COTTON AND COLLAGE continued...

Having spent several days creating tiny flowers and butterflies (see post below) I needed to complete my heart for July's Heart project

July's theme is transparency... working within a construct of acetate sheets. I had an idea a long time back at uni that I never found time for and this was a perfect opportunity to revive the idea.

I cut 3 pieces of acetate to match my other hearts... but I wanted a semi-opaque background so dug out some of the paper-fabric I created a while back.

 I sprayed that with clear gloss till it was saturated and semi-transparent then weighted it while it dried to the back layer of acetate. The idea was to ensure that some areas would remain clear and glassy.

The rest was fairly straight forward, I love nigella so painted that up in pearly paint. Once dried they were glued to the base layers. I inked July in the centre with pigment inks.

I also coloured the centres of the flowers and butterflies with my Promarkers. I blended some of them using surgical spirits. These were attached to the middle layer with gel medium, then sequins added in the centres.

I inked Sweet Summer onto this layer too. Next time I will use a darker ink... I wanted subtlety, but in handling these have smudged and all but disappeared. I think I need better inks...

Here it is completed... I gelled the edges together, punched holes in all around and did several rows of crochet to echo the flowers. All in all I'm quite pleased with it, but will be working out the ink issue... If I could redo it I would, but after all that crochet I'm not cutting it open!!

Thankyou Thealie for you prompt- it gave me the chance to revive old ideas and play with new ones at the same time. I've enjoyed this months challenge.

COTTON AND COLLAGE

I have carried on creating my flower embellishments this week, but changed medium... to cotton. A while back I was crocheting wool flowers and butterflies, but as I had just bought some white pearl cotton thread I thought I'd see if it would work small scale.

The lustred cotton is about the same thickness as embroidery skeined thread, and after a few trials with different sized needles I settled on a 2mm. I ended up spending 3 days playing and making a selection of flowers and butterflies... I've just started on hearts. It seems that a wool crochet pattern will translate nicely into a dinky cotton equivalent- great for journals, hats, jewellery, blankets... so many uses!

I chose white because I want to start colouring as required, rather than have to buy a supply of every colour I like  in a wide variety of material... I've done the same for satin ribbon, bulk white in several widths- it's so easy to colour as you need it.

Here are a few of the flowers and butterflies...

A few variations in stitch and pattern will give you a huge range of petals and designs. I'll put a pattern over in the pattern tutorials section

The basic pattern is several rounds worked from a circle of 4 or 5 chains. Any stitch can be used in any combination...that's the fun of it! 

The next thing is to find a use for all your wonderful mini creations.... as it happens I had a project that could use a handful of flowers... see the following post for the finished project. A hearty project...

This white thread is pearlised, mercerised, which means it has been chemically treated and takes dye really well! You can dye with Procion dyes or similar, but I also use something much quicker and just as effective for crafting- alcohol markers such as Sharpies or Promarkers. The colour will naturally run along the fibres so a small amount is recommended to begin with, and you can always spray with neat alcohol or surgical spirit to dilute and blend the colours... have fun experimenting!

Promarker storage

I've been looking for a reasonable storage solution for my increasing collection of Promarkers- they're quite chunky so normal pen cases just aren't big enough, and the nice zip up cases only hold 24 or 45 pens...

I don't keep them on my desk as I often work in a variety of places and want them to hand. A rigid stand wasn't appropriate either...

I love recycling fabrics and I happen to have a few books of upholstery fabric samples so I made up a roll to slip the pens into and a bag to keep them together. Perfect!

 8 rainbow sections to keep colours in groups of 10... shame I thought of brown after the fact as I have 9 of those so I've put them in the violet section for the time being... I also coloured a sticker for each pen so I could see them all from above.

Rolled and secured with ribbon. Even like this I can see where each colour is and replace it to keep them orderly.

A zipped bag using the remnants from the rolls. I've made it a bit bigger to allow for more pens, and lined with mountboard for stability. I shall add a small bag for spare lids/fine nibs etc.