I just love promarker pens! First things first I sampled paints on the silk, unsurprisingly the pebeo silk paints worked best! I also added small highlights of colour with Markal paintsticks.
Then to the origami, here it would be helpful to have a couple more hands (especially hands that were immune to the heat of the iron!). Folding, ironing & then small stitches to keep in place and voila!
One silk painted origami base crane... now to repeat for all these colours!
Then I looked at the origami crane base again, and made different sizes in paper. I am drawn to the shape of this, but need to explore what happens if there is a contrasting colour on the underside? 
Finally a suggestion by Pat Ashton-Smith was layer up pleats to resemble feathers, using three different fabrics I had a rough go. I like how they float over each other.
Kingfishers are very popular this week, as they have become magazine cover stars! Not quite Vogue, but on the latest edition of the Radio Times. Which reminds me to watch a new programme starting on BBC1 today, Halcyon River Diaries as these feathered friends are due to make an appearance!
I then painted some tyvek with acrylics, ironed to create texture and sewed to cloth using seed stitch and french knots. I think it looks like the earth from above.
Then whilst I had the paints out and was eating shop brought pizza, I used the polystyrene base to print on the surface of the cloth. Pizza definitely has a purpose! 
I then had a look at all my samples to create a piece of my own. I chose a waist clincher/belt/under bust corset/thingy... The front is made from 4 panels, 2 printed with the pizza base (again!) and various dilutions of bleach (this really stripped the colour well), wisps of wool tops added with mistyfuse and lightly stitched; and 2 panels manipulated into a honeycomb effect. The back is plain green cotton and is linked with corset hooks. It is intended to can be worn with red ribbon wrapped around, to bring it back to my original sketch... remember?
Finally, my friend Paul is moving away from Glasgow, so in honour of many a night drinking in West - the only brewery in the UK to produce (intoxicating) beers to German purity laws. I made a cross stitch card, inspired by a pattern found in a charity shop bargain book Cross Stitch Year by Jo Verso.
After all this hard work, I think I am in need of a holiday ;)
I then did some rough collages focusing on this area using different papers:
And using fabric scraps:
I've then been trying to re-create the texture in the greens. Inspired by my current reading 'The Art of Knitting' by Francoise Teller-Loumagne, I used knitting stitches to create samples. All the swatches used the same yarn, needles and the same number of stitches cast on. I like the bobbly surface of moss stitch, the swirls of the random cable and the nodules created by little 'sock heels'.
Using some green cotton as a backing, I added layers of machine sewing using only two stitches. I like the way the fabric gets pulled and distorted by the stitches.
Finally using the green cotton background, I pinched the fabric together and sewed with embroidery thread. This created an odd honeycomb effect.
Next to create textured samples with tyvek, printing & mistyfuse!
I have also been making the effort to drag myself out of bed early on a Sunday morning to pop along to my local knitting group. I'm working on the Stanwyck Pullover by Nancy Griffin, though am so far stuck in the world of rib. Maybe I'll be there by Christmas?
Then a shadow quilting sample. I loosely tacked small shapes of nets and transparent materials onto a piece of white cotton. This was placed on a piece of wadding backed by cotton, and on top a piece of sheer salmon pink fabric; this was then all basted together. I then outlined the shapes with running stitch. This method produces a more muted effect compared to applique.
Finally, some Suffolk puffs or YoYos (depending on which side of the Atlantic you are on). These cuties are simple to make and create great shapes when joined together. They are perfect for using up scraps of material and would be a good starting point for making brooches.
Now, after all this hand sewing I am in desperate need of some hand cream!!!
Back to my OCA work... at the end of last week I was playing around with tearing, slashing and fraying. Firstly a sample of these techniques using different fabrics. It is interesting to note how much effort was needed to pierce and tear some fabrics compared to others; and how some fray much more easily.
I also painted a piece of pongee 6 silk in bright colours, and then manipulated it. A black background really makes the frayed edges stand out.
Finally I have been folding stripy fabric to try to 'hide' a colour and trick the mind in to thinking it is all pink. I was tempted to add a hidden message to the white stripes for peeking eyes only! This reminded me of some cushions I had seen by Showpony, at first glance these are covered in a pretty floral pattern, but on closer inspection there are bugs lurking!
Reverse or Sans Blas applique using brightly coloured felts (no fraying - yeah!).
Using sheer fabrics and 'hiding' secrets inside - well when I say secrets I mean silk strands and gold stars. I've also being doing some more gathering samples, firstly using bright stripy fabric:
I like the way the stripes distort, bending and flowing into new shapes. I also used some blue hessian, using the strands themselves to gather the fabric rather than sewing thread in. I think this creates a strange rigid shape which reminds me of insects!
How do other people find using Tyvek? Any tips for use?
For my textiles 1 I am at the 'manipulating fabric' project. Before I start this properly, I decided to have a play around experimenting with different techniques on some white cotton. I used the wonderful resource book 'The Art of Manipulating Fabric' by Colette Wolff. I particularly liked the furrowing samples, and how the fabric flows; rather than be constrained by stitches.
During the week I picked up, at a charity shop, the book 'How to make an American Quilt' by Whitney Otto, for the bargain price of 50p. I must be the only person in the world who hasn't seen the film. It was the perfect read for a rainy Saturday afternoon. The book tells the stories of the attendants of a quilting circle, and each chapter is interspaced with quilting instructions in the style of one of the attendees. The story draws on the similarities between quilt making, life and love.
