Back to the birdies...

At the last local craft fair there was a haberdashery stall. I had to resist the urge to spend all my pennies on more craft supplies. Some yarn managed to slip through! The ball (unlabelled) is of blue textured yarn with brown thread running along. Using a variety of crochet stitches I created a frame with it to weave embroidery threads through, trying to recreate the colours found on a kingfisher.

I have also been playing around with blue organza & cottons, using crayon coloured bondaweb or angelina fibres as glue, finished off with rough feather finger shapes on the sewing machine. I like the richness of combining the layers and the ghostly fibres trapped between.
I also tried to bleach a selection of blue fabrics I had. However they all resisted the bleach to a more or lesser extent. So I painted the samples with acrylics, trying to show feather movement.
Next, I have brought some beautiful Indian silk dupion which I hope to use for my final piece, though I better first check how it takes colour!

Embossing & beyond!!!

On Saturday I attended an EG workshop with Suzanne Shaw, who is a member of the Scottish Embroidery Tutors. It was a fun day getting to grips with the delights of heat guns & soldering irons! Firstly I painted bondaweb was ironed on to organza. This was then covered with heat resistant glitter, mica flakes and accent beads. Another layer of organza was layered on top and ironed over. A light brushing of metallic acrylic paint was painted on the surface. Although it seems quite delicate, it is actually quite strong.
Next a piece of velvet had some garden fleece ironed on to it (apparently nappy liners will also work). This was then painted with acrylic paints, and a pyrography tool was used to create the triangle pattern in the surface.
Other samples were made with Tyvek, plastic bags & fusible film, kunin felt, wadding, metallic tape, plastic ribbons and a glue gun.
Possibly my favourite sample is this:
Looks to me like a dinosaurs skin. What to know how it is made? If you turn it over the secret is revealed.
Ironed crisp foil covered in acrylic paint!