Tuesday 1 May 2007

Experiments

I've been experimenting with ideas for Artist Trading Pins and thought I'd share some of the results.

Ages ago, I got hold of some brass shim, which I wanted to have a go at stitching into. In the book "Paper, Metal, Stitch", there are some ideas for using it and some looked as though they could make rather nice ATPs. So I decided it was time to have a go. This is the result of my first try. The background is silk paper (yes I know, I obviously have a "thing" about blue!). The shim was heated over the flame of the gas stove to colour it, and then machine stitched. It has possibilities, I think.



In the book, there's a suggestion for colouring parts of the metal with nail varnish. So, I went and bought the cheapest I could find and had a play. The light green blobs are too big, and the purply ones are too hard to find, but this idea also has possibilities. Maybe I also need to buy nail varnish that costs more than $3 a bottle, of course!


This is another thing I've been "going to" try for ages. I took some fabric that already had some thick threads machine couched onto it, cut it into triangles, wrapped it around a thick knitting needle and painted it with Mod Podge. It makes interesting beads...although they're probably not quite stiff enough. Maybe I need to paint them with Mod Podge again?



Hmmm...what can I play with next?

1 comment:

Helen in the UK said...

Love your shim experiments. I've tried the burning and stitching, but not the nail varnish colouring. So many ideas, so little time!!