Sunday, August 5, 2012

wee gifties from afar and a kitchen technique

More results from my July gift exchange with Kaite in Australia.  I wasn't allowed to open the first one until July 23rd and as I was late sending mine, I decided not to open anything else until Kaite  received her parcel from me (at the end of July).  Hee, hee......waiting is so much fun!!  If you check out Kaite's link, you'll see my gifts to her.

Lovely free form peyote earrings and a handmade box.  The earrings are light as a feather and very easy to wear.  The box is clever and I'll need to persuade Kaite to send me the instructions.


Part of our gift exchange is always a handmade postcard.  This is the one Kaite sent me this year.  Interestingly enough, many of the blue fabrics on the background are ones I sent to Kaite to include in a blue quilt that she wanted to make for herself.  I wonder what happened to that quilt?

There was a lot of serendipity happening in our gift exchange this year.  We both made earrings and used circular layered flowers.  She sent me a house, so of course, I had to send one back to her.  It was really quite funny!!



Another lovely postcard, but this time from my friend Beth in South Africa (soon to be moving back to the US).  I admired a series of postcards she made for a PC exchange and she sent me one!!!!!  Aren't I lucky?  The colours just glow as they're made out of some type of waste silk product.  Throwsters Waste, perhaps?






Thanks to both Kaite and Beth for my lovely presents!

What else have I been up to??  We'll I found that I just couldn't resist the kitchen anymore, so started playing with flour.  I mixed up flour and water (wisk together one cup of flour and one cup of cold water), spread a thin to medium layer on the fabric and then leave it to dry for 24 hours.  I used a credit card to slather on the goop as my pieces were fairly small.  You could also use a squeegee for larger pieces.  I pin one end of the fabric to a layer of plastic, over a layer of towelling, felt or cardboard.  When you've finished spreading the flour/water mixture, pin around the sides as the fabric will curl up as it dries.

When it's dry, crumple it up in your hands until you are satisfied with the crackle effect.  Lay the fabric back down on fabric and paint on thinned down fabric paint/acrylics or ink.  Make sure you get well down into the cracks.  If using a dark paint on light fabric, you should be able to see some of the results on the back of the fabric.

I used mostly Setacolour transparent fabric paint in Ultramarine Blue.  One blob of paint at a time and 3-5 short sprays of water, mixed on a pallette of some type (I use well washed meat trays).  I used a lot of paint!

Plain white cotton fabric/dark blue paint!  It's nice, but perhaps a little boring.


 Reclaimed cotton fabric that had previously been dyed with black, Procion MX dye.  I thought the piece was a failure, because it turned out a rather blah grey.  It certainly looks a little more lively with a combination of white pearl acrylic and white acrylic ink (the lighter colour that almost looks like a light grey).  It's better, but certainly not perfect.



Now we're talking!!!!  Green/white wipe up cloth with the dark blue Setacolour.  This one didn't have enough blue for my liking, so after it dried, I cracked the fabric again and added more paint.  I think this one is raw silk, based entirely on the rough texture of the fabric.


I love this one as well!!  Procion MX, parfait dyed cotton with the dark blue Setacolour.  I used turquoise Setacolour first, but it really didn't show up all that well, so the Ultramarine was added after the first layer of paint dried.




It's quite a messy process and not for the faint of heart, but the results are quite satisfying.  I expect these small pieces will decorate my stash for a while as I have no immediate plans for using them.   Don't you think that stash is much better after it ages a while?   I still have a one yard piece of black/white silk that I purchased in the 70's and couldn't bear to use (or I hadn't bought enough to really make anything interesting).  Do you have anything similar?

BTW, to get the flour/paint mixture off the fabric I soaked it in a bowl and then scraped the mixture off the fabric with a credit card (messy, messy, messy...).  I then hand washed and hung to dry.  After that, I heat set the piece with an iron and then threw it in the wash to get rid of any residual flour.  I'm very happy with the overall results and will be playing more in the future.  Perhaps next time with thickened MX dyes!

My next kitchen experiments may require the use of either oatmeal or mashed potato flakes.  Not sure when I'll do it, but do it I will!!!  What do you do in your kitchen?

7 comments:

Melody said...

One of these days I'm going to try my hand at dying fabrics. I no way kid myself that mine will turn out as fabulous as yours but maybe with work I can hit nice!

I was in that postcard exchange and got some of the most fabulous cards. I'm still running through ideas in my head (and my sketch pad) for a way to display them all. But for now I just take them out and play with them and ooh and awwww all over again.

kaiteM said...

Happy you like your earrings, now that i see them again i'm quite pleased with their result too. Hmmm, might have to make a pair for myself!

Your crackle dyeing has had excellent results. Of course you could have just used a propriety crackle product, less messy but maybe not as good a result.

Off i go now to make friends with Beth, her postcard is excellent.

Anne Marie - Toronto said...

Melody, most of the dyeing I do is the serendipity type....nothing difficult about it. As a matter of fact, I believe the turquoise piece is from one of the first parfait dye experiments I did. The flour resist is new as well. Try it, I think that you'll like it!!! As for the PC's, lucky you to be in that exchange with Beth and the ladies from South Africa. I wanted to do it as well, but simply didn't have the time. I'm guessing that you're from PR....am I correct? Not the Mel from CO are you?

Kaite, Thanks! I think the commercial crackle products would have covered up most of the dyed fabric and only let it show through the cracks. I'd like to do that as well, but perhaps on cardstock to start. Enjoy Beth's blog!! Make sure you go far enough back to see examples of her excellent photography She hasn't been blogging as much lately as she's getting ready for the big move in September.

Beth@IHaveANotion.com said...

I envy those that play with dyes/resists.... I just don't have the foresight... to do it... I like the grey/white one. Has a bit of an oriental feel to it.

Glad you liked the PC. They were so much fun... to just do. No plan.

Off to check out Katies page.

Kira said...

I love the results of your flour resist dyeing. I've never tried that so it will have to go on the list for the future. And I completely agree with you about some fabrics needing to mature in the stash for a while. Sometimes it can be years later when they suddenly jump out and ask to be used.

Magpie's Mumblings said...

hmmmm - all that I can think of now is 'bubble, bubble, toil and trouble'!! I like your results and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes out of your kitchen next.

Karen S said...

Love those pantry resists -- I've been playing with sugar lately.

Yes! Stash is like wine and women -- much better with age!