Lake GraceArtful Journey workshop

 Last weekend I went to Lake Grace which is about 4 hours or so driving south of Perth. We went through here many many years ago on our way to Esperance - I turned off Albany highway and through Wagin - the home of Woolarama and the giant ram. I didn't take any photos on my way down - just thought it best to drive - I  took lots of cds and wound the sound up.

What a lovely weekend - 13 wonderful women all very creative and ooh - country hospitality. I put back on one of the kilos I had taken off. I also had a very hospitable host in Tania - thank you - flannelette sheets I have not had on a bed since we left NZ. I also took my pop up shop which was well received.

We played with all sorts of things - at the top is a Qantas serviette - yes I still have plenty to share.

I

 I haven't names for the owners of each piece but it is always amazing to see what people come up with and  the beauty of running a workshop is that I learn new things and come home with ideas to try out. Here is aome wonderful weaving (something dear to my creative heart) - I love the colours she has used.

 Some more weaving - we played with sari ribbon and flimsies

 and tissutex and papers and more weaving - stencils - sprays etc

 and we made silk paper and discovered new things we could do with it

 different things we could put on it

 lovely sari ribbon weaving

 prefelt weaving

making some little felt

 more weaving

 this was a very ethereal sheet of silk paper - quite lovely -

 and of course we played with paper napkins - why not?

 paper napkins and stencils and sprays

 silk paper with extras

 silk rods - wonderful effect

 paper napkins

 using the gelli plate

 paper napkins and silk paper

 I had never thought to weave through paper napkins - wonderful

 an eclectic collection

 weaving and image transferring

 playing with the gelli plate

 weaving and adding

 paper napkins plus

 weaving and starting on a Romeo grid

more Gelli plate fun

As you can see they were  pretty productive. I drove back on Sunday night in time for a glass of wine but not dinner - never mind I had eaten far more than I should have over the weekend. Thank you so much to the lovely Lake Grace and surrounding - ladies for a wonderful weekend.

This week we have been working on the e-mag - Issue 5 is getting closer - it has been raining a lot and quite cold - I watched the replay of the All Blacks versus England game and am looking forward to today's game. And i am putting my stuff away - gathering my stuff for my trip to Rockhampton next Friday where I am so lucky to have been asked to be a guest artist - I shall be playing away on an embellisher and with my flower stitcher. I have also purchased a new suitcase extra so I am bringing two suitcases - not sure what to take as yet!

I also want to thank Felicity from Norseman who sent me some fab Japanese papers for my upcoming project. You didn't give me your address so I could send you some threads!

okay - back to work.

Thermo Felt

I have had three wonderful people testing the thermo felt for me and I have been playing with it as well. So much potential for experimenting for shapes and moulding - hope you enjoy reading what we have all done.

Thermo Felt

Thermoformable wool felt is made from wool and polyester (90% wool-10% polyester). It can be used as a wonderful felt for backgrounds and stitching but it contains enough polyester to enable it to be moldable. Thermo Felt can be permanently shaped and creased under heat. It will retain the shape you create before you apply heat. You can stitch it and shape it first and then apply the heat. This is a very new fabric for those of us who just love to experiment. The possibilities of 3D is exciting.
Comes in large 50cm x 50cm squares (fat quarter) 2mm thick

We have 20 colours in stock  - $8.50 each or any 10 for $66.00
See all the colours here - http://www.thethreadstudio.com/catalogue/fab/thermo/text.htm

To activate Thermo Felt

All you need is HEAT

*immerse it in boiling water

*steam it with a steam iron

*bake it wet in the oven at 90C for about 30 minutes

Before you do anything else – soak it in boiling water first to open up the fibres. It makes it nice and soft if you plan to stitch on it and it has that wonderful sheepy smell. Let it dry and then shape and/or stitch as desired.

Don’t expose the felt to an open flame and be very careful when handling the felt when it is hot.

Pleating

Try pleating or creasing the Thermo Felt. Fold the fabric concertina style (or tuck into a ready made pleater) and with the folds pointing vertically, press a steam iron over the top, flip it over and heat the other side. Make sure you use lots of steam. I have quite a powerful steam iron.

Try stitching lines first before you steam.

Shibori

Cate Whitehead tested it and says

I have done some playing so far - with steam. I used the method I've been using mostly for my shibori-ied scarves, knowing that the polyester content should respond to steam.

I've also tried shaping little offcuts with steam and tentatively tried the microwave. It's a really interesting material isn't it? Lots of fun and I think I like the sculptural possibilities the most.

