With the day to myself I pulled out trays of fabrics, and got to work.On Monday B and I went to the beach where I managed to get in a bit of sketching. Nothing flash but enought to get an idea.
I was particularly inspired by the image of spinifex grass waving in the breeze with the ocean as a backdrop.
I had a few different concepts in mind about how I could Transfer this image to textiles (TTT - Transfer To Textiles) TTT is a phrase that our tutor used frequently. He taught design and image making skills in our textile course and often after working through a technique he'd ask us to TTT. Anyway, on the way home yesterday I spyed a handmade greeting card with an image a bit like this...
It struck me that this was the type of image that I was looking for. It portrayed the movement of the grasses in a very simple way which was what I wanted to do - why is it that others always manage to come up with it first??I figured that this image lent itself to fusing - layers of sheer fabrics overlapping creating depth and movement.
This is where today's lesson comes in. When fusing sheer fabrics...
- Don't use Heat'n'bond Ultra hold - lightweight is more than enough
- don't use ordinary paper as an ironing sheet - unless you want to fuse fabric to the paper. I ended up using the backing paper (didn't have any to start so hence the paper)
- make sure that your ironing sheet is clean of all gluey residue - it leaves ugly marks on your fabric and your design.
It's not all bad however. After my first trial - and it was just a trial to see how the fabris would look layered up - I created this...
I was quite impressed! - except for the ugly glue marks. So I've cut it up, cutting out the marks and leaving some interesting images (IMHO).
The colours aren't quite what they are in real life - more vibrant and those lines aren't really there.
At the moment there is no stitching on any of them and I'm not sure where to go from here. The single one is postcard size and the other is made up of 3 pieces about 3" x 5" (layed out on cardboard for presentation). I'm thinking that if I were to stitch on them i'd have to keep it simple, otherwise I might destroy the image and the layers created. If it were bigger (say wallhaning size) then stitching would be alright...
4 comments:
gah, why are you using that awful Heat N Bond at all? Best thing ever for sheers is Teri Austin's mistyfuse http://www.esteritaaustin.com then go to her shop
- no affils just a very happy user!
Your postcards worked well though - the colours are lovely and the sense of movement is really there.
If it's any help - I use glad bake (or the multix equivalent, depends which is cheaper when I go shopping) and tear off BIG long sheets of it to put under fusing and over it - gooping up irons and covers frustrated me no end until I worked out that the baking paper was cheap enough to do this with! and it lasts ages.
I haven't heard of Mistyfuse - until now - I will have to give it a try.
And Glad Bake (or the like) is usually my paper of choice, 'cept that I'd run out and I was trying to avoid yet another trip to the shops. It's not that it's far, but i'm a sucker for the impulse buying...
Thanks for your comments
Ah memories----Ultra bond SUCKS :}
Looking good with the sheers though--try layering sheers over entire piece too to trap, then ya don't have ta fuse at all! :}
Baking paper--gotta give that a try.
PS Nice to see someone else who keeps a journal like i do! (Except for the fancydancy one i'm working on in fabric.....:})
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