twice.

Last step is to add some white vinegar to the last cold water rinse. I find that it puts the sheen back into the silk. I've hung them up here to drip. If you try to separate them into their skeins while they are dripping wet you just get in a mess. So I wait........

Hand DyedThreads

Now we have the new dates for the Sydney Show I thought I better get cracking on the Hand Dyed Threads.

This is the dye thickener. It looks like gelatin and mixes up in a very similar way. I usually make up the whole container, it keeps very well in fridge.

                                                                                                 

Threads pre-soaking in the soda ash solution. I just keep using this mixture until it has all disappeared.

                                                                                                

Here I have mixed up the dye with the thickener. The back right  - the dye powder is still sitting unmixed. This mixture is Red, Orange and Pink. One of most popular.

 Here the threads have been painted.  They now need to dry, then  heat set before being rinsed. At this stage they always look very blocky. The colours blend gradually from one colour to the next when seen with the naked eye. This process takes a bit of extra time but it saves heaps of water AND they are super colour and light fast. So it's worth the effort.