I use good old rubber bands and steamed them for 10 minutes. I use glass mosaic beads (the flat-bottomed ones - they're just the ticket) 

 You can also try immersing the whole piece in some boiling water

Moulding

Helen Beaven tested it and says

The purple and black are Merino/Alpaca/Silk blends that I machine needlefelted. The orange is hand-dyed muslin strips.

There didn't seem to be any change in colour (or burning) after 20 minutes in the oven. I used ceramic baking beans to help weigh it down.

Even before the cooking, the felt was holding the shape of the container quite well. 

 Shaping and Moulding

Felicity Griffin Clark tested it and wrote these notes

Hand dyed cotton scrim, needlefelted with silk and wool fibre layered and stitched with silk thread on a sari silk loom end. Microwaved for 8 minutes

Felt dyed with ink and fabric paint sandwiched between silk satin and silk organza from the same dye bath, Stitched with silk thread. Cooked in the oven for 20 minutes

Machine needlefelted with cotton scrim, silk and wool fibres and silk organza. Formed then stitched with silk thread. Cooked in the oven for 20 minutes

 Felt slashed with craft knife, then layered with silk and synthetic organza. Overlaid with tuile and machined. Burnt back with heat gun and cooked in the oven for 20 minutes. Rubbed with Shiva Paintstiks.

OR – You can simply use it as a felt – wonderful for working on

Remember – play and experiment because there will be lots more to discover

www.thethreadstudio.com 

mail@thethreadstudio.com 

+61 8 9227 1561

blogging frustrations

I must have spent most of yesterday trying to load my blog so I am subtle testing today - I may move off to my word press blog which I set up ages ago in case......

 for testing, these are what I am enjoying doing at the moment - cutting and weaving hand dyed Flimsies (pre-felts) and lots of running stitch - for beautiful backgrounds waiting for things to happen on top - or leave as is.... This is using Poppy

 Rust with some additions

and Secret Garden

moving right along once more

Such excitement - Miss Austen with her bonnet and bow and us $1100 poorer. Poor little Harley had an enormous abscess - the biggest and nastiest the vet had seen and it was all touch and go but she has been pretty well behaved and especially spoilt but after a week she did get rather bored until her stitches came out and her bonnet came off. Now she is back to normal and back in action.

as chief helper even managing to turn Ian's computer off!

In the meantime we thought our Weber Q was going to be a long way off but thanks to Grant a special delivery came last week and you can see the happy chappy having unpacked it and set it all up ready for action. I think we have used it almost every night even moving it under the shelter when it rained.

 Lid up and ready to cook. It is wonderful......

I have been enjoying weaving and stitching -- this is a  secret garden flimsie I have cut and woven and stitched and I am currently using the scraps to create 'fabric' with the embellisher for further work. I have put it aside for the moment because I started another to enter Desert Threads.

cut, woven and stitching begun

a section underway - lots to go and then my plan is to also enter in the Moulin Rouge one - time for my Paris shoes to make another appearance.

Just so you think I have stopped chasing red shoes - Bev spotted these in Palmerston North and came rushing to get me - and they were on a very good special and they are comfortable as well. Couldn't resist them.

Right now I am furiously working on my Issue 5 of e-mag articles  - one is definitely influence by red. If you are up for renewal, do so soon as the free pdf for renewing runs out on 1st June. Thanks to all those who have renewed - makes me feel it really worth while. do let your friends know if you think they would enjoy it too. Some great articles coming up.

Workshops in Palmerston North

 I enjoyed my two workshops in Palmerston North - day one was Text-ile - working with cloth, paper, image and text and the class produced some great work. I didn't note who owned which I am sorry to say but I really enjoyed that they put their own-ness into what they did. It often takes some people most of the day to get stuck in for all manner of reasons. Workshops don't actually bring out the most activity in me - i like to make notes and think so I often do very little. I don't think that is a crime.

This is Jane's which unfortunately got lost at the end of the day - she was just starting to scratch back the black gossamer fuse

 I think I influenced them with my weaving - it is something I enjoy doing.

 SOmelovely elements appearing here

 and yes we sprayed newspaper and made silk paper

 I know this is Margaret's - some lovely ideas being worked on

 woven papers - some people asked how to keep it all together - you know that the fairies always need breathing holes....

 torn shapes starting out

 this lady was very quiet and really didn't know where to start but I loved what she produced.

a glorious piece of weaving and flowers - would love to see how it worked out.

Day Two was fabrik-fun but somehow I think they managed to escape my camera.