Embroidered Silk Paper

 Sandra had made a piece of silk paper using silk rods.  She thought it looked like papyrus and so she decided she would use it to make an ancient Egyptian piece. To support the embroidery, iron on interfacing was attached to the back. She has always loved the Egyptian geese so she painted them onto the paper and then embroidered  over the top, mainly in straight stitch. She then used a stamp to look like hieroglyphs.

The second piece of silk paper she had incorporated thistle seeds and so she painted a thistle over the top and then embroidered the picture.

Sandra said it was great fun doing these but you do need interfacing to support the stitching.

Thanks Sandra.

Silk Paper - Anita Yearsley and Fran Walker April Meeting 2022

Anita and Fran arrived with boxes of assorted fibres and items to include in the silk paper. They had also made individual starter packs for each member so there was no need to queue for fibres etc.

 A small display of silk paper samples was set up to show the kind of things that could be incorporated into the fibres.

Anita demonstrated making paper with the glue method first so that the paper might have a chance to dry before the end of the session.

The washed silk fibres were set out on netting and then netting was placed over the top. The glue was then worked well into the fibres.

We all had a go at the glue method and put the sheets to dry on foil.

 

Anita then demonstrated the ironing method using fibres with  sericin. The fibres were spread out between 2 sheets of baking parchment, sprayed with water and ironed producing silk paper

Once the basic methods had been mastered members started adding items and colour to their paper producing some very interesting and pretty results.

To add sparkle members added angelina.

Open weave material and threads were added to produce texture.

Petals, leaves and flowers made some very pretty designs

Everyone went home with armfuls of samples to think about what they might use them for at home.

It was a most enjoyable and fun day for our members and our thanks go to Anita and Fran for leading us and being so generous with their time and equipment.

Wet and Needle Felting

 After  Janet made her piece of felt at the February meeting, she decided to embellish the piece by needle felting these beautiful colourful flowers onto the surface. For a first attempt at needle felting this is wonderful.

Janet  then chose to make another piece of felt based on a photograph of Slater  Bridge taken when she was out walking  in the Little Langdales. The colours  are representative of the lakes on a fine day. I can't wait to see what it looks like when finished.

Thank you Janet for two super pieces of felting and I think you have been bitten by the felting bug!

Requirements List for Silk Paper - April Meeting

 

April Raffle - Blossom

 

The raffle colours for this month are the colours of blossom.

Snippet Dyeing with Procion - Anne Covell and Thelma Todd March meeting 2022

 Members arrived with bags full of natural materials, threads and odds and ends ready for dyeing. They were greeted by the jewel-like colours of bottles of procion dyes already  mixed and ready to use.

For ease of use smaller amounts of dye had been decanted into yogurt pots.

We were also provided with made up bottles of saline and soda water to enhance the dyes and help them penetrate the fabrics.

It was recommended that we did not use more than three colours at a time so that we did not end up with "mud".

We made little batches of fabrics and then added small amounts of our chosen colours with a dash of salt and soda water.

Immediately the dye began to penetrate the fabric and the colours began to mix with extraordinary results.

There were lots of oohs! and aahs! as a whole variety of colours began to emerge from the dyed pieces.

If you look closely you can see a whole variety of fabrics including cotton, silk, viscose,  bamboo, linen and paper. Amongst the bits and pieces you can see threads, buttons, silk rods  etc.

Once the dye had been wiped from the pot the dyed pieces were transferred to plastic bags so the dye could set for 24 hours. Members took home lots of little bags of dyed snippets to wash the next day.

The fabrics were then rinsed, washed, rinsed again and left to dry.

When dry they can be ironed and soon we are going to use them at another meeting.

It is fascinating how all the different fibres have a different take up of the dye as you can see in the picture below.

A big thank you goes to Anne and Thelma for leading this fun and useful workshop, and preparing everything for us in advance.

Everyone enjoyed the dyeing and we are all looking forward to using the snippets.