Infinity Art Gallery have just announced the winners of their online Fiber Arts Show. I didn’t win but I was a finalist, which is almost as good.
And here’s the finalist (drum roll please) …
Blush an Art Bag
You can read more about Blush here and of course don’t forget to visit the Infinity Art Gallery to check out the winners – some awesome textile art work. You can find the Infinity Art Gallery here.
Have you ever found yourself being forced to go in a different artistic direction from what you intended? It’s kind of unnerving sometimes don’t you think?
Lately I seem to have become very attached to the three-sided shape for whatever reason. Geometric designs have never quite appealed to me with all those sharp, hard, angular edges. It always strikes me as kind of masculine. I prefer curves and soft, gentle edges – feminine. It’s the way I’m built and that’s only becoming moreso as the years pass (sigh).
I work very intuitively most of the time, so I wonder if it’s my subconscious directing me to explore unfamiliar concepts as a way to challenge my skills or development. Or maybe it’s a way of forcing me to grow into a new artistic direction. Or maybe I’ve been reading too many self-help books and I just like the shape because it’s simple.
Regardless, a new fabric vessel is born using one of my digital texture designs printed onto textured fabric paper and embellished with my favorite machine wrapped cording and some beads.
I love the depth of color, and of course the color red itself is my favorite.
It’s very similar in designs to this clutch bag …
and this fabric vessel.
I’m sure you haven’t seen the last of these.
As you know, fabric paper is one of my favorite materials and I use it in many different ways by printing on it using my inkjet printer when I make my art bags and three dimensional art, and also painting on it for use as backgrounds on my art quilts.
There are *lots* of different ways to make fabric paper and I generally make it because I can create interesting and unique surface texture that can then be sewn either by hand or machine. And I use various different “recipes” for making fabric paper depending on exactly what I’m going to do with it.
Since I’ve been talking about fabric paper so much lately, perhaps you’d like to try making some for yourself – it is super easy. This tutorial shows you how to make painted textural fabric paper and you can use this as backgrounds for your art quilts or cut it up and use it as fabric collage pieces.
You’ll need some muslin, tissue paper, cheesecloth, pva glue, fabric paint or acrylic paint, and a foam paintbrush. You can also add other elements into the fabric paper such as images or fabric scraps; anything that can be glued down.
Take a piece of muslin and rinse it so that it’s damp.
Then make your glue mixture – a couple tablespoons of pva glue mixed with about half a cut of water. You may need to adjust this to suit your own personal needs.
Then add some color; either fabric paint or acrylic craft paint. Adding the paint to the glue mixture makes it really easy to apply to the fabric.
Using a foam brush, slop on the glue/paint mixture so that the muslin is saturated.
Next add some tissue paper. Tear it into strips and scrunch it up, then using the flat side of the foam brush, mash it onto the top of the muslin. Use extra glue/paint if necessary to flatten it down.
Cut some strips or bits of cheesecloth and mash them onto the top of the tissue paper in the same way.
You can now add bits of extra color for contrast if you like.
Now go away and leave it alone until it dries. Since it’s a big sloppy mess, this might take a little while. I usually leave it overnight.
Once it dries, the fabric paper is quite stiff but handling it softens it up. And of course they are fully stitchable. Have fun!
Have I ever mentioned that I love to work with fabric paper? I think I might have once or twice.
Last week I introduced you to “Scraps”, a small art quilt where I quilted some fabric paper and used it as a background. This is another small art quilt – “Serenity” – where I’ve also used fabric paper as a background but with very different results.
This time instead of quilting the fabric paper, I added some surface texture by sewing some rows of decorative stitches, as well as some free motion bobbin work, before I hand painted it – the same technique as I used here. Once it was painted, I dry brushed over the top to highlight the stitched texture – a really nice effect!
And of course I love to print on unusual fabrics and surfaces, so the inkjet print on this art quilt is a black and white image printed onto a painted dryer sheet. I used a metallic copper fabric paint which worked really nicely with the dryer sheet texture and the black and white image.
I’ll be talking a lot more about fabric paper in the coming weeks because it’s the next upcoming online class, so I hope you don’t get too bored with the subject. If you are bored you can always check out my work using digital grounds – but you’re gonna find lots of fabric paper there as well. Sorry, there’s just no getting away from it!
As I mentioned the other day, my next online class is going to be all about fabric paper so I was recently going through some of my old art quilts looking for samples where I’ve used fabric paper, and rediscovered this cute little art quilt “Scraps”.
“Scraps” is about 18″ x 12″ and it was made from – well – scraps! – stuff that would normally end up in the rubbish bin. After teaching a surface design workshop one day, I ended up with a lovely pile of color coordinated bits and pieces. I guess I had nothing better to do the next day so I quickly made this art quilt from the leftover scraps.
The fabric paper (the main pink background) is made from my favorite muslin, tissue and cheesecloth recipe which I hand painted and added some free motion quilting using metallic thread to give it some additional texture, design and sparkle.
The pale green patches are made from hand painted and heat treated tyvek with some embellishment and stitching, and the appliques are made from foiled and painted brown paper. I added some hand stitching around the edges but as I recall, that was tough work. Tyvek isn’t that easy to hand sew.
To make the prairie points I used more of the brown paper fused to peltex with some machine wrapped cording to finsih the edges.
Then I sewed the center piece all together and mounted it onto a free motion quilted background. It’s had to believe all these bits and pieces were almost destined for the rubbish bin. Don’t you just *love* this little quilt?
2012 is the year of the EPIC ADVENTURE as I lead a band of daring Creative Explorers on a year-long exploration of self-discovery and artful self-expression behind the doors of The Creative Explorer's Club. We'd love you to join us. You can find more details here.
Subscribe to my weekly newsletter "All Stitched Up" and download your free copy of my "Slow Work Manifesto" - a guide to being creatively conscious - in pictures and words.
Privacy Notice: No spam. Ever. Promise.
|
||||
|
