Adding metals to your work

I love adding different sorts of media to a collage or art quilt.  Different materials bring the characteristics of that material to the piece and extend the impact.  One of my favourites is metal.  Metal can be added in a lot of different ways.  In this post, I will show you how simple it is to stitch metal to fabric.  This blog post is an extract from one segment of my Tremendous Textiles online class.  Information on joining that class can be found here:  http://www.uniquestitching.com.au/p/9144486/online-class—tremendous-textile-art-techniques-2017.html

Working with metal can be a bit intimidating to some people, but there are lots of different metallic elements that can be added to a fibre art project that can be extremely effective.  At their most basic, metal charms, buttons and old jewellery can really focus a project.  Sometimes you just need something small to be an offset to a focal point or to add a bit of light or interest to the project and sewing a charm or other small metal element might be the perfect thing.

At other times, adding metal can be a significant part of the project.  In this segment of the course, I am going to focus on adding metal as a focal point or a major media in the form of metal shim.

Metal shim is very fine metal cut into sheets.  Most of the shim is aluminium that has been coated with colour.  However, some is 100% copper (which I love).  You can get different weights, but generally the craft quality shim does not publish the weight.  This can be a little challenging if you are looking for something specific, but most of the brands produce a light weight, flexible shim that is easy to handle and work with.  You can buy the commercially available metals, or you can use aluminium soft drink cans; just cut off the top and bottom and slice the cylinder into one sheet.  I don’t drink any form of soft drink, so see the $8 to $10 per packet of shim far better value, but if you wanted to explore this technique broadly, you could raid the local recycling depot.

The Art Emboss brand has a light and a medium weight.  The light weight is equivalent to most other craft brand metal sheets or shim.

These are the brand that I use and have on my website at the moment.

When using shim, you can cut it with scissors, a rotary cutter or die cutting machine.  You can emboss it manually or in embossing sleeves and you can hand or machine stitch through it.

Most of the coloured aluminium is plain silver on one side and coloured on the other.  You can mix up using both sides for variation or you can sand back some of the colour to expose silver.  This is particularly effective if you emboss the shim and sand back the colour from the raised areas.  You can also add colour to the shim.  Colour products designed for non porous surfaces are the most effective.  For example, alcohol inks and StayzOn ink pads are great for colouring metal.  Embossing powder is very effect too.

The very bright piece above has blue coated aluminium shim.  The shim has been embossed in embossing sleeves and then alcohol ink has been splattered. The metal is sewn to lutradur and felt.

Another very effective combination of materials is shim that has photo transfers.  Transfer Artist Paper works well for this or sheer fabric like the organza can be stitched over the metal shim.  The shim continues to catch light through the photos and can look quite stunning.

In its simplest form, we can stitch it, as is onto a fabric background or applique onto the shim and then stitch it down.  This is what I am showing you on the video and the finished piece is shown below.

To emboss your metal by hand, you can use line drawings or stencils for the basic shape.  There is a really good tutorial on using stencils to emboss metal by Magdalena Muldoon for Stencil girl.  You can find it here:  http://www.stencilgirltalk.com/2014/03/stencils-meet-metal-with-magdalena.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

2017 is pretty much locked in

Each year, December and January is our theoretical slower time.  A time to review, organise, plan and recharge.  This is the period each year where the craft shows are not on and generally the teaching program winds down.  In truth, it is often a busier time as I generally plan to do a lot in this available time.  New classes are organised, proposals submitted, stock is counted and organised, the dyeing and manufacturing schedule is set up and all the day to day admin that slips through the cracks gets caught up.  This year has been even busier as there have been some big things to work through and sort out.

By mid January each year, the year is usually fully booked and locked down.  This year is no exception with the show schedule finalised for the year.  I will still slot other events into the spaces and have availability for teaching in and around these events, but here is where you can expect to see me this year.  I first is less than four weeks away, oh my.

