11 June 2014

Structured textiles - week 1 (of 4)

Start with a sheet of strong, thinnish paper - this is pattern making paper, from a big roll -
Crumple it lots, then pinch lines or a pattern (check the back, you may want to work from both sides). Then take it over to the heat press and give it 10 seconds -
All pinched but only half pressed

Could be a lampshade?
Inspiration for the rest of the day -
Wrapped and dyed patterning, much admired

What you can do with pole wrapping
Start with something simple - these were folded and rolled, stuffed into a tube, the ends plugged, and steamed -
 Pole wrapping ready for the steamer - both rectangles were cut down the long axis, then folded to resemble a simple book, before wrapping -
 Results - the grey was put on the pole diagonally; the white curled diagonally even though it was wrapped straight -
 Tacking yellow folds onto paper before putting the fabric (already steamed but uninteresting) into the heat press -
The grey wrapping disappointed because of the unwrapped spaces between -
whereas the "balloon animal" is very tightly wrapped. It's been steamed but I'm reluctant to unwrap it!
 The final steamer-load of the day -
Next week we bring fabrics (preferably wool and polyester), sewing kit, sources of inspiration. Meanwhile, we're to look on pinterest for "manipulated fabric", "fabric pleating", etc - and check out pleatfarm.com.

At the moment what catches my interest is the possibilities of pole-wrapping in combination with various concertina-book fold combinations - a way of taking the museum-maze book farther. I'll try various fabrics and see what happens ... ideas come when the hands are busy.

(This post is part of Off the Wall Friday.)

7 comments:

Jane Housham said...

Wow, that's really inspiring -- haven't seen those techniques before. Thanks.

Stitchinscience said...

This looks really inspiring Margaret. Where are you doing this course?

Sandy said...

Oh wow! those are great! I have done smaller scale attempts by starting with a damp fabric and then placing in the airing cupboard or warm window to dry out for a week or so. synthetic velvet gives really exciting results.

This was one exercise I did with students. It could be done at home. Take a damp fabric and poke it into the holes of a grid like a cooling rack for baking. Start from the centre out because it takes up fabric...damp because it helps it not to spring out of the grid. Then press with a steam iron. Not sure if your class steamer would hold a rack?

If you haven't access to a steamer like in your class, you can stabilise the scrunches by ironing a fine lightweight fusible interfacing to the back.
Sandy

Turtlemoonimpressions said...

I'm going to try that scrunching and pressing technique! That's a new one on me.

Shannon said...

I love all the texture!

LA Paylor said...

I wanna come play at your house! What cool stuff, my how your mind works!
LeeAnna Paylor
lapaylor.blogspot.com

Felicity said...

that looks like huge fun! have you done cloque? it's similar but uses a caustic solution to shrink and set the fabric