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Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Surprise, Surprise


I love surprises. I particularly love unexpected parcels. One arrived this morning, full of fabric. Handdyes, mainly, some commercial fabric and some interfacing, the latter perfect for transfer dyeing. What a wonderful surprise, thanks, Thelma! So some pleasant time was spent this morning, patting, oohing, aahing and planning.

My second surprise of the day was work related, too. I spend a day with some friends, doing fast, spontaneous work...the postcard I showed recently came out of that. Well, we did one exercise that involved using four random words to trigger a piece of work. Mine were blue, sky, spiral and, to be honest, I forget what the fourth one was, and I can't find the piece of paper they're written on! The piece I made was small, and the spiral shone silver and definitely pulled all eyes towards its little self. I didn't like it.

Today, though, I covered it with a piece of dyed lutradur, stitched into it, and added a bit more dye (lutradur is dyed using transfer dyes, so it is just a matter of ironing the dye onto the piece). And I'm pleased with the result. I had been giving myself the, not every piece can be a winner, speech about it. This maybe isn't a winner, exactly, but it's not bad, either, for a piece that was conceived and made from start to finish in an hour and a half! See what you think. And try the exercise, why don't you? I dare you!

5 comments:

Val said...

Interesting little piece. I like the spiral - how did you do it? And where do you buy lutradur? TIA

Anonymous said...

Window....

HH

Anne Wiens said...

I like it, too. Just a nice quiet, relaxing piece...but not so relaxed as to be comatose. After all, that coil could be a metaphor for a kittycat curled up and napping in the sunshine, or a coiled snake waiting to strike!

artmixter said...

Lutradur is available, at a price, in the UK. The company is Spunweb UK, Ltd, and their phone number is 01332 554610

Dijanne Cevaal and I have written a short worksheet on lutradur which will be available in the next week or two...it will be free, a taster for a book we're in the process on writing about using lutradur...so watch this space

artmixter said...

Oh, the spiral...I forgot! It is made from a stiff silver fabric, I cut a spiral, stitched it down and then, because it was too fat, cut it back to the width it is. With the lutradur over it, it looks a bit like a fibre, rather than a cloth, i think...