Last week, my local group got together and tried out Color Magnet. It is supposed to attract dye. I only got one piece dyed. This one was dry dye sprinkled on to wet Color Magnet after I had screened it on to cotton fabric. This would have worked better if I had soaked the fabric in soda ash first.
But it did work. I have some other pieces that are dyeing now so I’ll have to show you later. Have a good weekend.
I got a wonderful fiber art card in the mail yesterday. We have a Holiday card exchange every year over at the Felting and Fiber Studio Forum. Elizabeth and I swapped cards. I showed you the cards I sent to Elizabeth here. And here is the card she sent to me.
Isn’t it great? I love it and the best part is that she came up with the idea from a memory in her past. Her grandfather used to send all the grandchildren hand drawn birthday cards of silly birds in top hats with a banner with their name on it. So Elizabeth drew inspiration from her grandfather’s cards and sent me a bird with a Christmas hat and a Peace banner. Thanks Elizabeth, it’s perfect!
This morning I had a real adventure moving really heavy ski lift chairs from place to place. I was planning on this only taking a couple of hours but it lasted more than half the day. I am working on a fund-raiser where the ski lift chairs are being turned into benches and then made into masterpieces by various local artists. I am not sure how much they weigh but they are over 7 foot long and quite awkward. Luckily, I had lots of helpers. Needless to say, I didn’t get much fiber art done today.
I am still writing my next online class and this is one of my samples. This is stitched on heavy interfacing instead of felt but it’s just for practice. I stitched this last week but I added some Dye-Na-Flow paint today. The painted background really makes it look more interesting. The paint is still wet in this photo so I’m not sure how it will turn out since I wet the interfacing down before painting. That allows the paint to move much more freely. And it will probably be a bit lighter in color when dry.
And then I was playing around a bit with cropping to see if I liked it better with less of the stems showing. What do you think?
Each year on the Felting and Fiber Studio Forum we have a holiday card exchange. This year, Elizabeth and I are partners to swap cards. I made several cards and decided to send her two since I couldn’t decide which was the best one. I used the felt that I made for the 4th quarter challenge and a piece of felt that was screen printed and then over dyed. The over dyeing was a bit dark so you can barely see any screen printing at this point. But it makes a nice background. I then appliqued the cut pieces of machine thread felt down to the background.
I added a star and a trunk and some beads for ornaments.
And then I made a really wonky tree with a Angelina star and bead garland. I forgot to take photos before I sent these away but luckily Elizabeth took photos for me. I stitched the background felt to a paper note card on the machine. The felt does tend to stretch a bit so I should have added stabilizer to keep it from stretching but I guess a bit more wonkiness never hurt anyone! Have a good weekend.
Still busy working away on my next online class. I’ve been writing, editing photos and making samples.
I stitched some leaves on this multi colored felt. It was printed on the back but wasn’t the best so I thought it would be great for these leaves.
I cut them out and now I’m thinking of what I will do with them. Just happened to have a few acorns to add!
This flower was nuno felted. I think it still needs a few beads in the center if I’m going to use it with this leaf. How would you use felt leaves?
Ruth Lane Art 