Fab Rust!

Today I was supposed to be doing a bit of Spring cleaning but instead I have been playing with rust. 

4 days ago I started some rust printing in the garden and today it is ready. So fast! and always such a lovely surprise.

This is the fabric when I had rinsed and dried it. I used pieces of cotton. Most were recycled. One was a piece of lovely tightly woven shirting and it feels almost silky. 

Another was part of a torn blouse with lace inserts.

This one is a piece of some lovely linen scrim that I got in France.

What always amazes me is that the prints are almost photographic. You can see so clearly the shapes of the rusty square and circle washers.

Want to know how I did it? It is so simple and quick!

I placed half a piece of fabric in the bottom of a tray, covered it with lots of rusty washers and folded it over. Then I added more layers of fabric and more rusty stuff. I poured tea over it and put the whole thing in a plastic bag and left it in the garden for 4 days.

Below is the piece that I folded over at the bottom of the pile. It has printed with a mirror image of the rusty bits. Magic!

Fibre East and arty comfort blankets!

Fibre East! WOW, what a great place for felters!

This newish exhibition, held in Thurleigh in Bedfordshire is only in it's second year and bills itself as 'A celebration of British wool and fibres' Truly it was!

I have never been to Woolfest in Cumbria or Wonderwool in Wales but this was close to home for me and was a great chance to see and find wool fibre produced by British farmers in the most exciting and colourful products. It was also so good to support small makers who were so committed and enthusiastic about their breeds and products. 

I talked to lots of felt artists, spinners, weavers  and dyers. It is amazing to see what you can do with wool.

The display of balls of fibre above was HUGE! the pile was almost as tall as me! The colour blends are beautiful. there were lots of baskets of fibres and pick and mix selections of gorgeous Wensleydale and other scrummy curly fibres which I find so difficult to source. It was good to choose by feeling and looking at the colours which you cant do if you are buying online.

One of the things I absolutely loved were the recycled wool blankets which had been space dyed. I dye these sometimes but it was so nice to pick and mix colours that someone else had chosen because we all make colours in our own  way and sometimes it is nice to step into someone else's colour scheme.

Having said that I picked a lovely teal/lime green that is one of my favourites. I have bought a new sketch book (addicted! can you tell?) and it is short but very wide. It obviously needs a cover of its own!

The dyed blanket is thick, soft and colourful. A lovely arty comfort blanket! I also bought....
to decorate it all with! Isn't it all delicious? There are curly wool fibres, handspun wool rovings, space dyed cotton threads and some rough handspun and dyed yarn that has a great matte tweedy feel to it.

And here is what I did with it all.....My newest sketch book cover!

 I am so pleased with the textures on this front cover. I am going to do something completely different on the back cover but with the same colours and supplies. Of course I am going back to Fibre East next year!

Vintage Crafts at Nine Lives

I have been teaching 'Vintage Crafts'  at a venue called Nine Lives in Rickmansworth. Isn't that a great name for a charitable organisation that takes old furniture and household objects and then trains people to transform them with re upholstering and painting to make great  saleable items? Giving them a new life!

The place is a treasure trove of ever changing, fab vintage items and I can't resist having a poke around when ever I am there!

Anyway... the course , for Community Learning Partnership, has been all about taking recycled and new materials and vintage techniques and learning to update them to  use textiles to make lovely gifts.


This week we having been learning applique techniques to make a mini quilt or fabric picture. I decided to make a bowl of cupcakes!  We then decorate them with stitch and buttons and beads. Good enough to eat! 

Almost! Ha ha.