I picked up some sari silk yarn today at the local wool store, Wool Trends. It's fabulous stuff and should prove eminently useful as I work through some of my next projects (another couple of books, a series of boxes and some bowls and vases). I have great hopes for it! As an aside, Wool Trends is one of those fabulous shops that is crammed with all sorts of fibres. One that caught my attention, apart from the sari silk, was Seasilk, a seaweed fibres and silk composite. I almost bought some and may yet go back for it (I just need a definitive purpose for it, as it was expensive). Have a look at the colours. They truly are as vibrant as they appear in the photos and the feel of the stuff….. it's like flexible pussy-willows that drape like they were a part of your skin. Amazing stuff. All I need is a use for some….

Ah, I love having an chance to play with some new products. Recently I wandered through Kent Hardware store (Kent are the spawn of Irving, a New Brunswick company) and discovered that they are ceasing to carry the Pebeo line of art supplies. The remainder of the paints were seriously discounted (I paid $1.30 CDN for a $7 bottle) and included some of the silver glitter finish and the expandable paints. Score!

The silver glitter finish isn’t bad at all. It’s basically glitter in some sort of acrylic medium suitable for use on fabric. You can paint it on already painted and dried fabric and the base dries clear. You can also mix it in with the other acrylic-based paints. Opaque paints will obscure the glitter a good bit (unless the glitter happens to be on top of the paint), but the transparent paints mix well with it and the transparency of the paint allows the glitter to shine through, although the sparkle is somewhat diminished.

The glitter hold on well during a wash (I didn’t machine dry it) and is fine after being ironed with a pressing cloth (ironing the fabric from the back would likely achieve the same effect). It seems to rub off a bit when you rub it hard, so it’d probably be better for things that got minimal abrasion and washing. \

The sparkle of this isn’t overpowering, also, so it’d be reasonable to use moderately in landscape quilts (snow in moonlight, for instance, or water shimmering). Heat setting makes a definite difference to how well the glitter adheres, btw.

The expandable paint was also rather niffy. I’d read about it a bit in Quilting Arts (issue 24, winter 2006 – Linda Schmidt) and was therefore rather keen to add it to my repertoire of techniques and tools.Finding it on sale was an added bonus! I tried it several different ways. Firstly, painted on parchment paper rather thickly, allowed to dry, ironed and then peeled off. This gives me the option of creating pieces that could be sewn or glued as layers in a work. The resulting pieces were rather brittle, however, so care needs to be used in peeling them off and handling them. They painted nicely, though:

The expandable paint was wonderfully easy to work with, although I think a squeeze bottle with a fine applicator tip would be excellent for very detailed work. As it expands in all directions after heating, you need to start with rather fine lines for such things as tree branches:

But I like the effect. It’s white and dries white, so tinting it before using is helpful. After it has dried and then been heated, you can rather easily paint right over it as I did with the tree above. A keeper as far as materials go!

Finally, I ‘ve been playing with the Sprinklettes (not a girl group from the fifties), purchased at Michaels.

Basically, it’s iridescent glitter that can be mixed with paint and used on fabric. You can also stick it on with fabric glue. I’ve only played with this a little, but I have found the following:

• it needs to be mixed with its adhesive, not just sprinkled on top
• if just sprinkled on top, much of it will wash or rub off
• a fine coat of thinned fabric glue over top of it really helps to keep it on
• it mixes well with fabric paints, especially transparent ones
• it’s quite visually powerful and easily overdone
• it is attracted to everything via static electricity
• it gets everywhere. And I mean everywhere. Places that will astonish and thrill your husband kind of everywhere.

Here’s what colours come in the bottle:

Now that I’ve got the sparklies out of my system (and underwear), I’m off to do some preliminary sketches for another series.

I’ve been knitting a lot, lately, in and around other things. I don’t knit in the warmer months as I find my hands just get too sweaty, but cold winter evenings are perfect for clicking together needles (I like bamboo) and wool. This winter, I’ve discovered the joys of felting or fulling wool and have been trying different types of wools, just for kicks. This is a 70% wool, 30% soy silk mixture, which is beautifully soft to handle and felts rather nicely.

Warning note: make sure you felt wools inside some sort of bag (i.e. a pillowcase) when using the washing machine. Felting sheds fibres and the soy-wool mixture sheds more than most!

A recent studio play session yielded a personal frivolity: an mp3 player case for my personal use. I’ve fitted it with a piece of velcro for an adjustable armband, but one could just as easily make a belt loop.

Did I mention that I made myself a matching coffee cup sleeve?
Nice to have time to fool around with ideas for a change!

Land of the Silver Birch

and-dyed cotton overlaid with commercial cotton, fused and hand-accented. Embellished with gold, silver and copper foil.
panels measure 5 x 11.25″, 11 x 11.25″ and 5 x 11.25″ respectively
all panels are fixed with hangers on the back for easy wall-mounting
set can also be framed, preferably with a double or triple matte that lifts the glass well away from the surface
price: $165 CDN (plus shipping and any customs/duties relevant)

Autumn Lights

Hand-dyed cotton overlaid with commercial cotton, fused and hand-accented. Embellished with gold, silver and copper foil.
panels measure 5 x 11.25″, 11 x 11.25″ and 5 x 11.25″ respectively
all panels are fixed with hangers on the back for easy wall-mounting
set can also be framed, preferably with a double or triple matte that lifts the glass well away from the surface
price: $165 CDN (plus shipping and any customs/duties relevant)

And a few detail shots:

a quickr pickr post