if it's march it has to be TIF

This month's TIF proposal is small things in life. Difficult, but interesting topic as small things are the stuff of life. They make life. Big things don't. They alter and change life, which is a different story, for better or for worse.

As a warm up i started out listing some small pleasant things that make up my life, but had to stop as a daft Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music complex overcame me.
Luckily i remembered Lady Sei Shonagon who in her book The Pillow Book makes endless lists including both annoying and pleasant things. That is more close to life than the Julie Andrews listing. It's also incredibly beautiful and full of textile descriptions of the silk kimonos worn by Heian court ladies.
What more can i ask for? Three of my small pleasures, books, textiles and things Japanese rolled in one.
i still have to make up my mind, but as of March 7 listing is my plan for this months challenge. How to make it textile is another challenge.

As you all know i'm also interested in animation and worked out a graphic representation of the small things that make up life .This is also a warm up exercise and i don't really know where all of this will take me. Stay tuned :)
Oh and for some techie stuff visit the TIF challenge blog

neki desu

more spyrograph

This post is more about multi-tasking than anything else. i have 2 screens covered with dye paste working hard to get dry in this awful humid weather we have. Therefore i can't print.
i am warping my 12 shaft loom, slow cloth here, and doing warp chains to warp the dobby loom for a loom controlled shibori that will-holding my breath here-eventually be indigo dyed as soon as the weather gets hotter. So no actual weaving nor dyeing -yet.

Needed something fun to do in between the warping the making of the chains and the waiting.
i had this idea of trying plastic bags before the disappear, late comer here, also wanted to keep on with the spyrograph and the challenge was to try and work it all without getting excessive :)
And have some fun, nothing serious here

Here's what i did:

• cut plastic bags in strips and assembled them grid like
  
• ironed them between parchment paper
• put a piece of poly organza over and ironed some more fusing both layers
• topped it all with some florist lutradur like paper that had been dabbed with white opalescent paint and a bit of painted bondaweb
  
• went wild stitching circlets with polyester thread
• zapped it with the heat gun, i'm in love with this gadget!!
  

Et voilà mesdames! Fun it was.
Now on with the warping.

neki desu

spirograph at last

Had been after a spirograph for some time now and finally got my hands on one. i think everyone who grew up in the fifties and sixties had one, it was one of those one day wonder toy that got discarded as soon as one could say the name in one breath. For young people didn't quite get it and thought it always made the same designs getting bored with it after a very short time.

Evidently i'm past that stage now and well into asking what if... So i wanted one to try it on fabric using textile pens as i think there are lots of possibilities here. Stitching, stamping, machine stitching or embroidering with the beloved flower stitching foot are some of the options i can think off the top. Not to mention using the spirograph as an exercise to help you get focused before you start studio work.

The first image shows some designs made on polyester organza. No matter how well taped it was, it shifted with the movement of the wheel. It also repelled the ink creating blurry images.

The second image is the same organza, this time treated with Golden Soft Gel medium. The gel medium primes the surface, gives some body to the otherwise flimsy fabric and makes the ink adhere to the surface giving a crisp line. It also alters the transparency of the fabric a bit, but i don't think it is noticeable. A word here, there are some artifacts on both images due to the images being scanned and not photographed. But notice the sharper lines on the second image.

i concentrated the tests to the round "layout" disk the one that has a hole in the center and it's used for donuts and flowers, well kind of, at least in my set, with the triangular shape used as a border. There are layout shapes that give triangular, rhomboid and square borders plus smaller disks which control the donuts and flower like motifs. Each disk has many small holes where you insert the pen and each hole produces a different effect/ design. You can also alter the designs by increasing or reducing the number of rotations or passes. Border motifs are also worth exploring.

Intrigued? Want to give it a go?
Here's a gift to get you started. Have fun! Oh! and if you think of more textile uses do leave a comment.

neki desu