BLOG 420

Blog 420

And so the creating begins. My method, which I am re-visiting after many years, relies on haphazardness and irregularity so it suits me fine! To start I drew a rough shape to represent a flower pot and marked where the lightest area was going to be. And then I started to ‘colour’ in this shape with ready bonded rectangles, all cut with a pinked rotary blade. I started with darker shades and worked towards the light area.

 

            Rough shape

 

           Colouring in

 

Separately, I worked leaf shapes on some of the release paper from the Bondaweb (baking parchment works well also) and positioned these at the top of the container.

             Progress

 

I decided to increase the range of fabrics at my disposal. This involved adding fusible to the WS of the chosen fabrics and I do this by over-lapping them on a long strip of Bondaweb and ironing them well. The fusible needed to be stuck thoroughly and a good test of that is to look at the release paper to see if has changed to a darker grey. Any light parts indicate that the fusible hasn’t stuck and more ironing is needed.  

            Preparing fabric

 

 

 

           Not stuck

 

 

             Stuck

 

The (release paper) backing paper can be carefully removed in one sheet and it is very useful for building up shapes/designs on or as a layer on top of the project to protect the iron. When the fused fabrics are tugged apart, the over-lapped (and therefore unfused areas) are clearly visible and these can be removed easily. The fabrics need to be cut with a pinked rotary cutter blade into random lines and then rectangles.

              Removing the backing paper

 

 

         Bonded fabric

 

 

              Visible fusible

 

            Remove excess fabrics

 

 

             Pinked shapes

 

 

            Palette

 

Once the palette is established, the fun begins. A simple flower can be fused onto the release paper, with a light centre and shaped petals. This can be carefully removed and dropped into place within the design. By slightly over-lapping the elements of the design, the whole project becomes very stable and can be handled as a whole chunk of fabric and placed on the design wall. I wanted to see what this one looked like in relation to the first flower pot I made.

           Flower

 

 

            Flower petals

 

 

            Creating foliage

 

 

           In progress