Toowoomba Craft Alive – 10th to 12th February

Knitting and Stitching Show Olympia, London – 2nd to 5th March

Dubbo Craft Alive – 9th to 12th March

Rockhampton Craft Alive – 17th to 19th March

Canberra Craft Alive – 5th to 7th May

Bendigo Craft Alive – 16th to 18th June

Wodonga Craft Alive – 7th to 9th July

Sewing Stitching and Needlecraft Show Adelaide – 14th to 16th July (to be confirmed)

Festival of Quilts Birmingham – 10th to the 13th August

Tamworth Craft Alive – 8th to 11th September

Knitting and Stitching Show Alexandra Palace, London – 11th to 15th October

Quilt Festival Houston – 1st to 5th November

Craft Alive Logan – 10th to 12th November

 

In addition to the places you can see us face to face, we have our online classes. Enrollments are open now and introductory exercises are currently live in all three classes.  I have three starting in the next few weeks.

 

 

Stunning Surfaces – a comprehensive surface design class – starts February 4th

http://www.uniquestitching.com.au/p/9109063/online-class—stunning-surfaces-art-cloth-2017.html

 

 

 

 

 

Tremendous Textiles   – an Art Quilt workshop – starts Ffebruary 18th

http://www.uniquestitching.com.au/p/9144486/online-class—tremendous-textile-art-techniques-2017.html

 

 

 

and

 

Almost Alchemy – a very comprehensive fabric dyeing class – starts 4th March

http://www.uniquestitching.com.au/p/9122334/online-class—almost-alchemy—dyeing-for-the-traditional-and-art-quilter—2017.html

 

 

 

In addition to this, I have the great honor of being part of a second international collaboration.  I am part of the second Fiber Art Connection with four other amazing textile artists:  Desiree Habicht, Lenore Crawford, Lisa Chin, and Libby Williamson.  I will share more of this as we get closer, but check out the details here:  http://www.fiberartconnection.com/

If you are part of a group or guild that would like me to come and run workshops or a talk, please contact me, particularly if I am already going to be somewhere near you.  All of my face to face classes can be tailored to the individual group needs.

See you somewhere soon.

Cecile

Ice Dyeing with Procion Dyes

I love dyeing fabric.  I do, I just love it.  I could easily spend all my waking time making things colourful with dye and yet, I have resisted the growing trend of ice dyeing until quite recently.  Why have I avoided it? Why have I ice dyed lately? Let me explain.

What is it?

My observation is that ice dyeing morphed out of snow dyeing.  Snow dyeing became a thing when the dyers in the Northern hemisphere started experimenting on how they could feed their dyeing addiction in the middle of great drifts of snow.   Snow or ice dyeing gives a very different effect than the traditional Procion dyeing techniques.  The chemistry is a bit ‘wrong’ and on one level, does not make a huge amount of sense.  As a result, ice dyeing gives softer, more drifty colours.  Also, the dye powder is dispersed by the melting ice, the colour distribution can be very loose and ad hoc; organic almost.  It is an interesting technique to play with.

Why I avoided it.

There are a number of reasons for this:

• it does not feel safe – measuring out large amounts of dry dye powder and leaving it on top of the ice until it melts means that lots of loose dye particles can become airborne;
• it is not very efficient – you use more dye to get a less vibrant effect than all the more common techniques;
• it can be costly – both in dye and ice.  Unless you have a large ice making capacity and don’t have access to lots of snow, you will go through a lot of ice and it can add up.

Why I gave it a go.

I have seen the results others were getting and they can be very beautiful.  Ice dyeing has become very popular in the tie dyeing community.  I am not a fan of the full on, 1970s tie dyed mandalas, etc, but I do like a slightly modified, less planed version of ‘tie dyeing’.  (And I don’t actually tie unless I am doing shibori as this creates work)

This post is not going to be a comprehensive tutorial on the technique, but I do want to show you the results I got.

Fold, scrunch, pleat or bundle your fabric or items to be dyed.  Place on a rack of some sort with a vessel underneath to catch melting dye.

If you want to, create a cuff either with your bucket/vessel or with foil.

Cover in ice.

Cover with dye.

Walk away and leave it alone until all the ice has melted and the dye distributed.  I left each batch over night and rinsed out the next morning.

Here are some of my results.

If you would like to learn a lot more about dyeing fabric, check out my very comprehensive Almost Alchemy online dyeing class.  We start with Ice Dyeing.  Details can be found here:

http://www.uniquestitching.com.au/p/9122334/online-class—almost-alchemy—dyeing-for-the-traditional-and-art-quilter.html

Textile Art Retrospective – where did this all begin?

