Well, hrm.

On Flickr, Kimberly suggested some stitching. I thought, WTF, I can't make it worse. :P



I kind of don't hate it. But it's so white...except for the ambient cat hair, not visible in this photo.

Mettler Poly-Sheen, for those who keep track of such things.

Fail du Jour

Meet Chairman Bob:


He's been leering at me from my bathroom garbage can for some months.

I'm probably the last person on the planet to try last summer's trend of melting plastic bags to create...melted plastic. I had visions of Wahol-esque dozens of Chairman Bobs on a single sheet.

Found a tutorial that suggested using the "rayon" setting. First try with plain white. Ick:

It took about half an hour of increasing the heat all the way past "wool" before anything melted. Instead of being a smooth sheet like the various pictures around the web, it feels more like that crumply plastic with the sanitary lining the grocery store puts between the meat and the styrofoam tray. Blecch.

Multiple Bobs:

Looked OK before the fusing; afterwards--ick.

Line of Bobs:

Not as exciting as the image in my head. And the toner from the Unwanted Printout I was using to keep melted plastic off my iron transfered on to the piece. Bah.

Solo Bob:

From a distance he looks like I could use him, but there's visible cat hair in it. There was an incredible amount of static electricity generated by the bags, and the cat hair that gravitated toward the bags while they were in storage was impossible to remove, when I could even see it under three layers of plastic.

So much for Warhol Bobs. I'm not terribly distressed, since the whole project is probably a copyright violation. But I don't have any interest in jumping on the "repurposed" plastic bandwagon--it's too tacky.

Further experiments with PVA

Well, the Spider-Man cape was not as cool as the Talking Megatron from his cousins, but I've moved on.

I rescued some pages of memory dumps from the Unwanted Printout Pile at work on Friday. I have about three reams of Unwanted Printouts, but very little of it is this interesting. Maybe I should have used the boring stuff to experiment...

They make fairly boring paper fabric:












After cutting out some bits and realizing they were quite fun except for the black-on-white, color experiments.

Watercolor pencils brushed with water before PVA:






Watercolor pencils smeared only by watered-down PVA:

















No pencil, only a single drop of fluid acrylic mixed with the PVA:














I probably could have used two or three drops.

Quality Control

As expected, the first superhero cape was too successful and we are now making a Spider-Man cape--yes, I know Spider-Man does not wear a cape--for the nephew I shall call "Huey" (Dewey and Louie are still too young to know they want one).

Also over the weekend I found a whole box of fabric I'd forgotten about, including a couple of half-yard pieces printed with sushi. I also found a four-patch quilt that was all done except binding--about four years old, someone asked me to make one for her toddler and never gave me any money (next time, up front).

I'm out of ideas again. Unless someone tells me this is an unspeakably evil thing to do, I'm thinking I'll put a binding on the toddler quilt and give it to a friend who is expecting. The quilt has dogs, the family has dogs, the baby won't need a cape for a couple of years...

Socialist Realism

Gazing toward the bright future of the pastureland...



This is Antoinette, in Plymouth, just off SR 67.

Larger than life-sized work in progress

Stab-stitching lately, as a healthy alternative to stabbing people. In-progress? Or finished? Don't know.



I think adding beads to this guy will just make him look tacky.



Sequel to the penguins and might be improved with beads. Also should have made the square on the left a circle...



Epic fail! Found the heart appliqued on the background in a box and should have just left it there.


The cat is twisted into a dead-cockroach shape behind a pile of synthetic fabric remnants, which is apparently where he goes to shed when he's not shedding on the ironing board or the middle of my bed.

Now for something kind of different.

I made a Scrabble tile bag for a friend 4-5 years ago (I honestly can't remember). I did kind of a half-ass job, and it didn't wear well. So, version 2.0:

I knew I'd find a use for the embroidered flannel. Yes. Embroidered flannel. I lined it with a piece of hand-dye so it wouldn't get destroyed through use, and I satin-stitched around all the inkjet prints.

Front:


And back:


And in progress:

Penguins

I'm still stab-stitching for the sheer joy of stab-stitching.



The center fabric is some code I got randomly e-mailed to me by a colleague; inkjet printer and overpainted. There's a lot left, too... The other fabrics are from my stash. The finished piece is about 5" square.

Not *really* slacking

Busy...there have been parties or people in from out of town every weekend lately. Also the weather is nice (it hasn't hit 80 degrees in almost two weeks) so I'm outside as much as my skin can handle the sunlight.

In between, I'm stitching pieces of ugly fabric with the intent of committing shibori eventually:


The stab-stitching (yes, it's traditionally a running stitch, but I can't do a running stitch with perle cotton) is soothing.

Meanwhile, my roommate licks plastic bags:

Bored...

Having some fun with my vacation photos and the Big Huge Lab's Palette Generator. I should make a weird palette for the EFB...the real one.