Adventures In Steamed Shibori

I've been taking a City and Guilds level 3 embroidery course at a local college, and this week we tried steamed shibori which was SUCH FUN!

The basic idea is to create structure in fabric through the use of steam. Synthetic fabrics keep their shape when washed, natural fabrics do not. We used a vegetable steamer for 20-25 minutes at a time, tying or stitching objects and creases in the fabric, steaming them then untying the fabric to see what effects we had created, which were often quite unexpected.

This was satin tied around screws. I realised afterwards that the tying thread should have gone more accurately in the threads of the screws to get a more realistic effect.

This is organza tied around screws then coloured with silk paints (which then bled all over the steamer). This doesn't show the screw effect as well as the silk one but I still quite like it.

Beads gave a much more even effect.

I have no idea what this fabric is, kind of nylon Tyvek? It held the bead shape really well.

I love the organic look of this one, which was the most fiddly with using pearl-sized beads in the middle. The larger beads unexpectedly bled colour - I would rather it was all one colour with just texture differences but I don't hate the effect.

I was really inspired by textile artist Michelle Griffiths - I found a Pinterest board here that has some of her amazing screw pieces. I don't know if this technique will fit in with my plans for the final 3D embroidered piece for the course, but I do really want to try it again.

Have you tried any unusual textile techniques that I should investigate?

Art House Summer Exhibition

I was so excited when I got two of my textile art pieces into the Southampton Art House Summer Exhibition. These were pieces that I originally made during my City & Guilds Level 2 Machine Embroidery. Here they are hanging in the exhibition.

"Castles" - inspired by moss, plants and weathering of ancient castle walls after visits to Chepstowe and Corfe Castle. I created printing blocks using giant pencil erasers and lino cutters, then used a heat transfer press to create the pattern on the fabric. I added batting and thick calico backing, then I quilted using dense machine stitching to suggest moss, adding some hand embroidery in places using different types of threads (including buffalo wool!). I couched various wool to create vines, and used soluble fabric to embroider leaves to hang at various points from the vines.

"Falling" - a large piece combining tea-dyed calico, organza, satin and scrim. I machine embroidered leaves in various neutral tones onto the calico, and created individual leaves using satin and organza, singeing the edges with an incense stick! I shredded holes in the organza and scrim to create a tattered effect and strung it from a large twig.

The exhibition is on until the 28th September and includes lots of lovely pieces in many styles and mediums. The Art House hosts a huge variation of live acts, workshops and other events and serves gorgeous chocolate cake!

Other C&G project

Oops, haven't updated for a while, sorry! These are photos of my other C&G project, based on nature and decay.It hangs from a stick and invisible fishing line. The base is calico, with embroidered leaves in various neutral colours, then organza and satin embroidered leaves stitched on top, with burnt edges (I managed to set fire to one using a joss stick...). I added larger holes towards the bottom of the calico, merging it into shredded scrim. All of the fabrics were tea-dyed (luckily Happy Shopper teabags worked as well as PG Tips).

 



 

 

 

Above you can see some details of the satin burnt leaves towards the end of the scrim.

 

The photo above shows the leaves embroidered onto the base calico.



 

 

And here you can see a close-up of the top section, which has smaller holes and more leaves.

 

Overall I'm pretty happy with it, I won't be trying to machine embroider onto organza again for a while though!

 

Wall leaf project thing

 

This is the first of my final projects for my City and Guilds Machine Embroidery course. It's based on photos I took at Corfe Castle of the collapsing stones and plantlife on them. I created a block to print from using a pencil eraser, then used a heat transfer press to print it onto polyester. I wish I had a heat transfer press at home, I loved playing with it. I then quilted a moss effect around the stones. I used dissolvable fabric in a hoop to create lacy machine-embroidered leaves, looking  as if an insect had started eating them. I used embroidery thread and buffalo wool to hand sew lichen onto the stones, then used random wool pieces to act as vines to frame the piece.
It didn't come out quite as I had envisioned, I didn't really have time to get the right heat transfer paint colours mixed. I had intended it to be less yellow, it's not helped in this photo by the inside-banana colour of our lounge wall (Wickes Buttermilk, I'd assumed it would be cream....) and the weird angle I took it from, it's actually rectangular.

I hate organza

I have had a very frustrating evening attempting free machine embroidery on organza. Soooo much tangling and stuck needles. Not going to try that again...

Oops

I meant to post every day in November - I guess I ran out of photos and ideas to keep it up! Hopefully it's got me into the habit of posting more frequently than every couple of months.

I've finished one of the Super-Secret cross stitch xmas projects, well the stitching stage anyway. I've painted the hoop but need to reverse-engineer the felt backing as I don't want to remove it from the hoop as it took forever to get it into the perfect position.

Just need to sew lots of embroidered leaves onto my C&G project and cut the tubing I'm using for hanging it, then I'm done except the dreaded paperwork. I then need to start tea-dying fabric for my second project.

This morning I tried to move Miskit and she hissed and scratched me quite badly. I'm concerned she now has the taste for blood after we watched Hellraiser together this week....

The end is not yet in sight

Updating my blog every day in November seemed like such a good idea at the start of the month...

Hopefully my first final project for my City & Guilds course will be finished this week, I need to find a saw to cut up the electrical pole I'm using for hanging. I'll post photos when that's done. I'm still not entirely sure how to do my second final project - the main section will be using calico but I then will be somehow introducing scrim and tattered organza so it gets gradually more deconstructed towards the bottom, I just can't work out how to merge them.

Nearly there....

I'm finally nearing the end of my first final project for my City & Guilds course. I never want to use this colour green again! I just need to attach my dissolvable fabric leaves and attach my corded lengths to look like vines. Helpfully I managed to fix my sewing machine (I hadn't lined the bobbin mechanism up properly) which means the second final project should get done in time. There will be much tea-dying in my near future....

City & Guilds panic

I'm now on the last week allocated to my current project, and then have 4 weeks to do my next project. As my sewing machine is broken, I am panicking a tiny bit. I have about 2 hours this week with a machine at college to do a stupid amount of cording, finish the "moss" stitching on my wall and put a backing on it so my messy free machine stitching can't be seen. Argh.

Have a picture of a pretty moth from my bathroom. I have no idea what sort it is but at least neither of the cats ate it.

Oh woe....

In my endless quest to make embroidered leaves using dissolvable fabric for my final C&G project, I got my bobbin tangled up and had to dismantle the inners of my sewing machine (obviously not the one I bought at the weekend). Unsurprisingly, it no longer works. I have now decided I have made enough leaves and will finally succumb to a sewing machine service :(