Bead & Button bracelets with Sue Barrett:
All Buttoned Up by Bonnie Clewans
http://www.interweave.com/bead/beadwork_magazine/back_issues/02_05.asp
In with the old - Jump ring bracelet by Candace Silber
http://www.beadandbutton.com/BNB/Default.aspx?c=a&id=1087
Fibre-reactive dyes - info & recipes
African AIDS Babies Knitting Pattern
Creating texture with a soldering iron
Crocheted Beaded Wire Earrings
Making Heirlooms which really last
Instructions for making a simple bag
Textured Lace Trading Cards
I machined bits of lace (such as guipure) to a
stabilised painted fabric background, added a braid border, then painted it
again, same or different colour (could be darker or lighter) and then
highlighted the raised parts with Treasure Gold. (Pearl learned these
techniques from Workshop on the Web, www.workshopontheweb.com and also from
articles in Quilting Arts magazine, www.quiltingartsllc.com).
Natural Dyes
For completely non-repeatable but beautiful natural colours several
members reported on natural dyeing techniques they had learned at one of
Bonnie’s workshops. Using found leaves and bark, natural fibre fabrics and
fairly simple mordants they were able to ‘show & tell’ some stunning pieces
of fabric. By boiling leaves in water for half an hour then sprinkling in
the mordant and leaving the fabric in the ‘soup’ a couple of hours to simmer
they were able to make pale yellows, browns, oranges and even an intense
black. Mistletoe & 1 dessert spoon of Alum (available from Chemists) gave a
brighter yellow, Blue gum leaves and wattlebark gave a brown, though orange
on wool. Colourful eucalyptus bark gave interesting results also. Native
cherry gave a yellow, Cootamundra wattle boiled with 1 dessertspoon of
ferrous iron (available from garden centres), gave a deep black. Using
copper sulphate instead of iron gave a rich grey. Wool needs to be wrapped
in plastic so twigs don’t get caught in it and you could try wrapping
eucalyptus leaves in fabric for a ‘shibori’ effect. The colours will change
with the seasons.
Flower pounding
Suzie Swinton showed us all some of the results of experimenting with
flower pounding, the technique we were all admiring on Mary Kingsford’s
challenge book cover. Suzie suggested a website recipe which can be found at
www.hgtv.com/hgtv/cr_quilting_other /article/0,,HGTV_3305_1392411,00. Robyn
Duncan from Canberra Needlework also has a flower pounding kit available for
$39.95. Suzie also suggested the book, ‘Flower Pounding: Quilt projects for
all ages” by Ann Frischkorn and Amy Sandrin. Basically you treat the 100%
natural fabric by soaking in an alum solution & hot water overnight. Mary
then rinsed with napisan (washing soda=sodium percarbonate) though Suzie
found she got better results if she didn’t rinse. You can’t use very moist
flowers and you need to remove the sappy bits. Then you paste the petals to
the fabric with masking tape, turn the fabric over on to a hard surface then
bash it to bits with a hammer!
Rust dyeing
Ola Robertson showed us some of her beautiful work using rust to dye fabric.
Using natural fabrics first wet the fabric and squeeze out the excess water
but leave damp. Sprinkle with coarse cooking salt and spray with vinegar.
Place any object that will rust inside the fabric, eg. Chains, washers, a
copper pipe will give green, roll it up in the fabric then leave it in a
plastic bag, tied up so it’s airtight, for a week.
Tea dyeing
For tea dyeing Ola recommends using 50 No-Name tea bags to 1 litre of
boiling water to stew your fabric in, otherwise you can get Tannic acid from
‘Butts & Beers’ in Kaleen.
Photographic transfer
For a wonderful aged effect Ola uses teabag papers (dried out and with
leaves removed) that have been dyed with a mixture of tea & burnt sienna
dye, stiffened with medium or dilute pva glue, then feeds the teabag through
her inkjet printer. Any scanned image or digital jpg file can be used. Or
she uses tea-dyed muslin ironed on to Reynolds freezer paper (available from
Spotlight & Sew simple) then feeds this through her inkjet printer.
I’ve also used the inkjet printer but using InkjetSet from the Thread
Studio. This soaking solution allows the coloured inks from your inkjet
printer to be set into the fabric. I used cotton batiste which has been
attached to an A4 sheet of paper with spray-adhesive in my printer.
Chenille
Take about four layers of fabrics, cotton, silk or anything that frays well.
Sew channels along the fabric the width of the foot of your sewing machine.
A special slasher that can be purchased from Addicted to fabric can then be
used to slash the fabric layers up the length of the channel sewn. Cutting
with scissors is possible but is very hard on your hands. To fray the piece
simply wash it in the machine and then tumble dry it or give it a brush with
a hard bristle brush. Loose weave fabric works well and contrasting colours
in the layers produces a very interesting effect. You could also try a
central printed motif on the bottom layer and ‘chenille’ over the top – the
motif is still visible but in a more animated way. Try sewing the channels
in contrasting directions. You could also try woven ribbons and twisted
strips of fabric. Gillian was full of interesting and inspirational
variations on the basic technique. Books she recommends are Variations in
Chenille and New Directions in Chenille by Nanette Holmberg.
Bead stringing
My tip which seemed to go down well was how to get already stranded beads
easily on to your beading thread. Take the ends of each thread and line them
up as though they were one thread. Then take some craft glue and place a dot
on your index finger. Roll the parallel threads in the glue then wait a few
minutes for the glue to dry. If you push the beads over the glued threads
very gently you’ll be able to quickly strand them onto your new thread.
Page Revised
28/08/2008
Handy Hints
Contact:
act_textile_arts@ozemail.com.au