T-shirt recycling

At long last I have put to use the many old t-shirts I had saved in the past few years.

I have removed the seams and with the remaining fabric I made first strips that I then cut in sections of about 12-15 cm by about 5 cm. 

I have used an old towel as a base. I drew lines with a sharpie and stitched folded pieces of the t-shirts all along the lines.

The result is a thick nice bath mat. It is on the heavy side and should I do it again I would dye the towels a dark color as the orange sometimes peeks out from the pile.

Rice flour and gum Arabic resist

The first big bag has simply a large square of rice paste which cracked most attractively especially where the paste was thicker.

The second bag is a zen tangle. This one gave me some problems. I piped it using baking paper. I broke 2 of the piping bags and one of them "dissolved". I am not sure what caused it, the paste was the right consistency and then became more and more runny until I had to pour it out and add more flour.



After it dried I have realized that the initial consistency was to dense. It did not bond with the fabric. If I do this again I'll either wet the fabric first or make the paste runny.

I added gelatin to the paste and I am wondering whether the gelatin melted again with the heat of my hands squeezing the bag? Or maybe I involuntarily pushed the water upwards?

The last sample was made with a stencil made of fun foam. This would work well as a base for further design.









And these are the finished bags. Possible canvas for other techniques. 
Maybe couching design on the  top one?

Hand painted warp

This is a project spanning so many months I cannot even remember when I started it.

Ages ago I purchased in the Texere website a "very fine cotton" not realising that "very fine" equals to "insanely fine" in my classification.

The thread is soooo thin that I don't have enough heddles to use it by itself. I spent hours winding it into a warp and then I painted it using Procion MX dyes. The weft was died with the same type of dye in a solid turquoise.

I then left it in a bag waiting to be brave enough to warp all the heddles I own.

I am working it as a simple tabby. I should say that I choose this structure to show off the painted warp but actually I know that it is going to be hard enough without adding anything else.

I found that for some unknown reason one side of the warp is tighter than the other. On top of that, in the middle of the weaving, I had to move house and the castle of my table loom had to be folded. This requires all the tension to be removed from the warp. That -I am afraid- did not help any with the bad tensioning.

Origami wreath

I followed the directions from this blog post: How do you make that paper sun? but made them(yet again) with presents paper I could not bear to part with.

Rainbow

The guild had a competition with "Rainbow" as the subject. Rainbow reminds me of pencils and childhood and childhood is made of paper. What best use could I make of my paper yarn?

 This is my rainbow. I made a few attempts at mixing various shades within the section but as the paper is rather thick it did not work out.



I have used my rigid heddle loom to make the band.

Originally I was planning some sort of sculptural piece all twisted and coiled upon itself but at the end I could not go to the meeting. In a fit of annoyance I hung it to the window and, I think, it looks very pretty there.

Bamboo on charkha

A couple of years ago I purchased a charkha wheel as a toy present to me.
The first attempts were... disappointing.
I had found very little in the way of directions and advice and most of it was for the fancy American-made charkha with ball bearings and all. Mine is Indian made, came wrapped in Sanskrit newsprint (which I have saved for future crafting possibilities).
I had decided to spin some bamboo fibre that I had dyed and prepared in several punis in gradual colour changes. The fibres are longer than cotton and thus more forgiving of my main sin: insufficient twist.

I decided that by the end of the bamboo I would have learnt how to spin. I did.

 

I have finished spinning the last of the punis and I started spinning a bit of cotton and it looks good and, in fact, much easier than the bamboo.


All I have to do now is decide what I will do with it.

 

 I am happy with the result but I know I will not trust to knit it by itself. It could become the weft of a scarf, maybe in satin wave to show off the shininess.
Or I could knit it with another thread (for support).

Origami roses bookmarks

The first bookmark was made for my godmother, these are bookmark 2.0.

The rose are identical to the one I sent her but I have sealed the paper using Mod Podge. Not sure if they are better or not.

I got the pattern for the roses from the book: Origami Jewellery by Ayako Brodek.

In the book they are used as earrings or broaches. and they are sealed with polyurethane satin varnish. I did try to find it but in vane.

In any case, considering the frequency of precipitations I am not sure I want to wear something made of paper. I will probably change my mind in about 10 minutes... Especially because I enjoy the folding but am unable to make for the sake of making. I must have an object. The bookmark.

I have made 2 bookmarks so far. Using all the completed roses I had.
After folding the 3 parts for each flower I coated each with Mod Podge.

Then attached the bead that will be the centre of the flower.

In my previous bookmark I attached the rose to the nylon thread using a bead. Attached the same way as the centre bead but under the rose. This allows to rose to twist around. Attaching the rose directly to the thread works better for me.

I put together the 3 parts using tacky glue. The book calls for mono phase epoxy glue which I have been unable to find.


Initially I was planning to add all 4 roses to the same bookmark but after attacking the fist one  (the greenish one) to the thinnest thread I did not want to add anything else. I find it so pretty I might wear it as a necklace. See...  I have already changed idea about the jewellery thing.