Wednesday 20 August 2008

Fabric Art and Skinny ATC's Tutorial

Well yesterday, after reading Jan's blog, i decided to take the bull by the horn, well not literally lol, but had a big clean up of my crafting table. (Mind you looking at it now you wouldn't think i had bothered).

But what i have been meaning to do for weeks is having a go at Fabric Painting, plus collage with fabric.

I sorted out all of my fabric into bags, and managed to fill a large plastic box with them, ooh didn't realise i'd bought quite so many Fat Quarters from Ebay and Etsy. Luscious though lol.

So decided to start small with the experiment, and cut out a piece of fabric from a pillowcase, larger than an ATC, leaving room for seams etc.

Cut and ripped up very small pieces of cloth, and voila, here is Stage 1



I have very roughly sewn the pieces on, with ordinary sewing thread, but also used embroidery silk in places. I've left the pieces in their rough state, as this will add to the feel. Oh and try not to notice the spot of blood on it, you know how we artists have to struggle with our art.

Can you tell what it is yet lol.


I decided to use brusho inks, as i really love the brightness you can achieve with them. They cannot be 'fixed' to the fabric, but as i don't intend washing this, it doesn't really matter.
I painted and sprayed the brusho on, letting the colours bleed into one another.

Next i added a small amount of glass seed beads, size 8, and a small amount of embroidery. To get the beads to look natural, i dropped them onto the fabric, and marked where they fell.
This is the technique used for sewing seeds in the garden for a natural effect. Just copying nature really.

When I had finished this, i realised that it could be made into a Skinny ATC. It's only this week that the Skinny's have come to my attention. Nayski on MAMMA Flickr, makes them, and found out that they are ATC's made to th size 3" x 5". I'm not sure how to display them or keep them, maybe they'll have to go in the Postcard collection folder.
I then attached it to a felt backing, with card in the middle to make it more substantial, did blanket stitch round the edge, and then painted purple brusho to the edges.


'PURPLE HAZE'

I definitely want to take this further, and larger too, as it will be much easier to explore this technique.

DON'T FORGET TO CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO ENLARGE



13 comments:

TanyaMac said...

Love this technique Maggie! The end result is fantastic - I've never heard of brusho ink before? Interesting...

3" x 5" is exactly the same dimensions as an altered rolodex. I have an open topped box for mine {I've yet to alter it} but you could use a recipe or cigar box for these :)*

Maureen said...

Looks good Margaret, love the colours.

Janny said...

It's gorgeous, thank you for sharing!

Jan said...

This is lovely Margaret - love the colours and just the whole natural feel of it. Warning - it can be quite addictive!!

Sherry said...

It's lovely Margaret - the brusho ink works really well on the fabric.

Viola said...

Looks so gorgeous, Margaret! Wonderful colors!

My name is Cindy said...

I love this - Love the whole fabric thing and have been itching to have a go, ditto with skinnies, now that I've seen some of Nayski's. Isn't it funny how you get drawn forward all the time in to trying new things? I have to pace myself though as otherwise I just get in a muddle and all frustrated!!

Genie said...

Lovely work Margaret,

nancy said...

Funny you should mention it! I just started a fabric collage this evening. NOthing like yours - and I'll be adding other things besides fabric. But I want to say that yours is really nice. What a really straightforward technique to achieve such lovely results.
Thank you so much for sharing!
Nancy

Sanja said...

great work!!love the colors too!:0))

Retro Cafe' Art Gallery said...

Wow, that turned out REALLY lovely! And I think the image transfers above really did turn out pretty good. They look distressed :).
xoxo,
Kristin

Mónica Zúñiga said...

I´m really enjoying your blog posts, so cool, I will have to try this technique you described so well.. :)
xoxo...Moni.

purchase exceed similarly said...

But what i have been meaning to do for weeks is having celulares da china a go at Fabric Painting, plus collage with fabric.