I am in the process of finalising all the content for my first online comprehensive textile art class.  As I build the structure for the material, I find myself thinking back on the journey that bought me here.  Like many of you, I started sewing in my teens, did a lot of traditional hand embroidery and in the early 1990’s, morphed into patchwork when my babies came along.  In 2001, Unique Stitching was launched as a traditional patchwork business.  A number of issues brought me to the art quilt world.  First amongst them was a restlessness that made me want to try different things coupled with a strong sense of independence, demanding that I find my own style.  When I then could not find materials I wanted or if I found them the pricing was outrageous due to monopolies or restrained trade arrangements, I became determined to source and create my own products.

In 2005, I brought in Procion dyes and started dyeing ‘speciality’ fabrics: velvets, wools, silks and a world of different fibres.  At the end of 2005, I created my first sets of creative embroidery packs containing hand dyed velvet, silk jacquard, silk top, cocoons and thread.  I could have kissed the first person to buy one of my packs, such was my relief, at the Brisbane Craft and Quilt show where I launched that range.

In 2007, I launched the Art Quilt Collection (AQC).  This was the first time in Australia, and possibly the world, where there was a monthly mail out of textile art materials.  Each pack had a product, an explanation of that product and how to use it plus a simple project to create. Since that time, many have adapted my idea in different ways.  I had no idea what I had started, but it was clear that my future was definitely more on the art side of the page.  When I launched AQC, I hoped to get about 25 people to sign up.  In 2009, when we peaked at over 2500 participants and I was spending three weeks out of every four preparing the packs, I decided it was time to move on.

Since that time, we have expanded our ranges; I have taught around the world; been published in Quilting Arts Magazine; and been on QATV in the US.  It is a charmed life.  Now I want to spend a bit more time at home and the future for sharing what I know is increasingly teaching: face to face and online.

I hope that you can join me as this year will see lots of exciting online offerings, from me as well as a collective I am part of.  To find out more about my first Textile Art online class, go here:  http://tinyurl.com/z5ewlbg

Tomorrow I will talk about the Fiber Art Connection as it will be my day on our Blog Hop.

In the meantime, I want to share a few pieces of my first Art Quilt series.  This was part of my AQC work and mainly focused on manipulating and distressing fabric, with stress and heat.  This is now only one of many tools I use and each piece is a small, simple example, but it is nice to look back on.  This is not the full series, but gives you a sense.  It has an environmental theme.

Under the Watch of our Ancestors

Acid Rain

Home in a Concrete Jungle

Through Rose Coloured Glasses

Interconnectedness

Erosion (the lighting on this is not very good, sorry)

Cellular Breakdown

 

 

 

 

 

 

8 fabulous tutors, one online community

I am very excited to tell you about my next venture.  I am part of the Fiber Art Connection.  This is an online class, but better – an online community for you to join and share.  I am so honoured to be amongst this amazing group of artists.

http://www.fiberartconnection.com/

This series of workshops will have each of us taking charge for a week and sharing ideas, techniques and some projects.  You will have access to lots of varied, but complementary skills for you to take on as they are released or when ever it suits you.  As an online series of classes, you can do these at your leisure when and where it suits you.  You can even do it in your pyjamas if you prefer.  Most importantly, once you are registered, you have access to the material forever.

Here are the line up of tutors in the order of their material being released and where you can see their work.

1. Desiree Habicht – http://www.desireehabicht.com/
2. Candy Glendening – http://www.candiedfabrics.com/
3. Liz Kettle – http://www.textileevolution.com/
4. Roxane Leesa – http://roxanelessa.com/
5. Ruth Chandler – https://ruthchandlerdesignsblog.wordpress.com/
6. me!
7. Deborah Babin – http://www.deborahbabin.com/ and
8. Rayna Gillman – http://www.studio78.net/

There will be a blog hop, give aways and great workshops.  We plan on having some fun!  Why not join us.

Registration opens on February 15th and the first class kicks of March 15th.  Follow this link to read more:  http://www.fiberartconnection.com/what-is-fac.html