Try It Out Thursday : Matching Bookmark.

The observant among you will realise that this post is a day late.  That would be because I went to visit a coaching client, went fabric shopping, generally got diverted and started making this project a tad on the late side.  That meant it didn't dry in time... so we're doing it today, instead.  I won't mention the forgetting to take the final photo and waking up at 2am thinking...oops...

I thought we'd try out a small, fast project, just in case you want to try out the paint splodging technique I used earlier in the week, but don't want to make a larger project.  So... I thought I'd continue in the book theme, and make a bookmark to go with the journal.  I cut a piece of Lutradur 130 (you could use 100, or even 70, at a pinch), six inches wide and the length of the journal.  I then folded it in three equal parts, to make a 2" column.  I opened it out again (see picture above) and laid it flat on a piece of scrap board, and added fabric paint, using the method here.  The only difference is that I added much more paint this time than I did for the journal cover; you can see that from the image below.  Don't go overboard, though, or when you brayer it, the paint will ooze out of the sides and be wasted.

 I folded it back up again, and ran a brayer over both sides.  This brought the paint to the surface, and created a bookmark shape. 

However, until the paint dried, it would not hold together, so I wrapped it in greaseproof paper and put it under a large pile of books for an hour (if you have a book press, that would be ideal).  When I brought it back out again, I put it onto the ironing board on another piece of greaseproof paper, pressed one side, turned it over, pressed the second side and left it to dry.  This ensured that the paint stuck to itself and to the Lutradur. 

The finished bookmark was large enough by itself to be used right away, but I wanted to add a few fibres at the bottom, just for interest, so I cut a hole at the bottom of the bookmark, using a paper cutter.  That worked beautifully (to my surprise; I thought it might have been a bit too thick).  I then threaded some hand dyed fibres through the hole, to produce the finished item.  This is a really quick project, though there is some drying time.  They would make good little gifts, or raffle prizes. 

Try It Out Thursday : After The Spray...

Remember Monday's post?  Well, having made all that sprayed fabric, I wanted to find something to do with it.  So, when in doubt...yes, you know it.... make a postcard.  I've been making a lot of felt recently, and when I spotted a handful of dyed Wensleydale wool tops that sat beautifully on the sprayed Zeelon, I thought it would be useful to do something with them.  What better than a bit of hand felting?  I've used Lutradur for felting before, but never Zeelon.  So...I positioned the Zeelon carefully on a piece of Lutradur XL that had been cut to postcard size.  I wanted to avoid the scarlet dots which I disliked when I sprayed the original piece, as well as the watermark I created when I tested it for colour fastness. 

Having established I could do that, and which way up I wanted to work, I started trying out the fibres on the cloth.  The first photo, below, shows a wisp of wool tops on the fabric.

 Not a good look; it doesn't show either fabric or fibres to good effect.  So... I moved to this...

...yup, that looks better... and finally to this...

...notice, by the way, that the design has changed a little, has moved across to the right of where I originally started, for no reason other than I like it better.

Why did I use a single needle, and felt by hand?  Because I wasn't using much fibre, and didn't want the holes to appear on the cloth, as they  might have done if I had used a machine, even if I did take out some of the needles.  As it was, I still have holes in one or two places where they shouldn't be... but that's okay.  
My original intention was to felt the fibres straight through the Zeelon and into the Lutradur.  Nope.  I was surprised at how much work it took to get the fibres through the Zeelon, though I suspect that had I used the machine, it would have been much quicker.  I'll fuse the piece together instead.  For obvious reasons, you really don't want to try felting through fused fabrics...

So...what next?  I have a plan, but what would you do?