After we had heard the notices from Dee, we gathered round a table filled with amazing landscapes, seascapes and country views of all shapes and sizes. From above it looked like a countrified New York!! We were all excited at the prospect of making something like these superb items.
She provided us with a piece of fabric strong enough to take the weight of the material to be placed on it. She also provided some photos but we could use our own if we liked. She advised us to isolate part of the photo to work from but not to copy it, only for a basic idea. She used Dylon dyes in jars ,diluted with water and brushed on in an irregular way. Other pieces of material, paper, scrim, lace, felt and threads were also dyed. The paper used to mop up excess dye could also be used if scrunched up to make patterns. All these were left to dry or ironed dry. We were advised us to use water sparingly with the dyes.
Next we were shown how to layer our pieces, putting in pins vertically to enable us to machine over them later as well as how a frame on our layers made a great difference to what we decided to use. We could refer back to our photo or just redesign if we chose to 'be creative'. For pictures, paper was provided to make a frame. For vessels( the 3D items) the paper needed cutting into 3 strips.
guns on materials such as scrim, voile and other man-made materials. It was exciting to see the effect of the heat on these.
Again we set to work to make our textured pieces. Some interesting designs were produced. Of course we had no time to finish, so we laid out our work to be photographed and we were shown how to place a frame to get the best effect from our work. We could finish them at home by machine or hand embroidery.
A wonderful day was had by all.
I.P.